Photo of Champion /  Irish Champion and International Champion Truthful Tango at Kilndandy

         THE  DALMATIAN BREED STANDARD

                                         and some useful information

General Appearance:  A distinctively spotted, well balanced, strong and muscular dog. Symmetrical in outline and free from coarseness and lumber. Should be capable of great endurance and fair amount of speed

                           A diagram showing the correct conformation(build) of the Dalmatian

Temperament: Outgoing and friendly ( a confident and happy dog and some Dalmatians smile! Showing their teeth but with a happy wagging tail) certainly not shy nor hesitant. (should NOT back away from you, tuck the tail between its legs or hide)  Free from any form of aggression. (NO growling, snarling or snapping, hackles up with tail up or down between its legs or backing off from people)

Head and Skull ; Should be of fair length, skull flat, reasonably broad between the ears, moderately well defined in front of the ears.Moderate amount of stop.

         A good Head                     Ears too low            Ears too high

 Muzzle; should be long and powerful, never snipey. Lips should be clean, and fitting the jaw moderately close. Nose pigment on a BLACK SPOTTED dogs should be BLACK. In the liver SPOTTED dogs the nose pigment should be LIVER BROWN

Eyes;  Set moderately well apart of medium size, round, bright and sparkling with intelligence. (Expression!! I am smarter than you think). Eye colour DARK in BLACK SPOTTED dogs. AMBER in LIVER SPOTTED dogs. The eye rims should be complete. BLACK in BLACK SPOTTED dogs, LIVER BROWN in the LIVER SPOTTED dogs.

EYE    FAULTS   ;Blue eyes. Incomplete eye rims.

Ears; Should be set on rather high and of moderate size, rather wide at the base then gradually tapering to a rounded point. Ears are fine in texture and carried close to the head. Markings on the ears should be well broken, and preferably spotted.

Mouth; Jaws strong and clean with prefect scissor bite. (The upper teeth closely overlapping lower teeth)

Neck; Should be fairly long and elegant, nicely arched, light and tapering. Entirely free from throatiness (excess skin under the throat)

Forequarters; Moderately oblique, clean and muscular. Elbows should be close to the body. Forelegs perfectly straight with strong round bones down to the feet, with a slight spring at pasterns

 A )Correct straight front. Wrong fronts B) Elbows under chest, feet pointing out, C)Wide barrel chest, D) Narrow,out at elbow,feet pointing in            

Body; Chest not too wide but deep and capacious with plenty of lung and heart room.The ribs should be well sprung, with well defined wither, powerful level back, strong in loin, clean, muscular and slightly arched

Hindquarters; Rounded, muscles clean with a well developed second thigh, (which you will get by correct exercise, road work or free running) A good turn of stifle, and hocks well defined

 A) Cow hocks,knees in towards each other and toes pointing out B) Correct hind action and good muscles,    C ) Too close & lacking in muscles

Feet; Round and compact with well arched toes (like cats feet ). Pads should be round, tough and elastic. Nail colours are BLACK or WHITE in BLACK SPOTTED dogs, and LIVER or WHITE in liver SPOTTED dogs. Nails should be kept short (which you will achieve by road work, nail filing or nail clipping)

A Correct foot.  Wrong feet   B)Pastern too straight C)Hare foot D)Toes splayed out

Gait or Movement; The Dalmatian should have great freedom of movement. A Smooth, powerful rhythmic action with a long stride. (it should look like the dog glides or floats when he moves). When viewed from behind the legs should move in parallel, the hind legs tracking the fore legs.FAULTS; Short stride and paddling is incorrect movement. (looks like they have to work hard to move, and when paddling throws the front legs out to the side). Hackney movement is also a fault, where the front feet are thrown up in the air (an action a bit like a milk maid makes when milking cows)

Tail; Should reach approximately to the hocks. Strong at the base gradually tapering towards the end. Should not be set on too low or too high. The tail should be free from coarseness and carried at a slight upward curve. NEVER curled or carried up and over the back. Preferably spotted

Coat and Colour : Short, hard, dense, sleek and glossy in appearance. Ground colour pure WHITE with either BLACK dense spots on BLACK spotted dogs, or LIVER BROWN spots on Liver spotted dogs. The spots should be well distributed and should ideally not run together. Spots should be round and well defined and the size of one pence to a fifty pence piece. Spots on extremities are smaller than those on the main body. FAULTS: Patches (this is a solid mass of hair with NO white hair traces). Patches have a velvety feel to them, are very shiny and they have an obvious clean outline.They are visible at birth. It is important to note that SPOTS that run into each other are NOT PATCHES as you can easily make out individual spots as there are some white hair. COLOUR FAULTS: Tricolour ( liver and black spots on the same dog) Lemons; Orange

Size: The most important thing to remember is that the Dalmatian should overall be a well balanced dog. The ideal height of a MALE is 58.4 to 61 cm  (23 to 24 inches). Bitches are slightly smaller with an ideal height of  55.9 to 58.4 cm (22 to 23 inches)

NOTE: Males should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum

   FAULTS FOR THE SHOW RING

Patches, Tricolour, lemons, orange, blue eyes or missing testicle(s).

  .....ANY dog who is agressive , nervous or so called  “shy “  is totally unsuitable for the show ring and any breeding progarm......