Breed Standard

OVERVIEW
Group: Utility
Size: Giant - Extra large
Lifespan: 8-11 years
Exercise Required:Low
Grooming: Very Low
Trainability: Medium
Watchdog ability: Very High
Protection ability: High
Area of Origin: England
Date of Origin: Ancient Times
Other Names: English (or old english) Mastiff
Original Function: Guardian / Hunting

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Large, massive, powerful, symmetrical and well-knit frame. A combination of grandeur and good nature, courage and docility. The head, in general outline giving a square appearance when viewed from any point. Breadth greatly to be desired, and should be in ratio to length of the whole head and face as 2:3. Body, massive, broad, deep, long, powerfully built, on legs wide apart and squarely set. Muscles sharply defined. Size a great desideratum if combined with quality. Height and substance important if both points are proportionately combined.

HEAD & SKULL: Skull broad between the ears, forehead flat, but wrinkled when attention is excited. Brows (superciliary ridges) slightly raised. Muscles of the temples and cheeks (temporal and masseter) well developed. Arch across the skull of a rounded, flattened curve, with a depression up the centre of the forehead from the median line between the eyes, to halfway up the sagital suture. Face or muzzle, short, broad under the eyes, and keeping nearly parallel in width to the end of the nose; truncated, i.e., blunt and cut off squarely,

thus forming a right-angle with the upper line of the face, of great depth from the point of the nose to under jaw. Under jaw broad to the end. Nose broad, with widely spreading nostrils when viewed from the front, flat (not pointed or turned up) in profile. Lips diverging at obtuse angles with the septum, and slightly pendulous so as to show a square profile. Length of muzzle to whole head and face as 1 to 3. Circumference of muzzle (measured mid-way between the eyes and nose) to that of the head (measured before the ears) as 3:5.

EYES: Small, wide apart, divided by at least the space of two eyes. The stop between the eyes well marked but not too abrupt. Colour hazel brown, the darker the better, showing no haw

EARS: Small, thin to the touch, wide apart, set on at the highest points of the sides of the skull, so as to continue the outline across the summit, and lying flat and close to the cheeks when in repose.

MOUTH: Canine teeth healthy; powerful and wide apart; incisors level, or the lower projecting beyond the upper but never so much as to become visible when the mouth is closed.

NECK: Slightly arched, moderately long, very muscular, and measuring in circumference about 2.5 or 5 cm (1 or 2 in) less than the skull before the ears.

FOREQUARTERS: Shoulder and arm slightly sloping, heavy and muscular. Legs straight, strong and set wide apart; bones being large. Elbows square. Pasterns upright.

BODY: Chest wide, deep and well let down between the forelegs. Ribs arched and well rounded. False ribs deep and well set back to the hips. Girth should be one-third more than the height at the shoulder. Back and loins wide and muscular; flat and very wide in a bitch, slightly arched in a dog. Great depth of flanks.

FEET: Large and round. Toes well arched up. Nails black.

TAIL: Put on high up, and reaching to the hocks or a little below them, wide at its root and tapering to the end, hanging straight in repose, but forming a curve with the end pointing upwards, but not over the back, when the dog is excited.

COAT: Short and close-lying, but not too fine over the shoulders, neck and back.

COLOUR: Apricot or silver, fawn, or dark fawn-brindle. In any case, muzzle, ears and nose, should be black with black round orbits, and extending upwards between them.

NOTE: Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.

Reference NZKC Website... www.NZKC.co.nz