Because it’s not seen as often as the short coated version, it comes as a surprise to some of us that the Ibizan Hound also comes as a wire-haired dog. This wire coat is hard and rough with a slight crimp, and can be from one to three inches in length. Because we see fewer of the wire coated dogs, it’s perhaps unexpected to learn that the wire coat is the dominant coat.

Both types of coat often appear in the same litter, but the wire coat isn’t always apparent until the youngster is about a year old. As if to keep a breeder on their toes, conversely, some puppies that seem to have a wire coat early on turn out to be smooth coated adults.

Breeding two homogeneous wires results in a litter of wire coated puppies. Breeding a homogeneous wire to a heterogeneous wire carrying genes for short coats will result in the wire being expressed, but with one quarter possible carriers of short coated pups with a less heavy coat. If a homogeneous wire is bred to a homogeneous short haired dog, the breeder will get all wires carrying the gene for short coated dogs.  If two wires carrying short coats are bred,  approximately one quarter will be wires, half will be wires carrying short hair, and one quarter will be short haired. If a wire carrying the short coat is bred to a short coat, we’ll get half wires carrying short coats, and half short coats. Two short hairs bred together cannot produce Wires.

Got that?