The Breed
The Breed
Country of origin: China
Patronage: Great
Britain
Approved: June 24,
1987
General
Appearance: a small, active and
graceful dog; medium to fine boned, smooth hairless body, with hair on feet,
head and tail only or covered with a soft veil of hair.
Characteristics: two distinct types of this breed; Deer type, racy and
fine boned, and Cobby type, heavier in body and bone.
Temperament: happy, never vicious.
Head & Skull: slightly rounded and elongated skull. Cheeks cleanly
chiselled, lean and flat, tapering into muzzle. Stop slightly pronounced but not
extreme. Head smooth, without excess wrinkles. Distance from base of skull to
stop equal to distance from stop to tip of nose. Muzzle tapering slightly but
never pointed, lean without flews. Nose a prominent feature, narrow in keeping
with muzzle. Any colour nose acceptable. Head presenting graceful appearance,
with alert expression. Lips tight and thin; ideally, crest beginning at stop
tapering off down neck. Crest itself may flow to any length, a long and flowing
crest preferred, but sparse acceptable.
Eyes: so dark as to appear black. Little or no white showing. Medium
size. Set wide apart.
Ears: set low: highest point of base of ear level with outside corner of
eye. Large and erect, with or without fringe, except in Powder Puffs where drop
ears are permissible.
Mouth: jaws strong, with perfect, regular scissor bite, i.e. the upper
teeth closely overlapping the lower teeth and set square to the jaws.
Neck: lean, free from throatiness, long and sloping gracefully into
strong shoulders. When moving, carried high and slightly arched.
Forequarters: shoulders clean, narrow and well laid back. Legs long and
slender, set well under body. Elbows held close to body. Pasterns fine, strong,
nearly vertical. Toes turned neither in nor out.
Body: medium to long. Supple. Chest rather broad and deep, not
barrelribbed. Breast bone not prominent. Brisket extending to elbows; moderate
tuckup.
Hindquarters: rump well-rounded and muscular, loins taut, stifles firm
and long, sweeping smoothly into the well let-down hock. Angulation of the rear
limb must be such as to produce a level back. Hind-legs set wide apart.
Feet: extreme hare foot, narrow and very long, with unique elongation of
small bones between joints, especially in forefeet, which almost appear to
possess an extra joint. Nails any colour, moderately long. Socks ideally
confined to toes, but not extending above top of pastern. Feet turning neither
in nor out.
Tail: set high, carried up or out when in motion. Long and tapering,
fairly straight, not curled or twisted to either side, falling naturally when at
rest. Plume long and flowing, confined to lower third of tail. Sparse plume
acceptable.
Gait/Movement: long, flowing and elegant with good reach and plenty of
drive.
Coat: no longer patches of hair anywhere on body. Skin fine grained,
smooth, warm to the touch. In Powder Puffs coat consists of an undercoat with
soft veil of long hair, veil coat a feature.
Colour: any colour or combination of colours.
Size: ideal height in dogs: 28–33 cm (11–13 ins) at withers, bitches
23–30 cm (9–12 ins) at withers. Weight varies considerably, but should not
be over 5 1/2 kgs (12 lbs).
Faults: any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a
fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in
exact proportion to its degree.
Note: male animals should have to apparently normal testicles fully
descended into the scrotum.
Source: Brenda Taylor, The Complete Chinese Crested.