2-year-old female, excellent head, bone, chest, coat
Powerful trot of adult male, great reach, note also topline, coat, bone
1 ½ -year-old male Note the abundance of the coat, great pigment , masculine head
to change their shade or color a few times during their lifetime. All colors and mark- ings should be judged equally. A movement has begun to preserve the rare solid colored Pons as they appear to be great pigmenta- tion carriers – with mostly white dogs seen in the ring nowadays we seem to be loosing skin pigmentation. When you send them down and back and around the ring ask for a loose lead, medium pace. Avoid speed too slow as they can go into pacing easily. Allow enough space between the dogs. Th e purpose of the PONS was to work all day, so an easy e ff ort- less trot should show that he could still excel at it. Look for a pleasing-to-the-eye harmoni- ous, e ffi cient gait, with nice forward move- ment, and a lowered head. Look for the front optically reaching the nose line. Look for the rear extended behind the dog. When assessing the legs look for straight, heavily-boned parallel columns with good reach and drive. You may expect some toeing in. Fortunately we now have much less east west and cow-hock dogs, it used to haunt us a lot years ago! In closing, I would like to mention tem- perament which I consider to be the most important trait in every dog. Th e PON should be reserved and get to know you slowly. He is trusting, but only after he has become comfortable in your presence. He will bark when you enter his home, but will stop when he is sure you mean no harm. He will be respectful of you, and watch you while you visit. He will remember you in the future, and greet you warmly. Hopefully you enjoyed meeting him toos! BIO Margaret Korzeniowska is an FCI Judge and former American Polish Lowland Sheepdog Club Director.
pigmented rims around the eye. Eyes should be brown and as dark as possible, with the exception of chocolate dogs may have lighter eyes. Ears are medium size and hanging with inner edge close to the cheeks. Th ey are set moderately high; not so high that they inter- fere with the dogs expression or distract from the shape of the head. After examining the head move your hands towards the neck to find it medium in length, strong and muscular, set in the well laid back shoulders, carried 45° to the ground or less while the dog is standing, carried horizontally or just slightly elevated while the dogs runs. Neck should be well set in the significantly pronounced and broad withers strongly connecting it both to the back and chest. Necks too long and narrow or set high and perpendicular to the back might not allow for proper breed function. Withers should be visible and easily palpa- table, with top of scapulae set two fingers apart. Length of the dog’s body comes from the thoracic spine rather then lumbar. Look for the body to be strong, deep and broad. Back should be well muscled, strong and straight, level or 2% higher in the withers then in the loin, avoid rears that are too high. Chest should be deep with well sprung ribs, good forechest, in fact, 50% of dog’s height comes from its depth of the chest. Scapula and upper arm should be about the same length, the forearm slightly longer, with tight elbows meeting the brisket. Th e pasterns should angle slightly forward, and the dog should have compact paws. Th e Loin should be wide, well built, opti- cally shorter than the with slightly cut croup. Hindquarters should be well angulated, muscular with well accentuated short hocks. Rear paws are slightly smaller than the front paws.
An adult female, great structure, level back, great coat
Only naturally short tails or ones that have been docked to a maximum length of two vertebrae are accepted by American Standard PON. However, tails naturally come in di ff erent lengths and carriage types which are allowed in the European Union. When you move your exhibits look for toplines to be level and sturdy , make sure to examine it also by hand as extensive groom- ing and hand stacking can a ff ect the topline as well. Even though sculpting and extensive scissor grooming is strongly discouraged in our breed it happens and can change the outline of the dog significantly. Th e shaggy coat of the PON, the hallmark of the breed, should be double with strong straight crisp outer coat and dense softer undercoat. Th e PONS is considered non-shedding however you will find seasonal di ff erences in appear- ance. Remember to consider age while judg- ing the coat. Younger dogs look a lot taller then older ones whose back coat can come all the way to the ground while flattening the undercoat on the back which makes the dog optically longer. All acceptable with solid colors or white with markings. Black, brown, grey, fawn and dark chocolate puppies often end up grey, cream or light chocolate as adults, with sable pointing due to the fading gene that some carry. PONs are known
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