It occurs to us that we would do well to give certain types of posts their own heading. We would call them, “The Little Things.”
Little things that make a difference in a dog’s expression, and therefore, its breed type. Little things that would probably go unnoticed by someone outside the show world, but of which heritage breeders are well aware, and among the aspects for which they breed. A little thing like, say, how a dog’s eyes line up.
The Papillon’s AKC breed standard writes that the inner corners of a Papillon’s eyes are on line with the stop. While Papillons with erect ears are famous for the oblique carriage of their ears – ears that resemble the spread wings of a butterfly – without the correct “facial assembly,” the dog’s type may seem off in a way someone outside the breed might not be able to define.
There’s an old joke in the business community that translates well in the dog world, too, and it goes like this: The only thing that three dog people can agree upon is that the other two people are wrong. We mention this because we may be wrong in our assessment of the dogs in the photos below, but we share it as a breed outsider looking in.
As we understand the standard, the dog below with the red dotted line has correct placement:
Papillon by Ron Armstrong/Unsplash
To us, the eyes of the dog below are a tad bit lower than the line of her stop. Mind you, we are well aware that the dog’s markings may offer an optical illusion, but if nothing else, the discussion could be educational, so we invite Pap owners to weigh in.
Papillon by brusnikaphoto/Adobe
Top photo by brusnikaphoto/Adobe