(Extension prepared by Patricia Smith)

General Appearance:

Should be a small, well-balanced, thickset dog of great dignity and quality. He should carry himself fearlessly in the ring with an alert, intelligent expression.

Head and Skull:

Head large, skull broad, wide and flat between the ears, not domed; wide between the eyes. Nose very short and broad, nostrils large, open and black; muzzle wide, well wrinkled, with firm underjaw. Profile should look quite flat, with nose turning well up between the eyes. Deep stop.

(This basically is what this means, the head is wide, flat and shallow. If you feel the head at the top, just above the eyes, you will feel a flat section, this is the forehead of the dog. Think of a rectangle of 3 to 5, this is the ideal shape. The eyes must be large, black and liquid looking, with the nose well up between them. NOT BURIED. The wrinkle is formed across the face, from cheek to cheek, with the section over the nose to blend with the forehead. This must NOT be in the form of a �sausage� or �Heavy Over-wrinkle�, which gives you the appearance of the nose being buried under it, a distinct fault in our breed, it also gives the face a totally different appearance. If you draw an imaginary line across the top of the nose leather, the line should go through the centre of the eyes.

The eyes must be large but must not appear like they are going to drop right out of his head, this is a bad fault. The ears sit level with the top of the skull, but must not come down further than the muzzle. The shape of the leather is heart-shaped, carried flat to the head.

His mouth must be closed, with the lips meeting, he must NOT show teeth or tongue in repose. We do not like the appearance of a �Frog or Shark Mouth� where the flews completely cover the lower jaw, (you would find the teeth would be in a scissor bite in this case). You must be able to see the bottom lip but it MUST NOT protrude in any way. If you suspect a �wry� or �Twisted� jaw, this will be evident as the bottom jaw tilts sideways and the tongue usually lolls out of the side of the mouth, only if you can see this is evident, THEN you can open the mouth to check it.

Another thing to point out, they do not have any length of neck AT ALL. A good guide to testing length of neck is putting two fingers width around, that is long enough).

Eyes:

Large, clear, dark and lustrous. Prominent but not bolting. (The appearance of falling off the head.)

Ears:

Heart shaped, set level with the skull and carried close to the head. Profuse feathering on ears. Leather not to come below the muzzle

(The feathering grows longer with age.. Ears set high on the head are incorrect, and ones that tend to �fly�, (stand up when moving or standing still) are also very incorrect, no amount of feathering will bring these into the right �set�.)

Mouth:

Level lips, must NOT show teeth or tongue.

(You must be able to SEE the lower lip, without it looking prominent. There should be no evidence of overhanging �flews�, this is most undesirable and tends to look �Frog or Shark mouthed�. There is NO NEED to open the mouth of a Pekingese���.unless you CAN SEE a twisted bottom lip, or can see the teeth or tongue.)

Neck:

Very short and thick..

(The head must appear to sit ON the shoulders, A good rule of thumb, is two finger width between the head and shoulder placement.)

Forequarters:

Short, thick, heavily-boned forelegs; bones of forelegs bowed but firm at the shoulder and elbow. ABSOLUTE SOUNDNESS ESSENTIAL.

(The best way to describe this is to imagine a Queen Anne chair, with the Cabriole legs. The actual shoulder blade of a Pekingese is set at the same angle as many other breeds, it is the UPPER arm (or humerus) that gives the ability for the wide chest and rolling movement. The upper-arm is bent, joined at the end of the scapula and elbow, with the bend in the middle. The elbows SHOULD be close to the body and TIGHT. The forearm is where the �bend� is most, down to the wrist or pastern, then the foot turns OUT!! They stand at �10 to 2� and WALK THE SAME WAY!!!! They are not supposed to fling their legs around like an egg-beater, but follow through, hitting the ground with the foot placed at the �10 to 2� angle. It is an odd shape and one we should keep in mind. The legs are getting too straight and too loose at elbows, with sloppy movement, which is NOT TYPICAL of the breed. As it states, absolute soundness essential.)

Body:

Short but with broad chest and good spring of rib, falling away lighter behind; Lion-like with a distinct waist, (I test for length of loin by two or three fingers width between the last rib and the hip bone.) Level back; well slung BETWEEN the legs, not sitting on top of them.

(This is what gives the Pekingese that very different movement, the fact that his chest is wide, he is a lot narrower in the rear end, and his body must be slung BETWEEN his front legs, not perched on top, say like a Bichon Fris� or Maltese. Some ARE like that, which enables the handlers to actually run with the dogs in the ring, which is totally INCORRECT. Their ribcage is almost �barrel-shaped� with a definite �waistline�.)

Hindquarters:

Hindlegs are lighter but firm and well shaped. Close behind but not cow-hocked or bowed. ABSOLUTE SOUNDNESS ESSENTIAL.

(The bone of the back legs is not as thick as the front ones, and a trick I learned very early, how to tell they are nice and firm. Take the hind leg in your hand, stretch it out gently behind him, feel the point of hock and see if you can flatten it into the line of the leg. If it disappears, he will have a slipping joint, if it stays firm, then so will he be firm. The movement of the hind leg is different also. The action is crisp, with a slight driving motion. Most of mine propel themselves quite forcibly along and show their pads from behind. The hind legs move closely, but must not knock together, like �cow-hocks�. If you picture a pair of scissors opening and closing, that is what the hind action should resemble; close, crisp, scissor action. They must stand with hindlegs parallel, not kicking out in a �diamond shape�, or collapsing forward, indicating a weak joint, that sometimes is not noticeable when they are moving quickly, and with pants/skirts covering them. Again, ABSOLUTE SOUNDNESS ESSENTIAL.)

Feet:

Large and flat, not round. The dog should stand well up on feet, not on pasterns. Front feet turned slightly out. ABSOLUTE SOUNDNESS ESSENTIAL.

(Again, this has been explained, but the feet are a lot flatter than most breeds, with the front ones turning out � I like to envisage the clock-face, with the hands at �10 to 2�, and the hind ones pointing dead ahead. No cow-hocks, no �pinning in�, no weaving, high stepping, egg-beater movement. Just a steady, rolling gait, that covers ground without hurrying too much. They look very dignified when they are moving correctly. As before mentioned ABSOLUTE SOUNDNESS ESSENTIAL. This is mentioned for the THIRD time in our Standard, and a point that must be checked thoroughly when judging. There are no Standards that I can recall that quote this in their Standards THREE times.)

Tail:

Set high, carried tightly, slightly curved over the back to either side. Long feathering.

(Now this is self explanatory too. The tail is set high on the rear. By �carried tightly� it means tight to the back, with a curve to either side, or up the centre when they are young. The longer the feathering, the more it will droop to one side or the other. It doesn�t matter which side, but carried over the left side looks better from the judge�s point of view. They must not have any definite kinks or curls in the bone of the tail, which should be rather long, I like them to reach halfway up the back as babies.)

Coat:

Long and straight, with profuse mane, extending beyond the shoulders, forming a frill or cape around the neck; top coat is rather coarse, with a thick undercoat. Profuse feathering on ears, legs, thighs, tail and toes.

(The coat is the �icing on the cake�. It must have a coarse feel to it, especially around the shoulders and down the backline. It must not feel like candy floss or cotton wool. The undercoat is very soft, like �down� and when this gets wet, or you bath them, it can �pill up� and after a couple of weeks I have known it to fall out, then the dog looks rather bald without this undercoat. The ears and tail feathering are silkier, with long feathering on the backs of the front legs and hind legs, with profuse pants or skirts on the back of the hind legs, from the tail down. The bib under the chin is long and can impede action if left too long, this could be trimmed. I trim to table length for comfort and I trim under the pads. The toes fringing is left long.)

Colours:

All colours and markings are permissible and equally good, except Albino and Liver. Parti-colours should be evenly broken.

(This is self-explanatory also. You know what Albino and Liver look like��..These are NOT ALLOWED. If a dog is white, he MUST have a black nose, eye-rims and black showing through around the �septum� and upper lips, with black lips as well. Like a Maltese or Bichon Fris� would look. A Parti-Colour can have a black muzzle with a white flare on the forehead, but a properly marked Parti-Colour will have white on the face and muzzle, like an up-turned Champagne Glass, with the white muzzle, and white flare up the face, which meets the white collar around the neck.. The body has a coloured saddle area and white across the rump, the colour on the tail will reach from the rump to 2/3 up the tail then the top 1/3 is white. All the underside and legs are white, with a white flash going up the throat to meet the muzzle. Ears are usually black fringed. These are a very pretty colour and should not be ignored when judging. ALL colours are allowed, creams, sables, fawns, reds, golds, dark reds, apricots, silvers, blacks, whites, self masked, shaded masks�..you name it, you can basically HAVE it in this breed. Do NOT become colour prejudiced, judge fairly with ALL colours.)

Weight and Size:

As a guide, the ideal weight should be 7 to 11 lbs (converted into kilos, that would be no more than 5kgs for the males) and 8 to 12 lbs (5.5kgs) for the females. The dog should look small but be surprisingly heavy when picked up, heavy bone and a sturdy well built body are essentials of this breed.

(Patricia Smith���.4th April 2001)

HOME...PEKINGESE PAGE ONE...PEKINGESE PAGE TWO...PEKINGESE PAGE THREE...AFGHANS