There’s the Shorthair (SH) Weimaraner, the Longhair (LH) Weimaraner, and then there’s those in-between…. You can’t breed for them, but rarely, a breeding of a SH to a LH will produce what is called Stockhaar.
Three Coat Typles: This is Quell, (Longhair) and his two sons, Shooter (Stockhaar) and Micky (Short-coated Longhair carrier). Photo courtesy of Dave and Liette Fadden.
Stockhaar coats are an in-between coat with both shorthair and longhair characteristics. They are usually single-coats with longer guard hairs around the shoulder, neck, ears, tail area – very limited furnishings on back of legs, rump but more than a SH and less than a LH. It is usually thicker (more dense) than a regular short coat. Some may have ripples along the spine sometimes referred to as "Marcel waves” which was a popular type of hairstyle in the 1920′s.
Boomer and Shooter. Photos courtesy of Dave and Liette Fadden
We’re in a unique situation having bred our 2 SH females (who are half sisters) to the same LH German import male (Quell zum Laubwald). Both girls were part of the DNA study to ensure that that they were indeed homozygous SH and their sons would DNA correctly as LH carriers. That was proven in the DNA results as we expected.
What we didn’t anticipate was the 4 Stockhaars we had in one of the litters (Raven X Quell). The other dam (Scout) only had 2 pups and they appeared to be SH looking (no Stockhaarig coats) although their coats were quite dense. So essentially we had the same sire produce a litter of "normal” LH carriers (appear to be SH) and a litter of "mixed” – 5 that appeared to be SH and 4 Stockhaars. But having only 2 pups in one litter wasn’t really a great "working sample” statistically speaking – perhaps with more pups we might have seen something different and that would have been very interesting….
9 day old puppies. The two pups at the top of the photo and the one at the bottom are Stockhaars. Photo courtesy of Dave and Liette Fadden
From a DNA point of view though, there is no distinguishing the "normal” LH carriers vs. the "mixed” coated litter – they would all be LH carriers. Period. The DNA test is not developed enough to figure out which ones would be Stockhaars . No one has been able to determine why some LH carriers appear to be SH and occasionally a Stockhaar appears.
One thing to keep in mind that people often think that all LH carriers look like Stockhaars because that’s what people "expect” – a union of a SH and LH coat. But in fact it is very rare. Several LH breeders in Canada have bred mixed litters and never produced Stockhaars – not sure how we got so lucky! Is it something the our SH dam contributed or did it originate from the LH sire – we may never know!
Shooter, Stockhaar puppy, looking almost LH at this age. Photo courtesy of Dave and Liette Fadden
When we bred our Stockhaar "Shooter” to our SH female Scout, we had some pups with Stockhaar characteristics although to a lesser degree than their sire. But both their coats are the perfect hunting coat for our conditions and they definitely stay warmer than their SH (but LH carrier) siblings.
These pups still have not been DNA’d to verify whether or not they are LH carriers but they appear to be.
Father Shooter (Stockhaar) with Lincoln (SH with Stockhaar characteristics). Is Lincoln a LH carrier? DNA test yet to be done!
Photo courtesy of April Mallon.
