01/11/2026
What Does Your Dog’s Coat Flick Tell Us?
One of the questions I’m often asked is, “Can you tell what’s wrong with my dog just by looking at a photo of their coat?”
The answer is no, but a photograph can provide a useful clue.
A coat flick, hair whorl or change in the direction of the coat is not a diagnosis. It is simply one small piece of the clinical puzzle.
During every assessment, I don’t just look at the coat. I assess your dog’s history, posture, gait, muscle tone, joint mobility, tissue quality and movement patterns. Only by putting all these findings together can I identify areas of compensation or dysfunction.
So why do coat flicks occur?
Beneath your dog’s skin is a layer of connective tissue called fascia, which surrounds and connects muscles throughout the body.
When muscles become tight or overworked due to pain, injury or compensation, the fascia can also become restricted and lose its normal ability to glide. This creates increased tension within the tissues beneath the skin.
⬇️ The visual result may be:
• Coat flicks
• Hair whorls
• Changes in hair direction
• Small ridges or areas where the coat separates
⬇️ During my examination I often find:
• Tight, firm muscles with little “give” on palpation
• Reduced tissue mobility and flexibility
• Joint stiffness
• Altered posture
• Changes in gait and movement
• Localised skin twitch responses during treatment
In many of the dogs I’ve treated, these coat changes have been found over areas where there is increased muscle and fascial tension.
The photographs below are from dogs I have treated over the past few years that displayed noticeable changes in their coat patterns, including coat flicks, whorls and altered hair direction. These changes were most commonly seen over the epaxial (back) muscles, particularly in the lumbar (lower back) and sacral (pelvic) regions.
The epaxial muscles play an essential role in supporting and stabilising the spine, controlling posture, transferring forces between the forelimbs and hindlimbs, and allowing the back to flex, extend and rotate during movement.
During my clinical examinations, these areas were often associated with increased muscle tension, reduced tissue mobility and altered movement patterns. Following veterinary assessment and, where appropriate, diagnostic imaging, these dogs were diagnosed with underlying orthopaedic conditions. The coat changes themselves were not the diagnosis, but they appeared to be secondary to compensatory changes within the muscles and fascia caused by pain and altered biomechanics.
This is why I always say that a coat flick is simply one piece of the clinical puzzle. It should never be interpreted in isolation but considered alongside a thorough musculoskeletal assessment and, where necessary, veterinary investigation.
That doesn’t mean every coat flick indicates a problem and many healthy dogs have natural whorls. However, when combined with a thorough clinical assessment, these coat changes can provide another valuable clue to what’s happening beneath the surface.
If you’re concerned about your dog’s movement, posture or comfort, please seek advice from your veterinary or a suitably qualified canine musculoskeletal practitioner, a veterinary physiotherapist or clinical canine massage therapist with training in Myofascia.
Fascia is increasingly recognised by many human researchers as the body’s “sixth organ” because of its important roles in movement, force transmission, proprioception and pain perception. Unfortunately coat flicks and altered coat patterns are still not widely recognised by all canine professionals as potential indicators of underlying musculoskeletal compensation, so increasing awareness of these observations is important. So please spread the word.
