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The Coton De Tulear is a Gentle, Family Dog - Where Did the Goofy Name Come From? Read the Article!

  • 01/11/2010

Don't worry if you have never heard of a Coton de Tulear.

It's a dog, by the way.

It's little known but a great little companion animal for just about every family. The Coton de Tulear will get along well with everybody in the family including children, seniors and even other pets.

They are gentle, affectionate, quite cheerful even. Most are intelligent and do very well in obedience classes.

They adapt well to cities, suburbs and country living.

Appearance and Exercise

Since you have probably never seen a Coton de Tulear, pay attention here and I will tell you what to look for so you'll know if you do see one. Won't you feel so smart when you say to your friends, "Actually, that's not a mutt. It's a Coton de Tulear." Sure you will.

The Coton de Tulear has a long, fine, slightly wavy, white, fluffy coat (see easy) that grows to about 3 inches long. That pretty good since the whole dog only stands about 10 inches high. Naturally, vets and groomers recommend you brush them everyday.

Sometimes they have a black and white color on their head -- but most often just white or off-white.

They weigh in at 12 to 15 pounds (80% of that is probably hair) and loves to take long walks everyday.

So, who knows -- you may see one.

Origins

You probably could care less -- but stick with me. This is interesting. And remember, up until two minutes ago you had never heard of a Coton de Tulear.

European merchants brought their Bichons to Madagascar with them in the 16th century. This large island off of the Indian coast of Africa was a major stopping and resting point on the Europe / Far East trade routes.

Over the centuries these "left behind" Bichons, with nothing better to do since TV was still a few years off, interbred with each other and the result is the Coton de Tulear.

"Coton" is French for "cotton" (those crazy Frenchmen!) and "Tulear" is the name of the port on Madagascar where the Europeans landed. So this is a dog the looks a lot like cotton and who used to hang out around the port of Tulear. There's a great joke here, I'm sure. But darned if I can come up with it. Write to me if you do.

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