Hair or fur, who decides?

Factual Questions
1

A friend of mine claims her poodle is hypallergenic because, unlike my furry roommates, he has HAIR, not FUR. Therefore he doesn’t shed and doesn’t have whatever it is that makes people sneeze and their eyes run.

Well, I am a human (honestly; not a cat as I have sometimes claimed on the Internet) and I have hair, and let me tell you, I shed.

Also I have a dog who apparently only sheds once a year, and that may just have been his puppy coat. I do see the odd hair (or piece of fur) attributable to him from time to time, but unlike my cats, I cannot see evidence of where he’s been hanging out. So does he have hair, or is it fur? And what’s the distinction here?

2

The distinction is:

Humans : hair
Other mammals : fur

It’s just a matter of terminology.

3

Ummm…

Human = hair/fur not covering entire body.

Animal/(land)mammal = hair/fur covering entire body.

Like Floater said, it’s just semantics. Potato, Potahto… Tomato, tomahto.:rolleyes:

4

She has it backwards. What do dogs shed? Hair. My Labs have hair much like mine, just more of it. The Poodle and some other dogs have more of a fur and shed much less.

Recent research shows the Poodles are not hypoallergenic. Individual dogs of any breed may be. There is now a saliva test that can be used to check dogs. In the past many Poodles were used as service dogs for those with dog allergies. Now the schools will test other breeds and use them.

Good poodles are great dogs. Unfortunately, due to past poor breeding practices, good ones are hard to find.

5

I have heard it’s the dander that you tend to be more allergic to, so it’s possible that people may react more to some dogs. I know I definitely react differently to different types of cats.

6

This is not the distinction made by a lot of people. People refer to some breed of dogs having hair and others having fur.

According to the above link dogs with a singe coat have hair, those with a double coat have fur.

The above suggests that the hair fur difference is due to shedding cycles and that there is ongoing debate about which dogs have hair and which fur.

7

That has been the conventional wisdom for a long time. I don’t have enough details on the newer research to say.

8

An article about supposedly hypoallergenic breeds of dogs.

This blog has links to articles about supposedly hypoallergenic breeds of dogs.

FWIW: “…one must not mistake no shedding with not losing hair. It is just that the poodle coat is a very tight coat with curls that hold the hair in, which is why they need to be brushed and combed on a regular basis.” Excerpted from: GROOMING THE POODLE AND POODLE COAT CARE | TheDogPlace.org

9

That may be, but hair and fur are still the same thing, biologically speaking.

See here, for example.

10

I have one of those supposed “hair, not fur” breed of dog, and I am often compelled to correct people who repeat this myth to me. And then they try to convince me I must be wrong, because they’ve heard it’s so.

11

So what the hell have I been drinking when I have a hair of the dog?

12

I’ve also heard that what the other great apes are covered with is hair, not fur. And wool is generally not regarded as being either. So it’s not just dog breeders who make the distinction.

13

From earlier in July, hypoallergenic dogs don’t have lower household allergen levels than other dogs.