Rotweilers came from Germany consequently this country has
established the standard concerning hair color of this dog breed.
At the exhibitions which were held under the guidance of All
German Rottweiler club, Rottweilers having beautiful deep tan of
hair, especially with prevailing reddish and highly red colors,
were much preferred.
Breed representatives with moderate auburn tan of hair were set a
high value on. According to the breed standard overall black color
and red tan of Rottweiler’s color were to be well-defined and
without any blending of black and carrot (red) colors. Thus, the
light distinction between black color and tan in Rottweiler is
considered a deformity.
A lavishly-defined tan is also considered to be a default.
Altogether coat of Rottweiler contains several kinds of hair.
Among them are undercoat, beard hair and coating hair. Undercoat
of Rottweiler is a thin, rather like over, soft to the touch that
acts as heat-shielding. Undercoat may have different fluidity
(depending on housing conditions of the animal, season and
shedding period).
Subject to established breed standard Rottweiler’s undercoat must
noticeable during external examination, i.e. stand proud from the
dog’s coat. Besides, it needs to account seasonal periods of
shedding, because sometimes the dogs participate in international
dog shows that are held in the countries with other climatic
conditions different from their native ones.
More long beard hair cover undercoat in Rottweiler. They are
spread over all the body of Rottweiler in smooth flowing manner
and give overall picture of Rottweiler’s coat. Best of all beard
hair grows on the corpora of Rottweiler, mainly on the back. This
helps to provide a proper protection from adverse weather and low
air temperatures during walks with the dog especially in
autumn-winter period.
Covering hair is also uniformly spread throughout all the
Rottweiler’s body, however more rarely. There are pores around
each hair that provide proper respiration of the skin, oxygen
supply to it.
Beard hair has the length of about 1 cm. More long hair are placed
on the back, neck, rear face of the limbs, but more short are on
front surfaces of hind and fore limbs, head and ears.
In whole, Rottweilers are classified as short-woolled dogs. It is
worth mentioning about special tactile hair that are planted on
the muzzle, upper and lower jaws, cheek-bones and throaty area.
These hairs are named vibrissae and function as organs of touch.
Vibrissae directly interact with nerve terminals that are inside
the dog’s skin and, in point of fact, are the next protectors of
Rottweiler’s skin from adverse environmental factors.
There hairs are of black color and very strong, thick, long and
springy.
The color of Rottweiler’s coat depends on the quantity of special
brown pigment called melanin. Pigmentation characteristics of
Rottweiler's covering hair, that is of black color, consists in
high concentration of melanin in them and due to that peculiarity
the whole coat looks absolutely black.
Frequently, when beams of sunlight strike upon Rottweiler’s back
you may see reddish bronze hair color. The mode how black color of
Rottweiler’s coat extends to the curple, neck and hips is referred
as a raincoat.
Abnormalities are too long crinkly hair as well as
atypical color (for example black with tans of reddish brown
color). The Rottweilers with white spots on the coat are
harvested.
