The present Boston terrier standard was adopted by the Boston Terrier Club on October 7, 1914, as a result of a revision recommended by a committee appointed by the Boston Terrier Club.
It was felt, in view of the fact that the dog had become established all over the continent among breeders and fanciers not as familiar with the ideal of the breed as were the original breeders and friends of the dog around Boston, that a more explicit, definite standard, one that could be more easily understood by the great body of the dog’s admirers of today, should be adopted.
It will be readily observed by a comparison of the old standard, which has practically been in existence since the formation of the club in 1891, that no vital point has been really changed.
| REVISED STANDARD | OLD STANDARD. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Point Values | Scale of Points. | ||
10 | GENERAL APPEARANCE: The general appearance of the Boston terriershould be that of a lively, highly intelligent, smooth coated,short headed, compactly built, short tailed, well balanced dog ofmedium station, of brindle color and evenly marked with white. Thehead should indicate a high degree of intelligence and should be inproportion to the size of the dog; the body rather short and wellknit, the limbs strong and neatly turned; tail short and no featurebeing so prominent that the dog appears badly proportioned. The dogshould convey an impression of determination, strength andactivity, with style of a high order; carriage easy and graceful. Aproportionate combination of “Color” and “IdealMarkings” is a particularly distinctive feature of arepresentative specimen, and dogs with a preponderance of white onbody, or without the proper proportion of brindle and white onhead, should possess sufficient merit otherwise to counteract theirdeficiencies in these respects. The ideal “Boston Terrier Expression” as indicating“a high degree of intelligence,” is also an importantcharacteristic of the breed. “Color and Markings” and “Expression”should be given particular consideration in determining therelative value of “General Appearance” to otherpoints. | 10 | GENERAL APPEARANCE AND STYLE: The general appearance of theBoston Terrier is that of a smooth, short-coated, compactly-builtdog of medium station. The head should indicate a high degree ofintelligence and should be in proportion to the dog’s size;the body rather short and well-knit, the limbs strong and finelyturned, no feature being so prominent that the dog appears badlyproportioned. The dog conveys an impression of determination,strength and activity. Style of a high order, and carriage easy andgraceful. |
12 | SKULL: Square, flat on top, free from wrinkles; cheeks flat;brow abrupt, stop well defined. | 12 | SKULL: Broad and flat, without prominent cheeks, and foreheadfree from wrinkles. |
2 | STOP: Well defined, but indenture not too deep. | ||
5 | EYES: Wide apart, large and round, dark in color, expressionalert, but kind and intelligent; the eyes should set square acrossbrow and the outside corners should be on a line with the cheeks asviewed from the front. | 5 | EYES: Wide apart, large and round, neither sunken nor tooprominent, and in color dark and soft. The outside corner should beon a line with the cheeks as viewed from the front. |
12 | MUZZLE: Short, square, wide and deep; free from wrinkles;shorter in length than in width and depth, and in proportion toskull; width and depth carried out well to end. Nose black andwide, with well defined line between nostrils. The jaws broad andsquare, with short regular teeth. The chops of good depth, but notpendulous, completely covering the teeth when mouth is closed. Themuzzle should not exceed in approximate length one-third of lengthof skull. | 12 | MUZZLE: Short, square, wide and deep, without wrinkles. Noseblack and wide, with a well defined straight line between nostrils.The jaws broad and square, with short, regular teeth. The chopswide and deep, not pendulous, completely covering the teeth whenmouth is closed. |
2 | EARS: Small and thin, situated as near corners of skull aspossible. HEAD FAULTS: Skull “domed” or inclined; furrowed bya medial line; skull too long for breadth, or vice versa; stop tooshallow; brow and skull too slanting. Eyes small or sunken; tooprominent; light color; showing too much white or haw. Muzzle wedgeshaped or lacking depth; down faced; too much cut out below theeyes; pinched nostrils; protruding teeth; weak lower jaw; showing“turn up.” Poorly carried ears or out ofproportion. | 2 | EARS: Small and thin, situated as near corners of skull aspossible. |
3 | NECK: Of fair length, slightly arched and carrying the headgracefully; setting neatly into shoulders. NECK FAULTS: Ewe-necked; throatiness; short and thick. | 5 | NECK: Of fair length, without throatiness and slightlyarched. |
15 | BODY: Deep with good width of chest; shoulders sloping; backshort; ribs deep and well sprung, carried well back of loins; loinsshort and muscular; rump curving slightly to set-on of tail. Flankslightly cut up. The body should appear short, but not chunky. BODY FAULTS: Flat sides; narrow chest; long or slack loins;roach back; sway back; too much cut up in flank. | 15 | BODY: Deep and broad of chest, well ribbed up. Back short, notroached. Loins and quarters strong. |
4 | ELBOWS: Standing neither in nor out. | 2 | ELBOWS: Standing neither in nor out. |
5 | FORELEGS: Set moderately wide apart and on a line with thepoints of the shoulders; straight in bone and well muscled;pasterns short and strong. | 4 | FORELEGS: Wide apart, straight and well muscled. |
5 | HINDLEGS: Set true; bent at stifles; short from hocks to feet;hocks turning neither in nor out; thighs strong and wellmuscled. | 4 | HINDLEGS: Straight, quite long from stifle to hock (which shouldturn neither in nor out), short and straight from hock to pasterns.Thighs well muscled. Hocks not too prominent. |
5 | FEET: Round, small and compact, and turned neither in nor out;toes well arched. LEG AND FEET FAULTS: Loose shoulders or elbows; hind legs toostraight at stifles; hocks too prominent; long or weak pasterns;splay feet. | 2 | FEET: Small, nearly round, and turned neither in nor out. Toescompact and arched. |
5 | TAIL: Set-on low; short, fine and tapering; straight or screw;devoid of fringe or coarse hair, and not carried abovehorizontal. TAIL FAULTS: A long or gaily carried tail; extremely gnarled orcurled against body. (Note: The preferred tail should not exceed in lengthapproximately half the distance from set-on to hock.) | 10 | TAIL: Set-on low, short, fine and tapering, devoid of fringe orcoarse hair, and not carried above the horizontal. |
4 | COLOR: Brindle with white markings. | 8 | COLOR: Any color, brindle, evenly marked with white, stronglypreferred. |
10 | IDEAL MARKINGS: White muzzle, even white blaze over head,collar, breast, part or whole of forelegs and hindlegs belowhocks. COLOR AND MARKINGS FAULTS: All white; absence of white markings;preponderance of white on body; without the proper proportion ofbrindle and white on head; or any variations detracting from thegeneral appearance. | 4 | MARKINGS: White muzzle, blaze on face, collar, chest andfeet. |
3 | COAT: Short, smooth, bright and fine in texture. COAT FAULTS: Long or coarse; lacking lustre. | 3 | COAT: Fine in texture, short, bright and not too hard. |
100 | 100 | ||
WEIGHTS: Not exceeding 27 pounds, divided as follows:
| WEIGHT: Lightweight class, 12 and not to exceed 17 pounds;middleweight class, 17 and not to exceed 22 pounds; heavyweightclass, 22 and not to exceed 28 pounds. | ||
DISQUALIFICATIONS: Solid black, black and tan, liver and mousecolors. Docked tail and any artificial means used to deceive thejudge. | DISQUALIFICATIONS: Docked tail and any artificial means used todeceive the judge. | ||
- Lightweight: Under 17 pounds.
- Middleweight: 17 and not exceeding 22 pounds.
- Heavyweight: 22 and not exceeding 27 pounds.
J. P. Barnard
The Father of the Boston Terrier
Champion Sonnie Punch
