Are you afraid of fluffies? 

 
A fluffie is the name for a Welsh Corgi with a longhaired coat. In both Pembrokes and 
Cardigans we have a gene that causes the long coated individuals, we call it the fluff-gene.
This gene has been in the breed for a very long time and it is said to have entered the breeds
by breeding in the Welsh Collie.
 
Welsh Collie
 
It is a recessive gene, not dominant. Because of this a normal coated Corgi can carry
the fluff gene, you don’t see anything, the dog could actually have a very short and hard coat
texture and be a carrier. You will only find out once you had fluffies in your litter. This also
means that it takes two carriers of the gene to get fluffies in the litter. So both the sire and
the dam need to carry the fluff-gene.
 
If we would mate a fluff to a normal coated dog who doesn’t carry the gene, all puppies
would be a carrier, you would not find one single fluffy in the litter but they would all carry the
gene.
 
Mating a fluffy to a carrier would give 50% fluffies and 50% carriers.
 
When we would mate two carriers, this is what happens most of the time,
we would get 25% fluffies in the litter.
 
If you did not have any fluffies in your litter this doesn’t guarantee that the sire and the dam
are fluff-free as there might have been fluffies in it if you would have had a bigger litter.
 
There is a dna-test available through which we can find out if our corgi carries the fluff-gene.
But is this test of such great importance for both breeds? Let’s not forget that a fluff-coat
is not a health problem, it’s nothing more than another coat variety that is not accepted in both
breed standards and will lead to a disqualification in the showring.
 
Fluffies do get a pedigree however as they still are purebred dogs. Some people love fluffies
and are looking for another one as they look so cute, others don’t like them at all. It’s up to you
to decide whether you like them or not.
 
a fluffy Pembroke
 
Some breeders say that they have never had fluffies in their litters but that is hard to believe.
Sometimes they just don’t want the world to know that the fluff-gene is spread through their
lines.
 
In the Corgi world it is widely accepted that we don’t breed with fluffies but there is a group
of breeders who want to rule out carriers of the fluff-gene as well. Is this a wise thing to do?
 
If, when breeding, we leave out dogs because of their eye test results, their hipscores,
other health issues, behavior disorders, showresults and for the presence of the fluffy gene,
we should very well know whether we can afford to do so before we ruin our breeds by
decreasing the genepool.
 
We should actually know what percentage of the corgi population is tested and how the
scores have developed through the years. We should also look into family lines to see
problems, not just look at the individual we’re using. By decreasing our breeding stock we
eventually might have created a bigger problem as we created a very narrow genepool
which will force us to make other decisions at a later point anyway.
 
Okay, back to basic, how do we recognize fluffies?
 
Some breeders see it straight away once the puppies are born. The newborn fluffies would
have a wet look the first few hours, even once they have dried up. Some say they seem to
have a bit of a silky look.
 
a fluffy Pembroke puppy
 
After a few weeks you will see a longer coat appear at certain parts of the body. At the age
of 5 weeks you might see the beginning of longer eyebrows, longer hair on the skull, softer
and wavy hairs behind the ears and longer hair between the toes, but it can be very difficult
to determine whether or not you are dealing with a fluffy!
 
The breedstandard says about the coat: “short or medium of hard texture. Weatherproof,
with good undercoat. Preferably straight.” The weatherproof coat will protect the corgis body
against rain and snow, the harsh weather. The woolly, thick undercoat will provide him
warmth hand the whole coat will protect him against bites of other animals as well.
 
 
a Cardi with a glamourcoat
 
We also have the so called “glamourcoats” in the corgibreeds. These are longer coats but
still fit in the standard as a medium coat. And although some people say that dogs with these
coats will give fluffie coats, they have nothing to do with fluffie coats! The blue merle and the
brindle pointed tri Cardigan pictured here have coats of nice hard texture but as it is a bit
profuse some people would call these glamourcoats.
 
Nevertheless, fluffies have been in the corgi breeds for years but nowadays we like to control
everything. I would like to end this article with the question:
 
Are you afraid of fluffies?