sorry to ask dave, but does Shift+D work around on curved surfaces or then you have to align them manually !!

yeah sort of; i would use "position along curve" to do that

Can you explain your problem ??

Rebuilding is one option, but if you want more segments specifically at a particular place, then you can use insert Isoparms command........

Now you must use your maps for attributes like baldness, scaling etc. (paint information in them) and update the fur by baking them ......

To check whether soft selection is switched on, try converting your selection from edged to vertices - move the vertices and see if it is still behaving the same way, if yes, then the culprit is soft...

I had killed so much time to just rectify the mess that these render layers create when referenced, that I wanted switch back to a maya 2009 from 2012 (i've never faced such a bad issue there), but a...

Just found that referencing render layers in maya has a bug, and it messes up shaders very badly in referenced scenes !!! LOL.....and nobody at autodesk is bothered to fix this as this problem is...

.......not really used 2013, but unless you bake maps in fur it does not updates the fur description, as dave has already said, even if your map looks completely black.

why don't you use "shatter" or some dynamic effect like that, over a 3d sphere directly which will break it up into volumetric pieces........ just like a stone !!