from puppies to adults

sorry, this should be in the mixed breed section

Lucy started of with shortish hair when she was a younger puppy and when she turned about 7 months old it started to fill out and now she has a long tail and fluffy ears and feathering on her legs. 

One of the dogs my Mom has is a Chow/Terrier mix, she got her from the SPCA at about 8 or 9 months, and not until anout a year did she get her big thick Chow coat. Yet, Lacey is a Papillion/ Spaniel mix..most likely and at about 6 months old she got a whispy coat in, so it probably depends.

thanks for the info...looks like my crew may turn out to be bc/lab mix after all...our 2 dogs in the past were purebred...husky, bought when he was one yr. old and lab pup, so no changes or surprises on their coats.  looks like things may be changing a little for us  snoopy, the male pup, only shows some thickening of fur around the neck.  ruby, the female, is the one getting hair in places like a setter...i'll try to get to pics in the picture section.  thanks, again![]

I had a purebred Sheltie who I got at 3 months of age.  His coat looked rather short all over at that point but it had a very "fuzzy" appearance.  At about 4 months of age you could see the more wirey top coat coming in over his back.  At about 8 months of age he started getting his long feathers on his tail and hindlegs, and his chest fur started to fill out.  By the time he was 1 year old, he had his full Sheltie coat in all it's glory!
 
My Aussie/BC mix on the right in my signature is 4 months old in that picture.  His coat at that point was more silky/wirey in texture than my sheltie's was at that age.  I've attached a picture (it's a bad picture, his eyes are closed but it shows his coat best) where he's 6 months old, and as you can see he's gotten much more feathered and CURLY, with a wirey coat texture!  He's now 9 months old and his feathers are even longer, with his chest fur starting to come in and the hair on his rump area getting fuller and curlier.  I think their coats still keep coming in and getting fuller until they are a year old.  I really didn't expect him to get such a long coat, but it's getting longer and longer every day.  I also didn't expect him to get so BIG, but at 8 months old he's already over 50lbs, and really TALL!
 
Our little Aussie mix(?) girl on the left was 7 weeks old in her picture on my signature line, and she was REALLY a fluffball, her coat is a lot more cottony in texture, so I think she's going to have a much fluffier coat at maturity than the BC mix.  Right now she's 4 months old and going through the shorter fur stage.  I'm starting to see some of her top coat and feathers start growing though, and I expect her to end up with more of a coat like my sheltie's, just by how fluffy/cottony it was at 7 weeks old.
 
I answer to your question, I really think their true coat finally comes in at about a year old, just in my experience with the longer fur breeds.

see, i learn something new everyday!  i think the way things are changing recently, ruby will wind up looking more setter-ish as her feathering on her ears and legs are showing more each day, but snoopy's is only getting thicker around his collar/chest (like a bc)...i will keep pictures posted under puppy pics to show coat progress! thanks