in their breeding programs in order to have a good pigmentation and keep the breed healthy, but also because this is a peculiarity of this breed! It’s not unusu- al to see color-coated pups born from white parents. And color-coated Cotons are sure beautiful to see! Not all of them need to compete for championships! A Coton in full coat, whether for show reasons or just for its beauty, requires almost daily care. While it is also pos- sible to keep in a shorter puppy cut for easier maintenance, since Cotons do not shed it takes a lot to grow back. The coat is the first of five necessary points that define a true Coton. The tex- ture is different from a Maltese’s silk one (normally straight), and different from woolly one (often disordered, frisee, thin and short) and never harsh, hard or rough or similar to human hair (like for example, the Lhasa Apso). An atypi- cal texture is a big fault. The Coton’s coat is similar to a cotton swab—always dense, fluffy, very soft, supple and can be slightly wavy. To evaluate the right texture at a dog show, a judge should take the coat in his fingers, lift it up and rotate it with his fingers for a while and then let it down. Normally a good texture coat doesn’t fall down but stays up itself. The length is important, but not as much as the texture. A Coton’s coat must have some length, but not to the floor! What are the other points that must be indispensable to define a Coton? Surely the expressive eyes. Eyes (dark brown or black) have a rather round shape, of good size, never bulgy or almond! It’s also important that they are never too close: eyes must be set wide apart with the inner corners and
The Coton coat is fluffy and airy and, like the Bedouin tribes of the desert who cover themselves, their coat is like a barrier. Also the white color is not by chance; it’s well known that light colors reflect the light instead of absorbing it. Other singular characteristics are the patches of colors that sometime appear on Coton puppies. The breed is generally white but again, like cotton plants, they are not pure white. It is true that the general appearance of an adult Coton is generally white, but if you look carefully at the coat, you can see shades
of pale yellow, grey, off white, sable and fawn—especially in the ear area. It’s not unusual for Coton puppies to be born with strong patches of colors that could go from black to red, from yellow to champagne, from off white to ivory. These color marks often get light- er when the Coton reaches adulthood, and could even disappear. Rarely do the patches remain the original color. The standard requires the coat of an adult to have the impression of a general white appearance. The majority of breeders keep a few Cotons with colored coats
246 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , A UGUST 2015
Powered by FlippingBook