Italian Volpino

FCI:

Italian Volpino-Group V. - Spitz and primitive types, Section 4 - European Spitz.

General Appearance:

It's a nice dog, loyal to its family, it loves unreservedly. It warily guards at home, bubbly, lively, cheerful and playful. It remains vigilant and responsible caretaker that timely notify the loud barking every event in your area. By nature it excels in active approach and it has a need to constantly deal with something.

Temperament/Behaviour:

The owner must under all circumstance the right leader of the "pack", i.e. a strong, fair, blessed with natural authority. Because this breed is intelligent and docile its upbringing is not a problem. Urgently it needs early socialization and gentle, but perfectly consistent training. They tend to have a tendency to prove strange big dogs that they are not the least bit afraid.

Visitor, that it does not know, usually it keeps its eye on that person. Although it is small, it does not miss courage. If it feels that its owner is in danger, it is immediately ready to defend the owner. With obvious pleasure it participates in children's games, children must know it, this dog is not a toy.

It is absolutely happy with its family, it can never stay in outdoor kennel. It is also suitable for small urban dwellings and is suitable for active elderly persons. When it is home alone, it is advisable to prepare a lot of different toys, it must avoid any boredom. It does not start destroying all around.

Due to its agility and mobility requires long walks, which should be interspersed some other activities, e.g. training and agility training, for these sports it has the best prerequisites, because it is fast, skilful and agile.

Body:

It's small, compact dog harmonious construction, square body frame, with a long stand-off coat. The height at withers, male is 27 to 30 cm and females from 25 to 28 cm.

The head has the shape of a pyramid, the skull is longer than the muzzle, has a slightly oval shape. Longitudinal front cutting furrow should be very little apparent and the occipital protuberance only slightly marked. Front bumps are well defined and fall almost vertically to the base of the muzzle. The frontal slope is quite steep.

Muzzle should be shorter than the skull, pointed at the end. The nasal bridge is straight, the nose should be moist, cool, with an appropriately open nostrils. It must always be black, as in subjects with white and those with red hair.

Oral corners must be open, should not be seen in them mucosa, the inside of the lips, because it must be very narrow and closely fitting to the jaws and teeth. On the edges are black. The jaws must not be too severe, but it will normally be shaped and have at each precisely annealed. The bottom edge of the lower jaw is straight, white teeth have to be regularly distributed in the jaws appropriately large. Scissor bite is required, but also pincer tolerated.

The eyes are properly open, normal size, vigilant, and lively expression. The colour of the iris is dark. Eye slits are rounded, the eyes are directed almost straight forward. The eyelids are coloured black at the edges. The earlobes should be short, they are set high, carried close together, triangular shape, pricked with a solid cartilage. Their inner side is facing forward.

The neck should always be carried high. The hull is short, upper body lines should be straight. The shoulders slightly arched faucet over it protrudes slightly. Croup continues smoothly to the shoulders. The tail is attached to the extension and must always be carried curled over the back. Its length should be slightly smaller than the height.

The chest is so deep that it reaches to the elbows, ribs are well sprung. The chest edge formed by the sternum should be long. The flanks are slightly rolled up. The forelegs have to be vertical to ground and parallel to each other. Elbows pointing straight back, the forearms are straight and vertical to ground, fine bone. Wrist and metacarpal formed when viewed from the front straight continuation of the forearm are skewed. Feet should be oval shaped with closely-knit toes. The pads and nails should be black.

The hindquarters must be perfectly vertical and parallel to each other. Tibia should be slightly shorter than the thigh, a light weight bones. Hocks are vertical to the ground and completely straight. Movement must not be hopping it must be trot.

The coat is thick, very long, perfectly straight, upstanding, by touch should be harsh. Guard hair is straight and stiff. They must never coalesce must stick out even in places where the hair is thickest. On the neck form a rich fur collar. Tail covers a very long coat. On the back of the hind legs form a longer coat "trousers".

Colouration is uniformly white or red (orange)-champagne (lighter orange) is permissible but undesirable. Pale orange shades on the earlobes with white coloured subjects tolerated but assessed as a deficiency. The coat requires regular care.

All faults from the requirements of the standard are to be considered as defects and assess exactly according to their severity with regard to the health and welfare of the male or female. To negative defects include any other colour than black nose, arched nasal bridge, "glass" (off-white) eyes, downloaded tail between hind legs, shoulder height about 3 cm larger or smaller than required by the standard. The disqualifying defects belong aggression or fearfulness, divergence of the upper line of the skull in the imaginary extension when viewed from the side of the muzzle, overshot jaw, complete no pigmentation of the nose or lips, eyelids, hanging ears, tail absent (anuria), bobtail (brachyurie ) or docked, any colour except white, red or the not desirable champagne colour, red markings on white basic colour, white or black markings on red basic colour.