T
hank you
ShowSight
for
asking me to write about
my favorite subject: The
Affenpinscher.
This article intends
to help a judge newly
approved for Affenpinschers, established
Affen judges and BIS judges not approved
for Affens select the correct Affenpinscher.
The newly approved judge will eventually
be faced with an entry of Affens of typi-
cal quality. Thus, when you get an entry of
more than one, you may be really uncer-
tain which of the exhibits before you is the
best. Or when you judge a Group or BIS
and an Affen walks into the ring you may
have the same dilemna.
I truly believe this breed has a steeper
learning curve than many; mostly due
to the low entries and just not having
enough of them to judge to really form
an opinion.
Like in most breeds, you should
value soundness, but don’t forget: sort
first on TYPE and from there sort
on soundness.
So what is soundness in an Affen? A
dog that stands on straight front legs set
directly under the withers; elbows close to
the body; rear legs extending no further
back than the ischium appearing some-
what under the butt with rather short
hocks. Add to that a level topline, a square
outline, good carriage and a light, free
gait tracking four square converging with
speed. You now have a sound dog. Now,
make it an Affen.
Head & Expression
Monkey-like Expression: This is a com-
bination of the placement, size and shape
of the ears, eyes, nose and lip line
Ears: Must be symmetrical. Can be
erect, semi-erect, dropped or docked.
Don’t get hung up on how big the ears are
or what kind of break they have. Just make
sure they are symmetrical. It all comes
back to what the standard says which is.
All are acceptable as long as the monkey-
like expression is maintained.
Now put these ears on a round and
domed skull that is not coarse. Draw a
line between the eyes and a line from the
stop to the end of the nose and you’ll get
the proper length of foreface. The length
of muzzle will be nearly the same as is the
By Jacqueline L. Stacy
PICKING THE CORRECT AFFEN
“Like in most breeds, you should value
soundness, but don’t forget:
sORT FIRsT ON TYPE ANd FROm
THERE sORT ON sOuNdNEss.”
“sO wHAT Is sOuNdNEss IN AN AFFEN?
A dog that stands on straight front legs set directly under the withers;
elbows close to the body; rear legs extending no further back than the
ischium appearing somewhat under the butt with rather short hocks.”
264 • S
how
S
ight
M
agazine
, M
arch
2013
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