I just wanted to weigh in on this coat discussion. All of my stock coat dogs carry for the coat factor, so when I did a home breeding I ended up with a couple of coats in the litter. I normally wouldn't have chosen to keep a coat for myself, but she was the BEST puppy in the litter, and the goal is to keep the BEST puppy, so I did. As I do herding I have to report she does NOT suffer from the heat, nor does she pick up more stickers/brambles than my other dogs. She does make more muddy footprints when it's wet out if I don't dry her feet before coming inside ---LOL. She has a proper coat, not overly soft or silky, just longer. And as an interesting aside---she seems a lot less 'scary' as a GSD to those who normally are wary of GSD's. Not sure if it's the ear fringes or her friendly temperament, or her nice red sable color, but she seems more public user-friendly. Cynthia Binder DVM Binderhaus Shepherds ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2014. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in any post. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org SUBSCRIPTION: http://showgsd.org/mail.html NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================