All About Dogs by LowchensAustralia.com

The Coat:
There is nothing like experiencing the sight of an outstanding Löwchen proudly parading around a show ring, its lovely coat flowing with each stride. Sometimes the sight can be so breathtaking. What is it about those beautiful dogs that captivate us so? Besides the correct type and movement, they have gorgeous coat.

The Löwchen show coats do not require the effort of say a Lhasa Apso, Bichon Frise or Poodle. Keeping a Löwchen in show coat is comparatively easy. If... you have the correct coat type. What is the correct coat? According to Madame Bennert's instruction to Frau Ostertag, the Löwchen coat historically, should be a wavy, long coat. All four breed standards currently in use the world over, reflect her instruction. The American standard takes coat definition further in calling for a coat to be rather dense with a moderately soft texture. The Löwchen coat should be healthy and shiny in appearance. A dry, brittle or broken off coat should be severely penalized. A coat that is hard and terrier-like or poodley should be penalized. Likewise soft, curly, frizzy, or limp coats are also incorrect. None of these coats flow properly when the dog moves. Watching the Löwchen, one should see a dog with a lush, shiny and slightly waved coat that flows when moving. Incorrect coats do no flow smoothly, generally staying in place as the dog moves. The exception to the rule is a dog with too soft or curly a coat, which if scrupulously maintained can flow nicely too.

When examining the Löwchen take a strand of hair from on top of the withers and lay it across one finger. Spread the strand, fanning it out, so that you can compare individual hairs. You should find that the hairs vary in width. There will be thick hairs interspersed with thin hairs. The ideal mix is a fifty/fifty equation. If there is an imbalance the coat will be too hard or too soft. Dogs with visually incorrect coats (i.e. too wavy, limp, brittle, broken or frizzy) often do not have the proper balance between thick and thin hairs. The thick hairs provide the coats strength, the thin ones it's volume. Because of the mixture of hairs and wave, the Löwchen coat is voluminous, not limp or straight. One problem sometimes encountered in the show ring is a coat that is too puffy. This too, is incorrect.

Assuming the dog has the proper texture, the next consideration is presentation of coat. A Löwchen Coat should never be trimmed in the unclipped area; but this depends on where the dog is exhibited. There are no exceptions to the rule in the United States. The American breed standard calls for a dog to be disqualified if trimmed in any way. In Australia, there are those that round off the bottom of the coat to give it a clean outline. Trimming is considered any method that removes coat for any reason. This includes plucking around the eyes, which many exhibitors do. In Germany the area in between and under the eye are cleaned out subtly. The Löwchen Club of American membership chose to adopt such a severe penalty due to the fear that the breed would become excessively sculpted. The desire is to avoid the trimming now found on breeds such as the Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, Bouvier des Flandres and the myriad of other breeds not originally meant to be trimmed and yet now are. The outline of the Löwchen should not be altered in any way, by plucking, scissoring or other techniques. 

Another potential and foreseeable problem is a Löwchen with too much coat length. This breed is meant to be an athletic dog. If given the proper amount of exercise, the coat will break off where it should naturally, leaving an uneven appearance to the coat along the bottom fringes. A dog that is confined or has a wrapped coat, to artificially promote long coat growth, will not have the breakage needed to put the coat in the lion outline. A coat completely covering the front bracelets or reaching the floor is as incorrect as a trimmed coat. This breed is not like the Shih Tzu or Lhasa Apso, which must currently have coat to the ground to win. The Löwchen must have a lion profile!

As far as grooming aids for the breed,  the Löwchen coat must not be chalked, hair sprayed or dyed. Properly examining and determining the coat texture of a dog so altered is difficult at best. These aids make it almost impossible to determine if a dog possesses correct coat texture. They may in fact, hide a correct coat! The coat must flow and feel soft to the touch, not stiff, gritty or altered in any way. A judge's hand should be able to glide through the coat. As for dyeing the dogs, this is totally unnecessary since any color is allowed in the breed except in countries judging by FCI standard. The FCI standard calls for browns to be disqualified. When judging the breed overseas under FCI rules remember this disqualification. American judges should not have a coat color preference.

A lesser-recognized no-no is the complete straightening of the coat, usually with the use of a blow dryer. The standard calls for a wavy coat. By that definition, if the coat is blown out straight it is incorrect! There must be some wave to the coat. This is not an Afghan Hound or Maltese with long straight strands of hair. Allowing dogs with completely or mostly straight coats to win may open the door for dogs that have had their coats blown out to disguise an incorrect coat texture, such as a dog with too wavy or kinky hair. Often coats are of enough length that they naturally fall into a part along the topline. Never should an exhibitor part the coat. It must fall naturally especially on the head where even a natural part is to be strongly discouraged. A Löwchen with a parted topknot resembles a Tibetan terrier, especially Löwchen whose muzzle is equal in length to their back skull. Traditionally the coat is brushed up and away from the face.

There are some that claim coat texture is color related. This is incorrect. At times it may seem so, especially when the number of Löwchen seen by an individual is limited. The reality is that correct coat texture can be found in any color the breed comes in. Blame for incorrect texture should not be placed on the color of the dog. Likewise, color should not be an excuse for incorrect coat texture.