It won’t be long before the Bracco Italiano, currently in the AKC’s Foundation Stock Service, is fully accepted and welcomed into the Sporting Group. Since some people (dog nerds, unite) like to read breed standards for fun, we thought it was worth looking at this breed’s standard, and in particular, a part of the section dealing with the head. It reads: “Head – Angular and narrow at the level of the zygomatic arches…”

Most people understand angular, narrow, height, length, and the other nouns and verbs, but zygomatic arches?? 

The zygomatic arch is a bony ridge that extends posteriorly and laterally from beneath each eye orbit. Each is curved and developed, and its job is to protect the eye.  Conveniently, the arches serve as “landmarks” when evaluating the Bracco’s head: The length of head is equal to 4/10 of the height at the withers, its width, measured at the level of the zygomatic arches, is less than half its length. Skull and muzzle are of equal length. 

Put another way, the width of the Bracco’s skull when measured at the level of the zygomatic arches shouldn’t exceed half of the length of the head.

But those arches also help us out when assessing a Bracco’s ears: From the standard: “Ears – Well developed. In length they should, without being stretched, reach the tip of the nose. Their width is at least equal to half their length; raised only very slightly; base rather narrow, set at level of zygomatic arches.”

Wasn’t it clever of the Bracco to give us a couple of way-posts on their noggin?

Images from Deposit Stock photos