Portuguese Pointing Dog

FCI-Standard N° 187 / 04. 12. 1998 / GB

PORTUGUESE POINTING DOG

(Perdigueiro Português)

TRANSLATION : Portuguese Kennel Club, Mrs. Peggy Davis.

ORIGIN : Portugal.

DATE OF PUBLICATION OF THE ORIGINAL VALID STANDARD : 19.09.1967.

UTILIZATION : A tenacious hunter and a good walker.  He beats the ground with the perseverence of an experienced explorer, instantly looking for his prey, with all the attention required by his excellent subtle nose and his outstanding skill.  A crafty worker and a faithful helpmate to the hunting sportsman.  Alert and silent, raised head, open nostrils, by his demeaour, his look, the position of his tail or his gait, he conveys to his attentive companion the knowledge gained through his sense of smell.  A good Portuguese Pointing Dog is always ready to help with intelligence, sometimes even with surprising cunning.  The dog manages to stand still when the smell  of the game awakes his senses.  He points firmly, in odd attitudes connected with his characteristic mental reflexes : Contracted face, glassy, fixed gaze, poised listening ears, immobile head, rigid horizontal tail, a foreleg raised; he is at times indifferent to what is going on around him, as soon as his olfactory senses feel the closeness of the game.  Not selfish at all, he enjoys and shows his delight in sharing the hunter’s pleasure, no matter how hard the climate or rough the ground.  His main interest is bringing down the quarry and his main reward to retrieve and hand it to his master.  Both of which he does surprisingly well.

CLASSIFICATION F.C.I. : Group 7 Pointing Dogs.  Section 1.1. Continental Pointing Dogs, type « Braque ».  With working trial.

BRIEF HISTORICAL SUMMARY : His remote origins are rather cloudy; we have good reason, however, to assume that he came from the Orient to the Iberian Penininsula in very early times; his presence in Portugal can be traced back to the late XIVth. century.  It may be assumed that, with the years and owing to various influences, some of the mutations suffered by the original species became fixed in such a way, that they individualize the Portuguese Pointing Dog.  In fact he should be considered as an autochthon, well defined breed, both in morphology and in psychological characteristics.

The Portuguese Pointing Dog can be found scattered all over the continental area of Portugal; mainly in towns where shooting is a favourite sport, as he is greatly appreciated as a gun dog.

GENERAL APPEARANCE : Of medium proportions, bracoïd type dog, balanced in shape, showing a solid structure combined with great suppleness of movements.

BEHAVIOUR / TEMPERAMENT : Extremely affectionate; very submissive, the Portuguese Pointing Dog can go to extremes of affection, occasionally even embarrassing, when, through lack of training, the dog does not obey either any signals or vocal commands.span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  He is quite sociable, although sometimes slightly frisky within his own kind.  He is of graceful appareance, of calm but lively temperament and of an interesting variable expressiveness.

HEAD : Proportioned to size of the body.  It gives, however, by its shape, the impression of being larger.  Slightly heavy, but should not be too bony or fleshy.  It should be covered with loose and fine skin without any wrinkles; if there are wrinkles, they should only be slightly developed.  Seen from the front, the head seems to be square, from the side rectilinear.  Head well set into the neck, allowing free and haughty carriage.  Of good shape and well proportioned; seen from the front, the head shows a clear separation between the nasal bridge and the skull along an ideal line passing at the level of the internal eye angles.

CRANIAL REGION :

Skull : Seen from the front, the forehead is almost flat, high, wide and symmetrical, from profile slightly arched.  Occipital crest barely perceptible.

Stop : Well marked (skull-foreface angle about 100°), nearer to the tip of the nose than to the occiput.

FACIAL REGION :

Nose : The nose forms a perfect right angle with the nasal bridge and the upper lip.  Nostrils should be large, well shaped and well open. The nose should be black in chamois or similar coats; preferably light brown or dark brown in dogs of brown colours, the nose always lighter than the coat.

Muzzle : Nasal bridge straight, of adequate width in its whole length; should be flat over the entire length.  The connection with the face should be well marked.

Lips : Of moderate size.  Mucous membranes irregularly pigmented.   The upper lip is pendulous, but not excessively so, only slightly fleshy, looking square in profile; falling naturally without folds and meeting with the lower lip in a loose and folded commissure, which results in slightly drooping corners of the mouth.

Jaws/Teeth : A normal dentition must always exist with regard to the position, constitution, shape and development of the teeth.  Each time the dog closes its mouth, the jaws, well adapted and developed, must meet in a correct bite.

Eyes : Looking straight, perfectly alike and symmetrical; large, in different shades of brown, preferably dark.  Oval shaped, horizontal, set even with the head, filling the socket well.  Thin wide opened lids, moving easily and closing well.  Both with black or brown rims according to the nose pigmentation.  Bright, expressive look, especially in adults.  Prominent superciliary arches, but without excess, which would make the head look bony.

Leathers : The ears of medium length (15 cm in length-11 cm in width) must be thin, supple, covered with fine, dense, short hair; much wider at the base than at the tip, in approximative proportion of 1 : 2, 5; with a rounded tip and looking like, because of the shape of the auricles, a triangle of superior base.  The ears are hanging, of almost flat surface; set high, falling well and parallel; on the outside they show, when the dog is attentive, one or two small lengthwise furrows of variable depth and width, but never very accentuated.

NECK : Straight, upper third slightly arched, not very thick, rather long with a short dewlap along the underside.  The neck should meet the head gracefully at an inclination of approximately 90°; it should join the thorax without a substantial transition, thus achieving a perfect and harmonious junction.

BODY :

Withers : Moderately high and slightly thick.

Back : Short, straight, broad, perfectly horizontal; smoothly connected with the loins.

Loins : Short, rather wide, well muscled, a little arched and merging well with the croup.

Croup : Of harmonious shape, in good proportional width to the loins.  Its longitudinal axis is slightly oblique, thus giving a slightly sloping shape.

Chest : Deep and wide, brisket revealing a good thoracic capacity; should be more developed in length and depth than in width and should reach down to the elbows.  Ribs very well sprung and noticeably wide in their upper section.  Considering the girth and the crossection, the chest and its bordering ribs appear as a forefoot horseshoe, with both ends meeting.

Lower profile and Belly : From sternum to groin the line which follows the lower part of the thorax and belly is noticeably oblique, from bottom to top and from front to back; it follows the natural outline of the abdomen and shows, together with the upper line of the body, a certain elegance to which contributes a belly of moderate volume as well as the short distance with separates the hips from the last ribs, giving the flank a short and well filled out appearance.

TAIL : Generally docked by one third; the tail when undocked, must not go beyond the hock, or even preferably not reach it.  Straight, set on at moderate height, strong at the root, tapering gradually, but not too much, towards the tip; well attached, well grown, in perfect continuity with the line of the croup; the line of the tail must contribute to the gracefulness of the body outline.  When at rests, the dog carries the tail fallling naturally along the limbs but never between the legs; in action, the tail rises to the horizontal or even a little higher, but never to the vertical and never bending as a sickle.  On the point of dynamic view, the dog when hunting moves the tail or the stump from side to side perfectly synchronised with his pace.

LIMBS : At rest, the forelimbs seen from the front are vertical.  Seen from the rear the hindquarters are also vertical.  Both fore-and hind limbs, either seen from front or in profile, should be placed perfectly parallel with the median plane of the body, which gives the dog a great stability and a great natural smoothness of movement.

FOREQUARTERS :

Shoulder : Long, well set, a little loaded, evenly sloping.

Upper arm : Close to the thorax, as the shoulder; length in proportion with the distance between withers and the point of the shoulder; its obliquity is in proportion with the degree of slope of the shoulder blade.

Elbows : Separated from the chest by the armpit; clean, well let down, neither turned in nor out.

Forearm : Set off from the body; long, straight and perpendicular, seen from the front and in profile.

Pastern joint : In perfect line with the forearm.

Pastern : Broad, slightly sloping, well proportioned in length.

HINDQUARTERS :

Upper thigh : Preferably long, broad, well muscled.

Buttock : The buttocks show a more or less accentuated curve from the base of the tail to the tendon of the hock; their length depends on the length and the slant of the thighs; preferably long and with a slightly plastic musculature.

Stifle : Placed slightly below the abdomen, but not too far away from it; slightly prominent and slightly turned outward.

Second Thigh : In good direction; length in proportion with the upper thigh, its obliquity in proportion to the slope of the croup.

Hock joint : Normally angulated and well placed; clean, broad and thick.

Hock : Short, upright, almost cylindrical, of even thickness, but lean.

Articulations and angles : Apparently well developed in width and in thickness, formed in such a way as to allow great facility and scope of locomotion movements.  The direction of the bony segments must be in correlation with the bony bases of the bordering regions, forming angles of variable opening, but never hindering the regularity of the gait.

FEET : In proportion with the length of the legs and the size of the dog; the feet must have tendency to be rather round than long without however looking like cat-feet.  Well formed toes, tight and solid in bearing the weight of the dog, thus contributing to the uniformity of the whole of the feet.  Pads thick, well developed and detached, covered with blackish skin, sufficiently rough, hard and wear resistant.  Nails well embedded, hard and preferably black.

GAIT / MOVEMENT : Normal movements of locomotion.  At work, the typical gait is the trot, extended, easy, rhythmic, lifting well the legs and posing rhythmically and alternatively the diagonal limbs right and left; first the right foreleg and the left hind leg, the other two remaining suspended; then the left foreleg and the right hind leg while the other two remain suspended.

COAT

HAIR : Must be short, strong, close, not very soft and dense; almost uniformly covering the body, except in the armpits, groins, perianal and genital regions where it becomes thinner and softer.  On the head, specially on the leathers, where it has a velvety touch, the hair is shorter and smoother.  No undercoat.

COLOUR : Yellow and brown, unicoloured or with white markings.

SIZE AND WEIGHT  :

Height at the withers for males 56 cm.

Height at the withers for females  52 cm.

With an allowance of 4 cm, above or below the standard.

Weight :

Medium weight of a full-grown male in good condition about 23.5 kg (20 - 27 kg).

Medium weight of a full-grown female in good condition about 19 kg (16 - 22 kg).

FAULTS : Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree.

ELIMINATING FAULTS :

Head : Atypical.

Nose : Unpigmented, irregular flecked appearance.

Jaws : Under- or overshot mouth.

Eyes : Wall eye, eyes different in size or shape; blindness.

Leathers : Atypical, incorrectly inserted, too large, fleshy, too folded or curling ear; deafness.

Tail : Non existant at birth, very rudimentary, completely docked, or of uncharacteristic carriage when natural.

Dewclaws : Presence of dewclaws, even only rudimentary.

Coat : Different from the standard, albinism.

Height : Gigantism, dwarfism, dog much above or below the standard.

SCALE OF POINTS :

                                                                                        Males   Females

General appearance : Conformation, movement,                     

size and substance, sex specific characteristics.......      25         25        

Head : Carriage, skull, stop, nose, muzzle, eyes,

ears...........................................................................         25         25

Neck, withers, shoulders, forequarters....................     10         10

Chest, loins, topline, underline of body...................       15         10

Croup, pelvis, hindquarters......................................       10         15

Tail : carriage, shape, set-on..................................            3           3

Feet, toes, nails........................................................            5           5

Coat : texture colour, denseness.............................           7           7

                                                                                -----          ------

                                                                                               100       100

N.B. : Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.