JUDGING THE CHIHUAHUA
by Linda George
muzzle length, although I have a little concern about the tendency of ears and eyes being a bit small. Below is a photo of one of the most beautiful Chihuahua heads I’ve ever seen. Please note the large ears set at a 45 degree angle when in repose, the large, round expressive eyes, and the perfectly “apple-domed” skull. Likewise coats are correct in the ma- jority of dogs. There is a disqualifica- tion in LONG COATS ONLY for too thin coat that resembles bareness. I’ve only ever seen one such dog so not a problem in the modern Chihua- hua. I am also not seeing dogs with excessive undercoat that resemble Pomeranians. Some undercoat is pre- ferred along with nicely fringed ears, full plumed tail, and good feathering on legs and pants. Smooth Coats can be close or with undercoat. Rough on the neck and furry tail are preferred. Unfortunately many handlers are cutting off the rough and grooming the tail so it looks more like a Beagle. The area I see the most room for im- provement is body/tail to which I in- clude proportion. The standard states that Chihuahuas should be slightly longer than tall when measured from the point of shoulder to the buttock and withers to the ground. A number of standards call for slightly longer than tall. For me it is a little vague and open to a lot of interpretation. The Chihuahua standard includes two other words that I think are more de- fining: compact and off-square. I use the above diagram in seminars. The box on the far left is a square and the one on the far right is a rectangle. The center box is what I consider to be off square, yet the majority of Chi- huahuas in the ring today appear like the box on the right. Sadly some are balancedmore like mini Dachshunds. Too often a correctly balanced Chi- huahua looks like the odd man out. Below are two examples of correctly
I bought my first Chihuahua in 1969 and have been showing and breed- ing them ever since. Chihuahuas are my passion and the only breed I have been actively involved with. I have been judging them for the last several years. As chair or co-chair of the Chihuahua Club of America Judges Education Committee the last seven or eight years it has been my great pleasure to give seminars and mentor at shows in many areas of the country. One of the things that comes up fre- quently during seminar discussions is how to prioritize various aspects of Chihuahuas. Many people have said that Chihuahuas are a “head” breed. I agree that head is a very important part of being a Chihuahua, but our breed is so much more than that. To give a little historical perspective and help with prioritization, I like to ref- erence the point system. When the standard was last revised in 2008,
AKC discouraged including a point system. It is certainly understandable with some standards that had three points for eyes, two points for nose, one point for each toenail, etc. etc.. A little exaggerated but to make a point, these point systems were unworkable and without practical value. The Chi- huahua system was different in being broader in scope and, I believe, help- ful in pointing out what the writers of the standard considered to be impor- tant. It was divided in five equal parts: 1. Head including teeth and ears 2. Body including the tail 3. Coat for both coats 4. Legs 5. General appearance and action or movement As you can see head accounts for 20% when judging a Chihuahua and after judging dogs throughout the country the last few years, I believe we are in good shape in that area. Generally heads are round and domed with good
38 • T op N otch T oys , A ugust 2019
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