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Frances Sefton was a person with an eye for a dog...she had the talent to see a dog in all his details and the capability to express this in word and paper.
keywords: breed type, Lhasa Apso, characteristics, quality, Breed type is a phrase used frequently and if I may say so, somewhat loosely. What exactly does it mean? The dictionary defines type as - kind, category, constituents which share similar characteristics - and - particular group. The word characteristics is defined as distinguishing quality. The word quality is also frequently used in critiques and in discussions on a dog individual attributes. The Lhasa Apso breed type is a product of natural selection AND human selection. Certain characteristics which are part of the breed type evolved as a result of geographical and climatic environment - the high attitudes, the dry windy climate, the dusty terrain, the short hot summer and the long bitterly cold winter of the Himalaya region. Among these are head features, the coat, eye-fall, the musculation and body structure, the general hardness and longevity of the breed. Other characteristics were the result of man's selection for his visual preferences, such as size, color, the pattern of coat growth, and for function, such as temperament and sharpness of hearing.
The written description of type is in the breed standard (not the same worldwide ed) and accepted by the official canine clubs, breed clubs and used by breeders, exhibitors and judges, as a guide! Breed standards, because they are written by humans, are full of imperfections, but they are an attempt to set a word picture of the breed of dog. Breed standards are not rigid documents, and are revised from time to time, hopefully to clarify the meaning, but unfortunately all too often to change it because the breed has changed (...)over the years. The Lhasa Apso comes from Tibet, but the Tibetans never wrote a breed standard, the Indians, the British, the Americans who went to Tibet and took home dogs learned first hand what the Tibetans wanted in their dogs, and they went home and wrote down the first standards for our breed. The standard we use today is intrinsically the same as that was written in 1934 when a group of interested people sorted out what they realised were four separated breeds - Tibetan Terrier, Tibetan spaniel, Lhasa Apso and the Chinese cousin the Shih Tzu.
Sentences and phrases which deal specifically with the breed characteristics suggest ways of recognising visually the breed type. There is only one breed type. To use the phrase "he is not my type" is misleading. In fact, to be diplomatic, they should use the usual phrase of English judges in their critiques - "I preferred the other one"! The major characteristics of the Lhasa Apso which, put together, give you a dog that looks like a Lhasa Apso and no other breed involve the following factors:
My comments, (Frances Sefton ed) although based on the breed
standard, will also contain personal opinions from nearly 25 years of associations
with the breed.
The Lhasa Apso is a small dog - ideally 10 inches says the standard. Not a medium size (15-20 inches) not a large dog. There is no weight clause. However the Lhasa Apso is not flimsy dog, because the standard also makes reference such as: neck: strong.....strong loin...., hindquaters well developed with good muscle.... There is also the controversal word "solid" that was added in the 1970 revision. I personally disagreed with its inclusion because of the danger of misinterpretation, but a dictionary definition is : firm, strong, compact and that is my interpretation of it. The height then cannot be taken out of the context for breed type. A height within a range of 9 to 11 inches is acceptable provided the other attributes are present and is better than a 10 inch dog which achieves that ideal height by shortened upper arm and deep-slung chest or one that is shelly and flimsy.
References in the standard to good muscle are too brief in my opinion. In fact the Lhasa Apso has extraordinarily good muscle. The promise of dense muscle can be seen even in a baby puppy, and I believe that it is a key to correct type. Hold a baby puppy up under the chest, then viewing from the rear, lift the hindquarters by the tail. The pup should tense the muscles and stretch the back. Of course muscles takes time to develop, and Lhasas are not early maturing breed. The reason for well muscled hindquarters is because of the dog's remarkable agility in leaping, spinning and changing course. The strong muscle in the loin also is an aid to agility.
The standard uses the word well-balanced and also requires that the lenght from point of shoulders to point of buttocks is greater than height at the withers. In fact this is pretty well the balance of a "normally" constructed dog, but it is a breed characteristic. When standing free the hind hocks should fall naturally under the rump, not extended back beyond. I am not going to give specific measurements, I will just say that when a dog is stood with head up and tail curled over, it will look shorter in back, and when the same dog moves it will look a little longer. If it looks long when stacked it'll look even longer when it moves. Head carriage and tail carriage contribute to the balance to the dog. Heads are carried on necks - a good strong neck which is carried on well-laid but not over-angulated shoulders will give good balance. A neck can look short and stuffy if the hair over the neck, the dense mane referred to in the standard, is thick, but the hands will pick the smooth flow. Upright shoulders will give a "ewe" neck, stuck on upright like a giraffe - it looks long, but it isn't and again the hands will tell if the eye can't ! The standard says the dog is well ribbed up which means a long rib cage extended well back. It does not mean a rounded barrel rib cage. The coupling ( loin) is not long, the lenght of back is in fact in the rib cage, but the standard also requires the dog to be compact which means that though the body is longer than the height, the Lhasa Apso is not long-bodied dog. Good balance is required at the tail end. the tail is high set, which means that the Lhasa Apso does not have a "sloping croup" - in other words the angle of the pelvis is not great. The tail is curled over the back and contributes to the correct balance of the dog as a whole.
On this website you will find a general article from Frank about movements of the dog, now we provide you know how about the Lhasa Apso gait; Frances continue: if I had to pick a controversial
characteristic of the Lhasa Apso it would be the gait,. Furore has raged over the last
few years, mainly about the so-called "Shih-Tzu kick" behind. There are, particularly
in the USA, many Lhasas with an exaggerated hind action, which is untypical and which is
not, as it claimed to be, good hindquarters drive. The trot as for the Lhasa Apso; with a correctly laid shoulder, there will be sufficient forward reach for the front paw to come down under the dogs nose. The power is carried through the loin, and propulsion through the hindquarters carries the body forward efficiently, freely and easily and with true drive. The rear pads are revealed briefly, in a full coated dog usually seen only as a curving up of the skirts!
In this area the Lhasa is not quite the same as a "normal" canine. The head of the Lhasa Apso is an intermediate type of head between the shortfaced and normal long head. The skull is not broad nor flat. There is a definite occiput. Confusion often arises over the phrase falling away behind the eyes this means that there are no bony ridges over the eyes, nor the slight doming of the Tibetan Spaniel and the zygomatic arch is not prominent as in the Tibetan Terrier. In profile the head proportions are one third muzzle to two thirds skull. The foreface is straight with a medium stop, so that in profile there is no dishing of the muzzle nor down-face. One particular point which is not in the standard is the tip of the nose leather; this is quite distinctly pointed and does not drop at all. If it is flat, or pushed back, it is untypical. In fact the muzzle has depth, but as the standard says not square. The muzzle does not taper from the eyes but comes out at the same width from the eyes to the nose and viewed front on, or felt with the hands, is a vertical rectangle, which in profile gives the appearance of bluntness or being chopped off. The ears; are pendant, set about the level with the eyes. On a broad skull they tend to be higher set! but this must be assessed according to the effect on expression.
The Bite; The ideal bite is fully described. The
true scissor bite, with the upper incisors fitting closely over the lower,
It is a characteristic of the Lhasa Apso breed
that the coat is all encompassing. It grows every were on the dog.
To be continue, By Frank van Tatenhove
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