JUDGING THE PAPILLON
By Sharon Newcomb
T
he hallmark of the Papil-
lon breed is, of course,
the large, rounded, set at
“
forty-five degrees when
alert”, ears that remind
you of the wings of the
butterfly. Notice the instruction, forty-five
degrees when alert. In repose, the ears may
be lower. We are starting to see ears set too
high on the head. They should never be
higher than forty-five degrees. Judges seem
to be OK to use the higher ear sets but will
ignore an otherwise nice dog if he dares to
relax his ears below forty-five degrees. Sev-
eral years ago the general consensus was
that the ears couldn’t be too big.
One of our most respected judges, Edd
Bivin, said they can be too big and we
didn’t agree. He was right. Recently I have
rethought that as I have seen two dogs
that have ears so large they almost look
like cartoons.
One of the questions that I am often
asked is, “How much is too much bone?”
The standard says, “fine boned” four times.
It is not about too much bone, it is the
shape of the bone. It says “hare footed”,
which lets us know the shape of the bone.
Bladed bone goes with hare footed. You
never see round bone with a hare foot. So,
if the foot is the right shape, then you have
the lighter, fine bone.
The lighter, fine-boned, hare-footed dog
gives us a clue as to how the dog is going
to move. The standard calls for “free, quick,
easy, graceful, not paddled-footed, or stiff
in hip movements.” This breed does not
ask for a “well laid back shoulder”. Only
laid back for freedom of movement. This
is not a ‘reach and drive’ breed. The use
of the word “quick” is not about the dog
moving fast. Quick is used to tell you that
the stroke of the foot stays on the ground
a very short time. QUICK is the timing of
the foot hitting the ground and leaving the
ground. It makes for a shorter stride and
almost moves on top of the ground like a
bug skimming across the water.
The standard says, “The head is small,
the muzzle is fine, abruptly thinner than
the head. The proportions of muzzle to
back skull is ⅓ muzzle to ⅔ backskull.”
We are seeing more and more dogs with
big heads and thick long muzzles that lack
the correct proportions. If you have a prop-
er head and muzzle you really don’t even
have to shave the whiskers. We have people
literally shaving the whole head with a ten
blade to try to reduce the size. We also
have people shaving the hair on the front
of the legs and the feet trying to reduce the
size of the bone.
Tails are another thing that is evidently
not understood. The standard clearly calls
for “well-arched over the back.” We have
many dogs being shown with “snap” tails,
“
I have seen two dogs that have ears so large
THEy ALmOsT LOOk
LIkE cArTOONs.”
256 •
S
how
S
ight
M
agazine
,
N
ovember
2012