To get things going, scroll down and start with this musical refrain by Santana. As it happens, the name of the song is, “Smooth:”
We get a lot of requests from bloggers wanting to write guest posts for us. A lot. The only thing that strikes us more than their failure to know what National Purebred Dog Day is about** is their neglect at doing their homework. They offer as samples of their work titles like, “How to Throw a Ball for a Dog,” or “How to Cut a Dog’s Nails.” A little investigation of our site will reveal titles like, “OMG: Brachyouria,” “The Australasian Bosdog,” or “Oblique Eyes: Does Your Breed’s Standard Call for Them?“ These are not posts written for inexperienced dog people, but for students of dogs looking for a little more “meat” (and the more than occasional quirky prelude).
**We looked it up. It’s ok to end a sentence in a preposition in casual speech. We’ve decided this is a very casual post.
All that said, and at the risk of generating eye rolls in our veteran readers, this is a post for new dog people. You savvy dog people, feel 
free to move on and explore this paper on how A β-Defensin Mutation Causes Black Coat Color in Domestic Dogs.
Now, on to our topic: The smooth coat.
In most breeds, a smooth coat is also called a single coat, and this short, fine (and yes, single) layer of hair that lies flat and close to the skin is most often found in a gun dog like the Pointer, or a toy breed like the Pug. It’s also mentioned in breeds that have coat varieties such as wire haired, rough, or long coats, and in those cases, the word “smooth” is used to differentiate a short coat versus the longer ones.
Things can get confusing with certain breeds like the Pyrenean Shepherd. This breed comes in two varieties: Smooth-Faced and Rough-Faced. A Rough-Faced “Pyr Shep” has naturally short hairs on the end of her muzzle that get progressively longer and well spread over her muzzle as it goes towards her head. It’s what gives these dogs that marvelous windswept look of just having come off a mountain. Smooth-Faced dogs also have short hairs on their muzzle, but contrary to what one might think (that the dog is smooth coated all over its body), the Smooth-Faced Pyrenean Shepherd has a moderate length body coat save the front of their legs which is short.
Image: Pyrenean Shepherd/Adobe Stock Photo
the term “smooth” is common in many descriptions of long coated dogs, and from the literature and (thankfully) the occasional illustration or photograph that went with it, it’s clear that “smooth” often enough means “not wire haired or curly”, rather than “short haired”. But yes, it’s often confusing.