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HEAD.
The head is the eye catcher of the dog and must suit it in
every respect. The proportions of the head must be in correct
ratio to the dog’s build. A head that is too long is just as
disturbing as a head that is too short. The head itself must
be balanced like the body.
The proportion, length, breadth and depth of the head, the ear
placement, size and they way they are held, the eye, size,
colour and how they are placed, the nose, teeth, beard, coat
quality and colour, define the expression and thus the type of
the complete dog.
The Irish Terrier Expression is pure and simply the
breed’s characteristic. In the last analysis a beautifully
formed Irish Terrier lacking this typical and correct
expression is just a good terrier, not an Irish Terrier A
terrier indeed but one that could be ranged with many other
terrier breeds. Therefore the greatest attention must be paid
to the Irish Terrier expression which demonstrates the
integral character of the breed. The true Irish Terrier
expression fully accentuates his arrogant, fearless, spirited,
ever happy, rollicking enterprising nature. That must be seen
in him at the first glance.
The Head must be long and narrow in cheek. From the
ears to the teeth an unbroken scarcely visible narrowing
shape, well filled under the eye, where no visible deviation
between cheek and foreface shall appear.
The stop is not visible from above and hardly visible in
profile. The entire length of head of a standard sized Irish
Terrier amounts to 8-10 inches.
The Skull must be flat, without bumps over the eyes or
arch between the ears. The hair on the skull is short, hard
and smooth. The powerful, muscular jaws fit him for use as a
guard or hunting doge. It must however, not appear coarse or
inelegant because of heavy bone structure or muscular
development. A weak jaw is a fault.
The Foreface (from the eye to the nose) shall
correspond with the length of the skull (from eyes to the back
of the head) must not be more than 1 cm shorter than the
skull. Too short a foreface looks clumsy and inelegant; too
long a foreface upsets the balance and expression. It looks
too weighty. Both destroy the type.
The Beard must be thick and hard and only long enough
to reinforce the lines of the head and to give the foreface
added strength. Lack of beard destroys utterly the
characteristic feature of an Irish Terrier. Often one finds
with very hard coated dogs very little or even no beard; it
often goes together with sparse or no leg furnishings. Such
dogs, especially if it is short haired, appears as a smooth
coated terrier. It has lost the type and expression of the
Irish Terrier. The same goes for the Irish with the soft, open
floating beard, that most of the time is light in colour and
scanty, often combined with soft or silky body hair and also
soft, colourless hair on the upper body or legs. Too much
black on the head on an adult Irish Terries is most
undesirable.
The Eyes must have that certain something that
characterizes the impudent, challenging, intelligent
expression o the Irish Terrier. The correct eye expression is
defined by the size and colour of the eye and how it is placed
and shaped. Small and deep-set, they must not be too far apart
and must be almond shaped, almost triangular. They are full of
fire and intelligence. I prefer the very dark brown eye, -
compared to dark hazel in the standard - to the black as more
expression is permitted through the various nuances of brown
that are possible. Light, amber, fuller protruding eyes are a
bad fault. Strong, but not too long eyebrows accentuate the
desired Dare-Devil expression. The skin round eyes is dark
brown. A strong black rim lead the eye a false gloomy
expression.
Also the
Ears of the Irish Terrier are distinctly
characteristic. Through their breed type peculiarity is
hanging, placement and carriage, as much as by their usage,
they have an enormous significance for the expression. They
are set high on the top of the head, held off the skull by the
muscle and fall forwards with the tips on the edge of the
skull, about the outer corner of the eye. They stand rather
close together, and by that emphasize the narrowness of the
head. They are small, fine V shaped and come to a definite
point. The hair on the ears should be short and thick like
velvet, without fringes and rather darker than the rest of the
coat. With very light colored dogs this contrast is most
attractive and striking.
The Irish Terrier conducts a lively conversation by the use of
its ears. They vary in their carriage, from joy to sadness,
boredom and embarrassment to great anxiety and therefore are
very efficacious in expression.
Dead,
deeply set, folded, too high lofty carried ears or motionless
ears are not only a fault, but they spoil type and expression.
The
Teeth must be powerful, strong and white, A full number
(42) and a scissor bite. Over or under shot teeth are a
serious fault. The nose is black. Lack of pigment is a fault.
The lips close tightly together and range from brown to black.
Slack lips (flews) are a fault.
The
elegant Neck determines the proud carriage of the head
and contributes the decisive factor to the complete nobility
of the breed. It must be long and run in a slightly arched
fine continuous line blending into back sand shoulders. In it
strength and elegance are united. A short thick fleshy (with
dewlap) neck, running into the back at an angle is very
detracting.
The
Front (chest) seen from in front is narrow, powerful and
perfectly straight It must on no account be too narrow or too
wide. The forehand stand in straight continuation to the
shoulders. It must not be turned out at the elbows. The legs
are absolutely straight from the top to the foot and are
covered with thick coarse hair (furnishings) that is thick
enough to emphasize the pillar shape.
The Shoulder is long, well muscled and
yet flat It runs sloping into the back at a good angulation.
The elbows are tucked in. Also seen from the side the legs are
perfectly straight down to the feet. Weak ankles which lead to
a deviation of the straight line toward the front are a fault.
The
Feet are strong and round, toes well arched. The pads are
likewise strong, elastic, healthy without fissures, cat-footed
with black nails. Excrescences on or deep fissures in the pads
are a serious inherited fault. Equally, open, spreading or
flat feet are a great fault. Tn movement the legs move right
from the shoulders straight forwards without turning the
elbows out, crossing (knitting) and without throwing them
sideways, Slack or loaded shoulders or sticking out elbows are
a fault.
The Body is of a moderate length (racy),
Whosoever praises the short back of an Irish doesn’t know the
breed.
The Chest is deep and muscular, with long moderately
arched flat ribs. The deepest point is around the height of
the elbows. The underline runs in an elegant cure upwards
toward the flanks.
The Back is strong, straight and firm. It runs into the
tail without falling away. The contours run from the ears over
the neck across the back in elegant continuous lines that flow
into each other right onto the root of the tail.
Faults. Too long or too short a back, arched carp back,
dipping backs, croups falling away, back lines that fall away
(G.S.D) too little or lack of chest depth, barrel shape.
The Structure must be substantial, muscular and firm,
and thus accentuate a noble outline. Obesity, cloddy
appearance or weediness, spoil this impression.
The Hindquarters are powerful, very muscular and well
angulated in order to ensure the greatest possible drive from
behind. Powerful thighs with moderately bent knee joint, well
angled, deep ankle joints as well as moderately proportioned
short metatarsals, strong bond muscle demonstrate his power
and speed. Moreover they enable the dog when standing, to
cover a lot of ground,. The hind feet are somewhat smaller
than the front feet. The movement of the hindquarters s always
quite straight, free and far reaching. Steep, poorly angulated
or weak hindquarters, narrow hocks (cow hocks) close feet
(barrel shaped) or hindquarters tucked under when standing are
faults.
The Movement of the Irish Terrier is lively, evenly
flowing and far reaching. It is the movement of a disciplined,
active, vital dog. Mincing, weaving, hackneying or
overstretching as much as stilted and irregular movements are
faults.
Placing, carriage and length of the Tail are powerful
factors in the correctly balanced appearance of the whole dog.
The mood of the dog can be recognized from its carnage. It
must be placed high and carried vertical to the back. The
desired tail is straight A slight inclination to the front
shows the fearless Irish Terrier spirit. A slight curve gives
a pleasing appearance. The tail is powerful and covered with
moderately short wiry hair. A low set tail is a fault, a tail
that when roused is bent over is undesirable. It is still less
of an evil than a dropping whip like tail.
The correct Coat of an Irish Terrier is often not given
its full value or assessed enough because this breed has many
variations of coat and only a few experts now really what the
ideal hair should be.
Broken Coat. Normal terrier hairs has pointed tips. If
one passes the had over such a coat, in spite of its being
hard and wiry it feels smooth with no resistance. Hair that is
broken on the other hand, lack pointed tips. It is a through
broken off with a smooth, cut surface. If one strokes a broken
haired dog, the ends of the hair can be distinctly felt. They
convey the stroking hand quite a different feel, one can say
the coat rustles. Other than the Irish Terrier the broken coat
is only met within the Scottie and the Wire Fox.
The correct coat is very thick and wiry,
clinging to the body. When the coat is “ripe” or fully grown,
(not to be confused with blown), this is called “in full
bloom”. Because of its double growth it appears uneven and
gives the appearance of a wave or broken surface, It is
strong, gleaming, water and dirt resistant coat, that fits the
dog for every kind of activity and protects him from external
influences The correct Irish Terrier coat looks, - so to say,
incared for - as cared for and shining as the coat of breeds
that are groomed daily, The hair is smooth, straight and
slightly waved and very hard. Soft, curly, silky, bristly or
woolly hair is incorrect, A hereditary fault is so called
‘pick out coat’, whose roots are not firm.. It falls into
regular bunches and the newly grown short hair is as easily
picked out as blown hair. There is no undercoat at all. A dog
with such a coat appears disheveled and uncared for,. The
condition of the coat is largely a question of trimming and
feeding. In the hands of a specialist a moderately coated
Irish Terrier can have a really good coat, whilst a better
coated dog through irregular trinuning and poor feeding,
leaved much to be desired.
The most significant point of the Colour in Irish
Terriers, is the evenness of it. Colour plays an important
part for the devotee, according to his own particular taste,
since the Irish Terrier ranges from light blond to dark red.
For showing and breeding however, the eye should be directed
mainly to the evenness of colour. Colour varies from light,
even wheaten gold to deepest mahogany red. The preferred
colours are bright red (fox red) red wheaten (stag red) and
red gold (hamster colour). Each single hair is bi-coloured.
The lower part is light whilst the tips are darker and
determine the actual colour. Thus the Irish Terriers has the
most shining and clearest colour when the coat is newly grown
to a suitable length, and becomes bi-coloured - colour on
colour - when it has reached its full length.
A small white chest patch shouldn’t worry anyone. Many of the
most famous champions carried their little white stars from
victory to victory. If the white spreads across the chest or
appears on the feet, that is a fault, likewise black shading
in the face, on the top of the head, on the cheeks or other
places on the body.
The Size has been debated and argued over from time past up to
today. The standard nevertheless, has remained constant.
Breeders, of large dogs, like breeders of small dogs, have
sought to draw the eye of the judge and the eye of the admirer
to the overall balance. Actually this is really not a too
underrated very significant factor. A completely unbalanced
oversized Irish Terrier, just like one that is too small can
be a fine and eye catching dog. But this is throwing the ideal
of the Irish Terrier out of the window. Judges, as well as
breeders, must be clear about this, about what damage is being
inflicted on the breed, because of frequently expressed views
by left or right extremists , (over or undersized), damage
very difficult to correct. Oversized dogs lead inevitably to
the Airedale type, or worse still, the greyhound, undersized
dogs to the Fox Terrier type, Lakeland or Welsh. In the first
extreme the dogs become too large cloddy and heavy, more
massive than they should be. Or it becomes too long legged and
light fine limbs, spindly with weak bones and long back. The
other extreme leads to a miniature example, on the whole too
light, fine limbed, weedy weak and often short backed. Also
the typical Irish Terrier movement is lost and becomes that of
other breeds. The standard height of l8ins should be strived
for. Every true first class Irish Terrier should come as close
as possible to the height standard to be the best well
balanced. Males may be a little over, bitches a little under.
In this explanation of the Standard all the plus points, but
also many minor points have been made clear. There doesn’t
exist a dog without weakness. In the long run we are dealing
with living, bred creatures and not a mechanical conveyor belt
model from a stencil. The best dog is the one who most
impresses, the one closest to the Standard and the one who by
his actions and bearing convinces us he is the best.
REPRODUCED WITH KIND
PERMISSION OF THE SOUTHERN IRISH TERRIER SOCIETY
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