Who said black pugs shed less?

So many people who had a pug without getting another one right away--yes, it's rare but it happens--think their next pug has to be a black pug, because they don't shed as much as a fawn one. 

Usually, I just laugh. If it's someone who will stick around a while, I explain double coated pugs and blowing coats. And yes, black pugs can have double coats. Don't believe the myth that only fawns or lighter colored pugs have double coats. Black pugs are just black, not a different breed.

Double Coat

Some pugs have double coats, which in the most basic terms, is an undercoat that sits beneath the pug's main coat. The outer coat is usually a bit shorter and stiffer, while the undercoat is usually softer. This soft pug fur from below also sheds quite a bit. 

Pugs with double coats need more frequent bathing and brushing. We use the Furminator for weekly defurminating. Now why more bathing? One, pugs blow their coats after a bath, getting rid of all that extra hair that's been hanging on. Baths will do a lot to keeping the pug shedding at bay.

Two, because if you aren't removing all that excess undercoat, your pug will develop dry skin, dandruff flakes in a way. A good bathing with conditioner will do wonders to keep the hair and skin soft. With black pugs, that dandruff tends to be more noticeable as it contrasts with the fur, but it happens to fawn pugs as well. 

If you do have a single coated pug, whether fawn or black or apricot, they will still shed. A lot. But the big seasonal shed is more bearable. You likely will never see the butt tufts, as we call them, that happen twice a year. They aren't mats like dogs with longer hair get, but just tufts of hair suddenly not connected and trapped beneath the outer layer.

What about black pugs at Pug Haus?

Our entire house is set up for fawns. We have light colored furniture, light colored floors, light colors everything. When black pugs visit us, we are wiping black pug hair off everything, constantly. Not that the fawns don't shed, but we don't see it as much. It blends. Black hair sticks out. We do a quick vacuum and roll the pillows when our black pug visitors go home, and we're back to normal.

Then a black pug came to stay permanently.

Black pug hair doesn't blend. Is it really worse than our fawn pugs? Well, it's worse than our fawns with a single coat for sure. But mostly, we just see it everywhere. If you have all black furniture and blankets, the opposite will be true. 

Recently, we've noticed even more black pug hair, absolutely everywhere. It's been turning up on the counter, in pans while cooking, on the walls, in my mouth, everywhere. Then this morning, she looked rough. Tufts of hair sticking out all over her butt. She looked like a 50 year old wool coat that just got dug out of a trunk. To say the least, she was in need a good defurminating.

And the result:

I brushed off enough hair to make another pug. This wasn't just the usual blowing of the coat; Lyapuff dropped her puppy coat, which was hanging on. So the usual seasonal shedding was quite worse. Now that she's dropped that, we see if she's really a double coated pug or matures into a single coated pug. Her mom, also a black pug, is double coated. 

Black pugs shed. A lot. Especially when they're puppies!