Breed Standard - Chinese Crested Dog

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 a 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 muzzle.  Any colour nose acceptable.  Head presenting graceful appearance, with alert expression.  Lips tight and thin; An ideal crest begins at the stop and tapers off down neck.  Long and flowing crest preferred, but sparse acceptable. 

Eyes: So dark as to appear black.  Little or no white showing.  Medium size, almond in shape.  Set wide apart. 

Ears: Set low to 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 neither in nor out. 

Body: Medium to long.  Supple.  Chest rather broad and deep, not barrel-ribbed.  Breast bone not prominent.  Brisket extending to elbows; moderate tuck-up. 

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 two:thirds of tail.  Sparse plume acceptable. 

Gait/movement: Long, flowing and elegant with good reach and plenty of drive. 

Colour: Any colour or combination of colours. 

Size: Ideal height for Dogs 28:33 cm (11:13 ins) at withers. Bitches 23:30 cm (9:12 ins) at withers. 
Weight varies considerably, but should not be over 5.5 kg (12 lbs). 
Copyright Dogs New Zealand
01 Mar 2006