WE’RE NOT THAT DIFFERENT YOU AND “EYE”—OR ARE WE?
A SAMPLING OF DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES IN A FEW SELECT STANDARDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD AMERICA UK FCI
CANADA
Moderately large, dark and set far apart. Size should be in proportion to size of skull. Small amount of white shows in the inner corners, giving characteristic look of astonishment. Eyes should be forward facing, not set on side of head.
Set wide apart, large, round, dark in color and lustrous. A small amount of white showing in the inner corners of the eyes is a breed characteristic that gives the dog a look of astonishment.
Large, without exaggeration, rounded, set wide apart and lustrous black in colour.
Eyes large, dark, lustrous, rather prominent and set wide apart.
EYES
In size they vary considerably, but
Daintier the better, provided type, quality and soundness are not sacrificed. Ideal weight 1.8–3.2 kgs (4–7 lbs.).
the smaller they are the better, provided type and quality are not sacrificed. When divided by weight, classes should be under and over 7 lb. (3 kg).
Height at the withers: males are approximately 25 cm (9 inches);
Ideal size is 8 inches to 11 inches at the highest point of the withers.
SIZE
females are slightly smaller than males.
The jaw is wide and slightly undershot. A dog with one or two missing or slightly misaligned teeth should not be severely penalized. The Japanese Chin is very sensitive to oral examination.
Bite preferably level or slightly undershot; wry mouth or tongue showing highly undesirable.
Teeth white and strong; level bite desirable, but scissor bite or undershot mouth permitted.
MOUTH/ JAWS/ TEETH
STANDARDIZED STANDARDS
I believe the power to change a breed resides with two groups of people—the judges and the breeders. Judges decid- ed which dogs become champions. Promoting representatives of the breed by sending them into group rings for a greater audience to view. As a judge by awarding a dog, you are saying it is a good representative of the breed (if you didn’t think so and just had nothing else on the day then you shouldn’t make the award)—you are giving it your stamp of approval. How often have you looked upon another breed and thought to yourself, ‘I know nothing about this breed but Judge XYZ put it up and I respect his or her opinion, so it must be a good repre- sentative’? I know I have. As for breed- ers changing a breed, not much expla-
nation is needed. When you breed you create; make sure you create something you believe in and not just something you think will win or is a current trend. What you breed is the next generation for the next generation to take in the ring and carry the breed further. BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER What is correct to you may not be correct for me. As they say, what is nor- mal for the spider is chaos for the fly. We all have our opinions of how Japa- nese Chin should appear. What is important is that we must respect others ideas and opinions of correct type, especially if they are judg- ing at a show we entered at and paid for that opinion.
My dream is that one day every ken- nel club/organization around the world will use the same breed standard so that we can all “sing from the same hymn sheet”. Of course, it would have to be written by the most respected, expe- rienced and qualified Japanese Chin authorities around the world to make sure it includes everything one would wish to learn and know about what a Japanese Chin should be. When I read a standard of any breed I always ask this question of myself, ‘If I handed the standard to an artist who has never seen this breed in his/her life could he/she draw the ideal dog from the descriptions in the standard given alone?’
T op N otch T oys , A pril 2017 • 69
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