- General Appearance: Strongly built, short coupled,
very active, broad in skull, broad and deep through chest and ribs, broad and
strong over loins and hindquarters.
- Characteristics: Good tempered, very agile.
Excellent nose, soft mouth, keen love of water. Adaptable, devoted companion.
- Temperament: Intelligent, keen and biddable with a
strong will to please. Kindly nature with no trace of aggression or undue
shyness.
- Head and Skull: Skull broad with a defined stop,
clean cut without fleshy cheeks. Jaws of medium length, powerful but not
snippy. Nose wide, nostrils well developed.
- Eyes: Medium size, expressing intelligence and good
temper, brown or hazel.
- Ears: Not large or heavy, hanging close to head and
set rather far back.
- Mouth: Jaws and teeth strong with a perfect, regular
and complete scissor bite, i.e. upper teeth closely overlapping lower teeth
and set square to the jaws.
- Neck: Clean, strong, powerful, set into well placed
shoulders.
- Forequarters: Shoulders long and sloping. Forelegs
well boned and straight from elbow to ground when viewed from either front or
side.
- Body: Chest of good width and depth with well sprung
barrel ribs. Level top line. Loins wide, short coupled and strong.
- Hindquarters: Well developed, not sloping to tail,
well turned stifle. Hocks well let down, cow hocks highly undesirable.
- Feet: Round, compact, well arched toes and well
developed pads.
- Tail: Distinctive feature, very thick towards base,
gradually tapering towards tip, medium length, free from feathering but
clothed thickly all round with short, thick, dense coat, thus giving 'rounded'
appearance described as 'Otter' tail. May be carried gaily but should not curl
over back. Gait/Movement: Free, covering adequate ground, straight and true in
front and rear.
- Coat: Distinctive feature, short, dense without wave
or feathering, giving fairly hard feel to the touch. Weather resistant
undercoat.
- Colour: Wholly black, yellow or liver/chocolate.
Yellows range from light cream to red fox. Small white spot on chest
permissible.
- Size: Ideal height at withers: Dogs 56 - 57
cm (22"
- 22.5"). Bitches 55-56 cm (21.5" - 22").
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 proportions to its degree.
Note: Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles
fully descended into the scrotum.
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