Turkish Dogs - particularly Anatolian Shepherd Dogs

Coco. Her chocolate color looks deeper in this light.

Pics below compare the siblings with each other.

Helmut, looking ever sooooo handsome!

He's a pet quality boy, but we're hoping he will fill out and eventually become nice and solid. Slow growth is typical and this particular boy needs the muscling and bone that naturally comes to a male that isn't neutered. He's much too leggy to neuter now.

Helmut, all gangly and awkward! Angle of me to him is a bit weird in this one, makes him look oddly proportioned.


All gangly Helmut. This shows his length of body better.

Checking the view away from the corral.

Helmut with his sister Coco. His coat is longer, silkier.

Despite the same birthdate... they seem to be growing undercoat at different times. She had little undercoat for a few months -- and that only lasted for only a few months. Helmut had more fuzzy texture to his coat while Coco's coat was rather thin. Now Coco's undercoat is getting dense, while his is silky thin. Coco's coat quality, length and texture compares to her older sister, Ruya. If not for Coco's feathered ears and her silky tail, you might not be able to tell she is longer in coat genetically when she is standing next to Ruya. She and Helmut are homozygous for the recessive rough coat. Both parents and half their littermates were standard coated so each parent donated a rough coat gene to both Coco and Helmut. See littermate Marlowe for his 5 month photos. He has the rough coat as well.

R-L: Coco and Helmut. Right now, the tails are both silky. They have undercoat on the tails, but it is not dense. Nice light diffusers! :)

Sisters. Coco and Ruya. Same mom, different dads. Body hair on both coats have similar feel and texture although Coco's coat is slightly longer. This angle also distorts Ruya as it did Helmut.

Coco is 11 months above. Compare Coco to Ruya when Ruya was about a year old.
Ruya at about a year.

Coco's enchantingly lovely face.

Her grandmother on dad's side (Boone is Dad) was also chocolate. Chocolate is just a 'shade' of black, which just didn't have "all the parts" to make a black as dark as true black. Way over simplifying but the idea is that chocolate is another shade of black. Think of some black breeds you know that have black and also come in chocolate. Labs, Newfoundlands, Springer Spaniels, Flatcoats, American Pit Bull Terriers. Sometimes chocolate is called liver and in some breeds chocolate is also called 'red' (red, red nose pit bull). Some breeds are are entirely made up of chocolate dogs, Chesapeake, Viszla, German Shorthair Pointers and more.

Those eyes! Since the eyes (and nose-skin and hair) of chocolate dogs, also don't have all the genetic parts "to build" true black, the color of the eyes stay a light amber although they are a crazy blue while the puppy is very young. So monochromatic. It is enchanting!

A bit excited in this pic, Coco.

Coco moving around...
Moving. The lighting in this one has more contrast. This enhances perception of the length of her hair.

Coco at 5 months. Dense undercoat. WAVY texture to her topcoat. It had a harsh feel to it.

Top view of Coco's coat at 5 months. Looks like she had a body wave.

Here's a similar topview of Helmut's coat at 5 months. It was very plushy soft.

Helmut at 5 months. Always gangly! Note that the texture from the side, is comparable to Coco's coat at the same age. It's just the top view where there are a lot of differences. Helmut's coat was softer and plushy, while Coco's coat had waves and harsh texture.

Labels: 2006Litter, Coco, Helmut