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 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 and 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 the 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 spars 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 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 thirds of tail. Sparse plume acceptable.

Gait/Movement

Long, flowing and elegant with good reach and plenty of drive.

Coat

No large 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, well coated feature.

Colour

Any colour or combination of colours.

Size

Ideal height in dogs: 28-33cm (11-13 ins) at withers. Bitches: 23-30cm (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 two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.