The Chart Polski’s United Kennel Club breed standard indicates that this breed’s coat is “springy to the touch, rather harsh, but not wire-haired,” and the FCI standard isn’t much clearer since it adds the the mix that the coat isn’t silky, either.

So which is it?

Even owners of the breed also known as the Polish Greyhound concede that the coat texture is difficult to explain if one has never felt it. The back and withers have a springy feel, but one owner was able to verbalize to us that the coat is supposed to be like a horse’s mane, really hard and wiry, and with an undercoat.

Image by Ewa Troc