Wheaten Hair Type

Wheatens can have two different types of hair (notice i said 'hair' not fur) The two types of coats are Irish and English/American. I used to have one female that was the American type, but that has been my only experience. Her hair was much more coarse. Not really like wire like some terriers but just coarse, kind of like a human's gray hair (not that i have any first hand experience with gray ;-) . . .) She also was more prone to matting. All of my Irish types have silky, almost slick, shiny hair. You still need to brush the Irish type, but it just seems easier to manage. The American type was just always more thick, coarse and never had the shine. Her biggest drawback was that she shed - not a lot, but still. . . when you want a Wheaten for the non-shed, you don't want any shedding. And because she shed, i assume she was not as hypoallergenic, though that is my own personal theory. We had one litter and i decided that that was just not what i wanted, so i placed her in a good home.