All About Dalmatian
GENERAL APPEARANCE–The Dalmatian should represent a strong, muscular, and active dog, symmetrical in outline, and free from coarseness and lumber, capable of great endurance combined with a fair amount of speed. HEAD–The head should be of a fair length; the skull flat, rather broad between the ears, and moderately well defined at the temples.
EYES–The eyes should be set moderately well apart, and of medium size, round, bright, and sparkling, with an intelligent expression, their colour greatly depending on the markings of the dog. In the black spotted variety the eyes should be dark (black or dark brown), in the liver-spotted variety they should be light (yellow or light brown).
NOSE–The nose in the black-spotted variety should always be black, in the liver-spotted variety always brown.
NECK AND SHOULDERS–The neck should be fairly long, nicely arched, light and tapering, and entirely free from throatiness. The shoulders should be moderately oblique, clean, and muscular, denoting speed.
LEGS AND FEET–The legs and feet are of great importance. The fore-legs should be perfectly straight, strong, and heavy in bone; elbows close to the body fore-feet round, compact with well-arched toes (cat-footed), and round, tough, elastic pads. In the hind-legs the muscles should be clean, though well-defined the hocks well let down.
TAIL–The tail should not be too long, strong at the insertion, and gradually tapering towards the end, free from coarseness. It should not be inserted too low down, but carried with a slight curve upwards, and never curled. It should be spotted, the more profusely the better.
COLOUR AND MARKINGS–These are most important points. The ground colour in both varieties should be pure white, very decided, and not intermixed. The colour of the spots of the black-spotted variety should be black, the deeper and richer the black the better; in the liver-spotted variety they should be brown. The spots should not intermingle, but be as round and well-defined as possible, the more distinct the better; in size they should be from that of a sixpence to a florin. The spots on head, face, ears, legs, tail, and extremities to be smaller than those on the body.
