Let's Talk About Heads

The standard ....

Proportionate in size to body, never coarse, too fine or long. Clean cut; fairly broad between ears. Forehead slightly domed; little or no trace of central furrow. Cheeks forming softly rounded curve, never protruding. Skull from ears to bridge of nose tapering gradually and evenly, blending without too pronounced stop into wedge-shaped powerful muzzle. Skull approximately 50 per cent of overall length of head. Width of skull corresponding approximately to length, in males slightly greater, in females slightly less. Muzzle strong, lips firm, clean and closing tightly. Top of muzzle straight, almost parallel to forehead. Short, blunt, weak, pointed, overlong muzzle undesirable

Using this photo of Dexi and Blade you can really see the difference. Now of course Blade was everything, the perfect pet in my eyes, but looking at them as examples of the breed, well to my interpretation of the standard, Dexi was better. They both have broad skulls and a slight stop, but even from this photo it's easier to see that Blade's muzzle was greater than 50% of his overall head size. I do feel Blade's muzzle was overlong but it didn't taper into a point, he still had great strength to his muzzle. 

I'm using my own dogs as examples, but Blade was not extreme, he had great strength to his head, but even in this stance photo you can see that there was a lot of length to his muzzle. I didn't breed Blade, and if I look at the males I've bred, put colour aside they mostly have a similar stamp, though Merlot seems to have changed some heads slightly, and maybe not for the better? When Siska was a teenager, her head was very typical of Merlot, but she also had wide set ears. It wasn't her greatest look! Now with maturity her head has filled and as she says "I'm so fecking pretty!" Seriously she is and even her ears seem to have come tighter set. Of course a bitches head is very different from a male, a slightly longer muzzle is more accepting, as long as it has a slight stop and doesn't become too narrow and pointed like a rough collie. 

As always colour is of secondary importance, but I like a dark head/muzzle with rich tan. I find a solid black head a little too much, but I do prefer that to a completely faded head/muzzle. Looking at a male and female they should be easily distinguished from the head alone, I think Siska and Orin model that perfectly here - oh and rose-tinted glasses off I think his head is pretty perfect too. Maybe his lips could be slightly tighter .. and his eyes? Well he reminds me the breed standard says this ... "Medium-sized, almond-shaped, never protruding. Dark brown preferred, lighter shade permissible."

I guess when we look at the breed as a whole we all interpret the breed standard differently, that is what makes things interesting, but there is no getting away from the fact that the muzzle should be roughly 50% of the overall length of the head, there should be a stop and the muzzle should not be pointed!