You might never guess this dog’s breed because he is a coated Xoloitzcuintli best known for being a hairless breed. Hairlessness may be the Xolo’s calling card, but it also comes in a coated variety.

Hairlessness is an incomplete dominant trait, and while the gene for hairlessness is dominant over the formation of a coat, it is still incomplete which means that even hairless dogs are rarely entirely lacking in hair. Most of the time, a forelock of hair remains, and a tuft on the tail with some hair growth under the wrist or hock appear.

If hairless Xolos are the dominant expression of the heterozygous Hh hairless trait, coated Xolos (hh) are the recessive expression, and breeding hairless to coated or hairless to hairless may produce pups of either or both varieties. Breeding coated to coated will only produce coated pups because they are recessive to the hairless trait and don’t carry the dominant H gene.

The dog you see here is “Taco,” a rather hairy Xoloitzcuintli. Our thanks to Jacky Spavins for sharing the photo of her friend’s dog.