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YORKY CLUB MAGAZINE #16 - June 2010

"Discussion about the BREED STANDARD" Let's define how the "perfect" Yorkshire Terrier should be...
by Henrik Johansson

Discussion about the BREED STANDARD

Because years go by and not everybody is following us since the beginning, we decided it was interesting to re-publish an interview we had with the great and famous Swedish breeder and FCI Judge Henrik Johansson (Henrikville) in the far August 2004, already published on YCM #2 (September 2004), about the standard of our breed.
For the right comprehension of the text, you should note that when he is talking about "the show" or about the "90 dogs judged", he refers to the Specialty Show that he judged on the day before.

General appearance:
We can split up the general appearance, because the breed is a 'Toy Terrier' there are two aspects of the Yorkshire terrier; partly there is the terrier aspect but we also have the toy aspect. And when the general appearance is at its best it is a harmonic amalgamate of the terrier aspect and the toy aspect. And when it comes to the terrier aspect I think the temperament, strong outline and function are what first come to mind. Regarding the toy aspect it is of course the miniature dog and its qualities which are primary. But my understanding of an excellent appearance is the harmonic, balanced amalgamate of the terrier aspect and the toy aspect. This is my apprehension of the general appearance.

Head:
It is important to me – and always has been – that the head is neat and rather small compared to the dog, but not too small. It should not bee too sugar sweet and kitten-faced and it should not bee long and down-faced. It should be a neat head with lots of quality, where the skull is not too prominent/rounded which is usually accompanied by too rounded eyes. We want a horizontal nose back which is 'not too long' as the standard states. But we don't want up-nosed dogs either, this is also a fault.
The shape of the eye and pigmentation is important for the expression, and the ears are of course also an important detail which imprint the head very much.

Body:
I am of the conception that too much or too little will ruin all. We want to have a functional construction as basic. We do not want a barrel-shaped chest, but we do not want a flat chest which is lacking volume either. Somewhere in between is what I am looking for in my judging, because when we get a too rounded chest with too much volume it will take the elegance from the dog and the dog is – seen from above – pear-shaped which is unwanted. We want to have a suitable chest which gives a muscular loin and a level croup with a certain width so we will get two parallel lines when looking at the dog from above.
The proportions are very important, and it should be a square dog, but not a too short dog in the sense that it is taller than it is long, and than there are individual dogs which are too high, and if we take a look under the coat they often have very straight shoulders, and if they also have a short neck than the dog is lacking in balance. It is of course important to have a straight back to have the best assumption of a correct placement of the neck and a straight, level, horizontal top line, much depends on the placement of the shoulder and the power of the loin, it should be short and well muscled. A long loin with no muscles often leads to a roached back which we don't want to have, and a straight shoulder will usually cause a chimney-neck with no harmonic placement on the body.

Tail:
It is surprisingly how fast the tails has become rather good, it was not many dogs at the show which I thought could have had a better tail. I was surprised to see that they are carried correctly and not much disturbing. I was surprised to find that the tails did not disturb me much; I thought it would have been much more disturbing in the beginning when I thought it would change the complete balance of the dog, but I don't think it has developed that way. I suppose it is a goal to keep the tail short, and if it is possible to have shorter tails it is of course an advantage, but it is not a problem for me when I am judging.

Legs:
It is a normal built dog. I think it is a general assumption among judges who are judging Yorkshire terriers in Sweden that the front must be improved, there are too many straight shoulders, short overarms and poor fronts which are not sufficiently filled, and I must agree with them that we still have much work to do in this sense. The rears are in general very pleasant. I found very few rears with insufficient angulations, but still there is a lot to do.

Feet:
The Yorkshire terrier should have a tiny cat-foot. It should stand up on its feet; we do not want a week pastern. But I have never seen this as a problem in the breed.

Coat & Color:
Among the 90 dogs I judged, there were many with a first class tan with fine shading and shine and with a deep color shade, I don't see this as a problem. On the contrary, several dogs got a critique regarding the silkiness in the coat structure and the shine which was not sufficient. But the richness in the steel blue color was generally good. If I should complain about something among the dogs that I judged it would be the silkiness and the shine, and breeders should keep an eye on this. But it is difficult - one of the more difficult things in breeding. I found many dogs with very well color sections and surprisingly many had well defined colors, but a Yorkshire terrier without quality in color and coat structure is of course no longer a Yorkshire terrier, but just a small dog with long hair.
Steel blue: I heard an old English breeder say that the steel blue color should be like "running water" or "flowing water", and if you look at a brook in the nature where the water is running freely you can catch this feeling. It has also been compared to polished steel, gun muzzle and everything, but for me has "running water" played an important role, I think it says much about how it should be.
Tan: I am a terrier judge and as such I judge many black & tan terriers, and this has made me become aware of the unique colors of the Yorkshire terrier. It has not a tan color as on the Australian terrier or Welch terrier or anything, but it is unique and I think we should use the word "golden" in stead of "tan" because it illustrates better what we are looking for, but this is about choice of words and our comprehension of them. I think there is confusion among terrier judges because they do not understand the thing of shading and shine and the uniqueness of Yorkshire terrier, and they sometimes put up very dark red tan color which is not entirely correct. Puppies are registered as steel blue and red in Sweden which opens for misjudgment. Not a happy choice of words when we want to evaluate the color.
Coat structure: The correct coat structure is easy to recognize. With the correct shade we will also find the correct coat structure. Place it on the back of the hand and it feels cold at the touch, and this is also done to be further convinced about the degree of silkiness, because it is a wide variation of silkiness as already mentioned, and we should pay more attention to silkiness and shine in the breed.

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