BREED STANDARD

Standard Nº 45 (FCI)
Group II, Section III
Origin: Switzerland

Use: origin was used as guard dog, of shot and of conduction of flocks in the fields of the Canton of Berne. Today is also a dog polivalente and of company.
Classification FCI: it is included in the Group 2 (dogs of the type Pinscher and Schnauzer, Molosos and Swiss Cowherds). Without work test.
General aspect: It is a half size dog-big, he/she is the only Swiss cowherd of long hair (it causes main of their great popularity), tri-colored, vigorous, harmonious, with strong and very proportionate members.
Behavior and Character. Of balanced, attentive behavior, watchman is affectionate and faithful towards the owners, sure of if same and distrustful with the strangers. It is probable that the Swiss peasants had selected single dogs that didn't attack hens cats and rabbits.

CHARACTERISTICS

Head: Powerful. Lightly rounded skull, very marked, but not very marked stop.
Nose: quarter note.
Muzzle: Powerful, right and of half size.
Lips: Little developed, and of black color.
Teething: Complete and robust, with articulation in scissor.
Eyes: Dark chestnut tree, in almond form, with lids that cover the ocular globe well.
Ears: In a triangular way, lightly rounded in the extremity, of high installation and half size. In rest they are fallen and meetings to the head.
Neck: Vigorous, muscular and of half size.
Trunk: Powerful.
Chest: Long, wide and well developed.
Back: Solid and right.
Lumbar region: long and solid.
Croup: Lightly rounded.
Line: thick, arriving at least until the paw. It lowers when this in rest, rises lightly until the height of the back when the animal this in activity.
Previous members: very separate, when they are seen of front they are plumbed and parallel.
Metacarpuses: closed and almost vertical.
Feet: short and rounded, with closed and very arched fingers.
Later members: seen of behind they are plumbed and not very closed; the paws and the feet should not be neither it stops out neither it stops inside. It is necessary to proceed to the amputation of the rams when they are born, if they had them.
Movement: It is simple and regular, covering quite terrestrial. To the trot, seen of front or of behind, the members in movement, are projected in parallel and vertical planes.
Coat: flat or lightly wavy hair.
Color: black color base, with marks color fire (dark reddish chestnut tree), on the nose, above the eyes, in the four members and in the chest with white marks:
In the clearly defined and symmetrical head he/she has a line that lengthens in address of the nose, of both sides of the muzzle; the long of the line should not arrive to the marks of color fire above the eyes and the target of the muzzle should not pass the corner of the mouth.
The white coat, without interruptions and moderately long in the neck and the chest.
White color in the feet and in the tip of the line.
- Tolerated: small white mark on the nape.

SIZE

Males; 64 to 70 cm. to the cross.
Females; 58 to 66 cm. to the cross.

DEFECTS

All that doesn't abide to the Standard one should be considered as a defect that will be penalized in function of their graveness.
- It structures fine
- Prognatismo superior and inferior
- Entropión and ectropión.
- Back sobreelevado in the croup.
- Line enrulada or gulch.
- I peel encaracolado.
- Color and marks not defined in the Standard one.
- Absence of white in the head
- Too long line of white color and that it passes in an accented way the corners of the lips
- Great white stain in the nape
- White necklace
- You stain white in the previous members that surpass the means of the metacarpus (you bounce)
- You mark in the head and in the clearly asymmetric chest
- Points or black lines in the white of the chest.
- Base color black-acastañado or reddish.
- Lack of character or aggressiveness.
Eliminatory defects:
- Blue eyes, heterocromía in the eyes.
- I peel short.
- Non tri-colored mantel.
- The males should have two testicles of normal appearance and totally descended in the scrotum.