WHAT MAKES A PUG, ROUND HEAD, SQUARE BODY, CURLY TAIL A PUG?
by Patt Kolesar Stoltz, JEC PDCA
Photos provided by PDCA.
W e are all excited to get back to dog shows after our COVID hiatus. We want to restore that little bit of normal back into our dog life. It feels like we were all put on pause, there was a rewind, and now we are starting fresh. We are raring to go. With this in mind, I would like to take the opportu- nity to refresh readers’ understanding of some of the points of the Pug standard. I want to emphasize a few of the nuances that make a Pug, a Pug. I want to ad- dress the high points of type in our standard. I would certainly hope that anyone officiating in the ring al- ready has a firm grasp of what moderate angles, mod- erate reach and drive, double tracking, and a level back mean. So, I’ll leave that for another discussion. I would like you to remember three important words when you think about a Pug; round head, square body, curly tail. These three words sum up the shape a Pug is expected to be. Say it again, “Round head, square body, curly tail.” Pugs are short-bodied, thickset, and square. We measure square from the point of shoulder to the is- chium, and from the top of the withers to the ground.
Here is a beautiful example of square, level back, the correct underline, and profile.
58 • T op N otch T oys , S eptember /O ctober 2022
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