Coat Length and Curl

Long Hair (lh4)

Alternative Names: Fluffy, Rough, Wooly

Long Hair (lh4) Photo

The Long Hair variant "lh4" causes long hair in dogs and is the c.578C>T variant located in the FGF5 gene. It was previously reported as Long Hair (Variant 4).

More Info

Did you know?

Long-coated individuals can turn up in many breeds, owing to the recessive nature of the variant and sometimes, breed history. For example, in the 1800's both long-coated and short-coated Basset Hounds occurred, and were shown together. Surprising breeds that occasionally show a long coat include American Staffordshire Terriers, English Bulldogs, French Bulldogs, Rottweilers, American Bulldogs, Pugs, Labradors, and many others.

How it works

To show a long coat, a dog must inherit two copies of a Long Hair variant, one from each parent. This can either be two copies of a particular variant, such as this one (lh4) or two of any combination of long hair variants. This variant is rare, and found primarily in breeds of ancient Middle Eastern, Asian, or Arctic origin, such as the Siberian Husky, Saluki and Chinese Shar-Pei. There are likely other rare variants that influence coat length.

Health implications

Long-coated breeds require regular grooming to prevent mats from forming which can cause discomfort, and in severe cases, skin injury.

Prevalence

1 in 41 dogs

has one or more copy of this genetic variant in our testing.

Technical Details

Gene FGF5
Variant C>T
Chromosome 32
Coordinate 4,528,639

All coordinates reference CanFam3.1

References & Credit

Credit to our scientific colleagues:

Dierks, C., Mömke, S., Philipp, U., & Distl, O. (2013). Allelic heterogeneity of FGF5 mutations causes the long-hair phenotype in dogs. Animal Genetics, 44(4), 425–431. View the article