JUDGING THE PAPILLON (A version of this article appeared in the November 2012 edition of SHOWSIGHTMagazine.) by Sharon Newcomb
T he hallmark of the Papillon breed is, of course, the large, rounded, set at “forty-five degrees when alert” ears that remind you of the wings of the butterfly. Notice the instruction; forty-five degrees when alert . In repose, the ears may be lower. We are starting to see ears set too high on the head. They should never be higher than forty-five de - grees. Judges seem to be OK to use the higher ear sets, but will ignore an otherwise nice dog if he dares to re - lax his ears below forty-five degrees. Several years ago, the general con - sensus of opinion was that the ears couldn’t be too big. One of our most respected judges, Edd Bivin, said they can be too big, and we didn’t agree. But he was right. I have rethought this as I have recently seen two dogs that have ears so large they almost look like cartoons.
One of the questions that I often get is: “How much is too much bone?” The Breed Standard says, “fine-boned” four times. It is not about too much bone, it is the shape of the bone. It says “hare-like” feet, which lets us know the shape of the bone. Bladed bone goes with hare-footed. You never see round bone with a hare foot. So, if the foot is the right shape, then you have the lighter, fine bone. The lighter, fine-boned, hare-footed dog gives us a clue as to how the dog is going to move. The Standard calls for “free, quick, easy, graceful, not paddledfooted, or stiff in hip move - ments.” This breed does not ask for a well-laid-back shoulder; only laid-back for freedom of movement. This is not a “reach and drive” breed. The use of the word “quick” is not about the dog moving fast. Quick is used to tell you that the stroke of the
foot stays on the ground a very short time. QUICK is the “timing” of the foot hitting the ground and leaving the ground. It makes for a shorter stride and almost moves on top of the ground like a bug skimming across the water. The Standard says, “The head is small… The muzzle is fine, abruptly thinner than the head.” The propor - tion of muzzle-to-backskull is 1/3 muzzle to 2/3 backskull. We are see - ingmore andmore dogswithbig heads and thick, long muzzles that lack the correct proportions. If you have a proper head and muzzle, you really don’t even have to shave the whiskers. We have people literally shaving the whole head with a ten blade to try to reduce the size. We also have people shaving the hair on the front of the legs and the feet, trying to reduce the size of the bone.
54 • T op N otch T oys , M ay 2022
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