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The Papillon Breed Standard

Hi fellow Papillon  enthusiast,

Let's spend a few minutes looking  at the breed standard for this wonderful and unique dog shall we?

It's important to have a general understanding of what  a correctly bred Papillon should look  and act like.

The Papillon is a small, elegant, friendly toy dog with a very fine bone structure. 

The Papillon should be a dainty size, light and full of action and affection and also healthy and strong looking. 

 The Papillon’s fringed butterfly ears will distinguish it from other breeds.

SIZE - PROPORTION - AND - SUBSTANCE

·        The height of the Papillon should be eight to 11 inches (20 cm to 28 cm) at the withers. 

·        The body should appear slightly longer than height at the withers. 

·        The Papillon should not be over eleven inches high or it is considered a fault. 

·        The Papillon’s weight should be seven to eight pounds (3 - 3.6 kgs) when fully grown. 

·        They should be of fine boned structure.

 APPEARANCE

 ·     Papillon’s coats are long, abundant, straight, very fine and silky and flowing with a resilient quality. 

·        The hair on their  body should be flat on both sides and the back of the Papillon’s body but with a profuse fill on its chest.

·        They do not have an undercoat, and the hair on their skull should be close and short. 

·        The muzzle, front of forelegs and from the hocks to the hind feet should have hair that is close and short.

·        Feathers, soft fine hairs, cover the backs of the Papillon’s forelegs and gradually fade out to the feet. 

·        The hocks of the hind legs of the Papillon are covered with abundant soft hair -  called breeches. 

·        The tail has flowing, long plumes of hair, while he hair on their feet is short and the pads are small. 

COLOR 

·        Papillons are white or parti-colored with patches of any color marking except liver. 

·        There are also tri-colored Papillion. 

·        They should be a balanced, dainty little toy dog with an attractive head, a lively and intelligent expression and an alert bearing. 

·        When Papillons move they should be light and free, and should not appear restricted or cramped in any way. 

 EYES AND EARS

·        The Papillon should have dark, round eyes that are medium sized, alert and not bulging. 

·        The rim of the eyes is black.

·        The ears should be large, with rounded tips that are set on the sides near the back of the head. 

·        Erect ears move like the wings of a butterfly, and carried obliquely at approximately 45 degrees to the head. 

·        The drop ears (also known as Phalene) are carried drooping and they must be completely down.

·        Small pointed ears set too high, one ear up or ears that are partly down are considered ‘faults’.

·        The ears are well fringed and inside the ear it’s covered with medium length silken hair.

 HEAD

·        The Papillon  skull should be of medium width and rounded slightly between the ears.

·        There is a well defined stop formed where the skull and muzzle meet. 

·        The muzzle is about one-third the length of the head measuring from the eye to the tip of the nose. 

·        The Papillon’s nose is black, rounded, small and a little flat on the top. 

·        If the nose is not black it will be severely penalized as a fault. 

·        The lips are thin, tight and black with the tongue invisible when the jaws are closed. 

·        If the bite is overshot or undershot it will be considered a fault.

·        The muzzle, front of forelegs and from the hocks to the hind feet should have hair that is close and short. 

·        The ears are well fringed and inside the ear it’s covered with medium length silken hair

 NECK AND BODY

·        The Neck should be medium length and the backline level and straight. 

·        The chest of the Papillon is of medium depth and the ribs are well spread. 

·        The Papillon’s shoulders should be laid back, which allows freedom of movement. 

·        Removal of the dewclaws is optional. 

·        The front feet are rabbit-like and should point neither in nor out.

 HINDQUARTERS

·        The hindquarter of a Papillon should be well angulated and developed. 

·        The legs are slender, parallel when viewed from behind and fine boned. 

·        The hind feet are elongated and thin, and point neither in nor out.

·        The legs should have significant breeches to add to the feathery and light appearance of the Papillon.

 OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

·        While a small dog, the Papillon should still appear athletic and active.

·        They should be alert and attentive , and neither timid nor aggressive.

 The Breed Standard we discussed are  for:

• AKC Breed Standard (American Kennel Club)

• CKC Breed Standard (Canadian Kennel Club)

• FCI Breed Standard

• The Kennel Club (U.K) Breed Standard

• UKC Breed Standard (United Kennel Club)

I am sorry if that was all a bit "dry" but it is a little tricky to make the breed standards exciting.

 Thanks for visiting us and we hope  you enjoyed learning a little about the breed standard of the Papillon.

Feel free to look around some more at our other pages on our  website.