bald patches. Long coats have moderately long hair on the body that should not hide the outline of the body. Front and back legs as well as the tail should be feathered and there needs to be enough hair on the feet to cover the nails. Ears should be covered with thick, long hair that creates a fringe. Of course, pup- pies will not carry this fringe, and dogs over three years old may have so much heavy fringe that it can cause the ear to tip over but NOT hang. Ears must be erect on both varieties and should be large and set high on the head—when alert, no Papillon ear set, please! Heads are small compared to the body, have a pronounced stop with a lean and pointed muzzle that is slightly shorter than the skull. Th e eyes are quite large, round, slightly prominent and set well apart in a high skull that is wide, but the width at the level of the zygomatic arch (cheek bones) can not exceed the depth of skull—at this point, pictures may be more useful than words. Necks are slightly arched, long and carried high followed by a gradually slop- ing, level topline. Tails can be docked, but
generally are now left natural. Both docked and natural tails are carried high when moving. Th e natural or long tail should be carried ideally as a sickle tail, and should not be held lower than horizontal. Too much curl or a tail held tight against the back while moving is a fault. When resting or standing, the tail is generally held lower, but not tucked under. Th e Russian Toy must always appear elegant, lively and long legged. Th is is a fine boned breed with lean muscle on a square built dog. Th e height at the elbow should be slightly more than half of the height of the dog at the withers. Dogs should move easily and fast—no distinc- tive or unusual action here, just good, ground-covering gait! Once we obtained some lovely dogs, the task of properly presenting the breed was the next challenge. Th ese are very intel- ligent, sensitive dogs that may not always take kindly to standing still on a table for strangers to touch them. Like some other toy breeds, they exhibit best on the ground but of course must be trained properly to allow examination on the table.
Once they are place on the ground and moved for the judge, the head, ears and tail should go up—it is essential breed type that the Russian Toy exhibits those essentials of breed type—a long-legged dog. Th e Russian Toy is a lean muscled and truly elegant toy dog. When our Rus- sian Toy comes toward our judge stop or when standing, the tail will usually go down and the dog will be shown free stacked. Of course, a novice dog or one in a threatening environment, may be stead- ied by the handler (hard stacked). Joining the world of Russian Toy fan- ciers has been a rewarding experience— from introducing the breed to literally thousands of people at the New York City Meet the Breeds to exhibiting our dogs to judges who are getting their first oppor- tunity to evaluate the breed “up close and personal”. Th en there is that magi- cal first litter—so frightening with all the unknowns and so rewarding with the first healthy and hopefully wonderful home breds that can now be labeled “Ameri- can Made”! We look forward to bringing them to a show near you!
Photos to the left were chosen by the penultimate and the last Presidents of National Club of Breed for submission of the home page of the official site of breed.
“THESE ARE VERY INTELLIGENT, SENSITIVE DOGS...”
S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , J UNE 2015 • 283
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