Feet: Hare foot with well-arched toes. Removal of dewclaws optional. Greyhound: Hard and close, rather more hare than cat feet, well knuckled up with good strong claws.
Disqualifications: A dog with brindle markings. A dog with the tan markings normally found on black-and- tan dogs of other breeds. Disqualifications for brindle and for tan markings of this type are included in the Standard because a purebred Ital - ian Greyhound cannot genetically be any of these color - ations. It is important to make sure that the dog is actually brindle or has tan markings in all the areas where they are found on Miniature Pinschers, Doberman Pinschers, etc., before disqualifying it. Sometimes seal-colored IGs have shading that tends to mimic these markings. True brindle or tan-marked dogs are rarely seen in the show ring.
left: Hare foot is elongated, with the two center toes slightly longer than the other two. right: Cat foot is round. Tail: Slender and tapering to a curved end, long enough to reach the hock; set low, carried low. Ring tail a seri- ous fault, gay tail a fault. Greyhound: Long, fine and tapering with a slight upward curve.
left: A true brindle has darker stripes. middle: Tan markings will be clearly defined and occur in the same places as they would on a Dober- man Pinscher or Miniature Pinscher. right: Tan or gold markings on a seal IG are shadings of color and are most typically located at the base of the ears, the side of the neck, the “armpits,” and on the back of the thighs.
Lilian Barber was born in Ger- many and left that country under duress in 1939 with her parents, and with only what they could wear and carry, just ahead of the Holo- caust. The family spent a year in the London slums before being able to enter the United States in 1940.
Gay Tail
Ring Tail
Coat: Skin fine and supple, hair short, glossy like satin and soft to the touch. Greyhound: Short, smooth and firm in texture. Color: Any color and markings are acceptable except that a dog with brindle markings and a dog with the tan markings normally found on black-and-tan dogs of other breeds must be disqualified. Greyhound: Color Immaterial. Action: High stepping and free, front and hind legs to move forward in a straight line. Size: Height at withers, ideally 13 inches to 15 inches. A good small dog is preferable to an equally good large one, but a good larger dog is preferable to a poor smaller one.
At some point during her early years, Lilian became consumed by an almost insane desire for the companionship of a dog, but due to the family’s strained living conditions, she was not able to have one until she grew up and had a life of her own. She acquired her first Italian Greyhound in 1966. Lilian has lived with from one to 18 IGs at any given time ever since, and she has bred nearly 100 AKC champions under the La Scala ken- nel name, most of these Lilian showed and finished herself after being part of the dog fancy had helped her to shake off her shy- ness and tendency to be clumsy at any kind of sport. Lilian was approved in 1989 to judge Italian Greyhounds and has judged Specialties in Italy and Australia as well as in the United States, including the National Specialty in 2003 & 2010. She was invited to judge in Japan in 2013. Lilian has written four books about the IG and one about her life with and without dogs titled, My Mother Never Taught Me Songs. Lilian has been the IG Breed Columnist for the AKC Gazette since 1977 as well as a writer of a regular column in The Italian Greyhound Magazine. She has served on the Judges’ Educa- tion Committee for the Italian Greyhound Club of America, was one of the creators of the Illustrated Standard for the IG, and is a past President of the IGCA. Most of all, Lilian says that she is completely smitten with this breed and could not imagine ever again living without at least one or two of them.
left: The action is high stepping and free, with a bend at the pastern, not a stiff-legged goose step or an exaggerated hackney gait, neither of which is “free.” right: This is where the IG Standard and the Greyhound Standard differ the most. The Greyhound Standard makes no reference to movement and does not ask for lift in the forward movement.
46 • T op N otch T oys , S eptember /O ctober 2022
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