I don’t think a person has been born who can tell for sure if a dog is over the six pound limit. That is why we have scales available to the judging public. Don’t guess about size; call for the scale. A 5 lb. 15 oz. entry should be given the same consideration as a tiny competitor. As long as a dog does not exceed the six pound limit it should be given full consideration. Our stan- dard no longer says the smaller entry should prevail. There are only four disqualifica - tions. These should be considered as the dogs are being examined. Broken down or cropped ears is a difficult DQ to understand. (I have included a pho- to of a dog with broken down ears.) Handlers of a dog with questionable ears don’t usually allow their entry to look down. If you question an ear or ears, bait the dog so that the dog has to look downward. If the ear cannot be held erect while looking down, the ear(s) is/are a disqualification. The example included in this discussion has a crease at the outer edge of the ear. Sometimes a dog will have ears that bounce as the dog moves around the ring. This is not necessarily a bro- ken down ear. You will not see cropped ears in the show ring nor will you see docked tails or bobbed tails. Bareness in a long-coated entry is seldom if ever seen. My experience has taught me that bareness appears under the chin and down the throat of the dog. Here again, this is a DQ that you most prob - ably will not see in the ring. The Chihuahua Club of America has spent many long hours working with an artist and club members to cre- ate an illustrated standard. Once completed this illustrated standard should prove to be an invaluable asset to all judges of the Chihuahua. “Don’t guess about size; call for the scale.”
34 • T op N otch T oys , S eptember /O ctober 2022
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