This Is How the Ideal Brittany Would Appear (The following is the Brittany Spaniel Standard as approved by the American Kennel Club.)

General description-A compact, closely knit dog of medi­um size, a leggy spaniel having the appearance as well as the agility of a great ground coverer. Strong, vigorous, energet­ic and quick of movement. Not too light in bone, yet never heavy boned and cumbersome. Ruggedness, without clumsi­ness, is a characteristic of the breed. So leggy is he that his height at the withers is the same as the length of his body. He has no tail, or at most, not more than four inches.

Weight-Should weigh between thirty and forty pounds. H eig ht-Seventeen and one-half to twenty and one-half inches-measured from the ground to the highest point of the back-the withers. Disqualifications-Any Brittany spaniel measuring under seventeen and one-half inches or over twenty and one-half inches shall be disqualified from bench show competition. Any black in the coat or a nose so dark in color as to appear black shall disqualify. A tail substantially more than four inches in length shall disqualify.

Coat-Hair dense, flat or wavy, never curly. Not as fine as in other spaniel breeds, and never silky. Furnishings not profuse. The ears should carry little fringe. Neither the front nor hind legs should carry heavy featherings. Note: Long, curly, or silky hair is a fault. Any tendency toward excessive feathering should be severely penalized, as undesirable in a sporting dog which must face burrs and heavy cover.

Skin-Fine and fairly loose. (A loose skin rolls with briars and sticks, thus diminishing punctures or tearing. But a skin so loose as to form pouches is undesirable.)

Color-Dark orange and white, or liver and white. Some ticking is desirable, but not so much as to produce belton patterns. Roan patterns or factors of orange or liver shade are permissible. The orange and liver are found in stand­ard particolor, or piebald patterns. Washed out or faded colors are not desirable. Black is a disqualification.

Skull-Medium length (approximately four and three­fourths inches). Rounded, very slightly wedge shaped, but evenly made. Width, not quite as wide as the length (about four and three-eighths inches) and never so broad as to ap­pear coarse, or so narrow as to appear racy. Well-defined, but gently sloping stop effect. Median line rather indistinct. The occipital crest only apparent to the touch. Lateral walls well rounded. The Brittany should never be "apple­headed" and he should never have an indented stop. (All measurements of skull are for a nineteen and one-half inch dog.)

Muzzle-Medium length, about two-thirds the length of the skull, measuring the muzzle from the tip to the stop, and the skull from the occipital crest to the stop between the eyes. Muzzle should taper gradually in both horizontal and vertical dimensions as it approaches the nostrils. Neither a Roman nose nor a concave curve (dish-face) is desirable. Never broad, heavy, or snipey.

Nose-Nostrils well open to permit deep breathing of air and adequate scenting while at top speed. Tight nostrils should be penalized. Never shiny. Color, fawn, tan, light shades of brown or deep pink. A black nose is a disqualification. A two-tone or butterfly nose should be severely penalized.