Kennel Club, London 1994. Amended May 1996

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Well balanced, sturdy, compact, elegant, short coupled, smooth-coated toy dog. Naturally well groomed, proud, vigorous and alert.

CHARACTERISTICS: Precise hackney gait, fearless animation, complete self-possession and spirited presence.

TEMPERAMENT: Fearless and alert.

HEAD AND SKULL: More elongated than short and round. Narrow, without conspicuous cheek formation. In proportion to body. Skull flat when viewed from front. Muzzle rather strong and proportionate to skull. Nostrils well formed. Nose black with the exception of chocolate and blue which it may be self-coloured.

EYES: Fitting well into face. Neither too full nor round, not too small or slanting. Black or nearly black.

EARS: Set on high, as small as possible, erect or dropped.

MOUTH: Jaws strong, with a perfect, regular and complete scissor bite, i.e: the upper teeth closely overlapping the lower teeth and set square to the jaws.

NECK: Strong yet graceful, slightly arched. Well fitting into shoulders. Free from throatiness.

FOREQUARTERS: Forechest well developed and full, moderately broad; shoulders clean, sloping with moderate angulation. Legs straight, medium bone, elbows close to body.

BODY: Square, back line straight, sloping towards rear. Belly moderately tucked up. Ribs well sprung, deep rather than barrelled. Viewed from top slightly wedged shaped.

HINDQUARTERS: Parallel and wide enough apart to fit in with a properly built body. Hindquarters well developed, muscular with good sweep of stifle, and hocks turning neither in nor out. Legs straight, medium bone.

FEET: Cat-like; nails dark.

TAIL: Continuation of topline carried a little high and preferably docked short.

GAIT/MOVEMENT: Co-ordinated to permit a true hackneyed action.

COAT: Smooth, hard and short. Straight and lustrous. Closely adhering to and uniformly covering body. Hair forming ridge on any part of head, body or legs highly undesirable.

COLOUR: Black, Blue, Chocolate with sharply defined tan markings on cheeks, lips, lower jaw, throat, twin spots above eyes and chest, lower half of forelegs, inside of hindlegs and vent region, lower portion of hocks and feet. All above colours have black pencilling on toes without thumb marks except chocolates which have brown pencilling. Solid red of various shades. Slight white on chest permissible but undesirable.

SIZE: Height: from 25.5 cm - 30 cm (10 - 12 inches) at the withers.

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 proportion to its degree.

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