JUDGING THE BICHON FRISE by ANN D. HEARN, breeder/exhibitor/judge
A s you stand in the ring with your judges book and pen in hand and check off each armband, you find it is a bit difficult to keep your mind on the paperwork requirements without moving your eyes downward to catch a glimpse of the stunning, joyous parade propelling themselves into the ring with an exhibitor attempting to get some bit of control from their entry. It’s an instant ‘feel good’ moment. Well, you smile to yourself, this ought to be fun! And, I promise you, it will be. You may be fairly new to this breed, as well as new to dogs with an abun- dance of coat, but your eyes have long been trained to see and evaluate leg movement. As you take them around the ring to the examining table, you watch to see which ones display equal dis- tance of reach in the front and matching rear. Your experience also tells you that you can have equal front and rear leg extension—and still not get anywhere. This style dog has reach in front that never gets out from under his chin, but, GloryB, the rear has the same stretch! That means the dog is balanced, doesn’t it? There’s good balance, under bal- anced and overbalanced. A Bichon was once the Circus trick dogs and as such must have a healthy reach and drive that will propel him agilely toward his
goal. They want and should move right along, but not as if the Devil himself is chasing them with evil intent. It is not a race of speed, but a pace to get where they need to be efficiently—and then be ready for the next cool thing asked of them. You probably didn’t get to see the Hallmark of the breed, the face and head as they were coming in and going around, but on the examining table, you can quickly and breathlessly have your heart stolen right out of your body as you look in those sweet faces. At this point, you’re probably saying—I have got to have one of these at home so I can look at that face all day long! If the correct head and face are not maintained, the breed will totally lose its individuality, appeal and a good bit of its purpose as a companion dog. So, let’s begin a thorough study of what we should see in this cloud of white and prominent black portions arranged so pleasingly. The Bichon is not a narrow, elongat- ed dog with refined bone. It is a sturdy dog, with sound bone and a solid body. Therefore, the head should equal the density of the body. In other words, it is a rather broadhead to allow the pleas- ing picture of two extremely bright, dark eyes to be able to look forward on a skull that is wide enough to allow the eyes to lay on the face without having
to curve a bit around the too narrow skull. The eyes are totally on the front of the face—this is important. They are dark and round and have a natural (Hum, well) dark halo on the skin sur- rounding the eye and eye rims that have a dark unbroken rim. Sometimes, an extremely round-eyed dog will have a bit of a bulge to his eyeball. The Bichon does not—please! The roundness of the Bichon eye is not Coke-bottle round but is much softer. The skull is rounded slightly and is greater in width and depth than the muzzle. Actually, the muzzle is short, and with the coat parted on the bridge of the nose, with usually some wispy hairs sticking out and up, will look even shorter. A good balance of skull to muzzle is not half as much muzzle as skull, but a bit less in length of muzzle. Or, as the Stan- dard says, “Three parts muzzle to five parts skull.” However your brain visual- izes things, the point being made here is—it is not a 50–50 balance. There is a stop and not just a hint of a sloping indentation. The skull doesn’t slide down into the muzzle. And, the muzzle width and depth, while not the same circumference of the skull, must match the apparent fullness of the skull and not be narrow, snippy or chinless. The nose is somewhat prominent and very, very black. The lips are also black, thus giving a pronounced contrast of black
“A BICHON WAS ONCE THE CIRCUS TRICK DOGS AND AS SUCH MUST HAVE A HEALTHY REACH AND DRIVE THAT WILL PROPEL HIM AGILELY TOWARD HIS GOAL.” 224 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , O CTOBER 2017
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