Coat Length and Curl
Long Hair (lh1)
Alternative Names: Fluffy, Rough, Wooly
The Long Hair variant "lh1" causes long hair in dogs and is located in the FGF5 gene. It was previously reported as Long Hair (Variant 1).
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 (lh1) or two of any combination of long hair variants. However, there are other variants suspected to 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
6 in 10 dogs
have one or more copy of this genetic variant in our testing.
Technical Details
| Gene | FGF5 |
|---|---|
| Variant | G>T |
| Chromosome | 32 |
| Coordinate | 4,509,367 |
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
Cadieu, E., Neff, M. W., Quignon, P., Walsh, K., Chase, K., Parker, H. G., … Ostrander, E. A. (2009). Coat variation in the domestic dog is governed by variants in three genes. Science, 326(5949), 150–153. View the article