Breed Description

The Papillon is one of the oldest toy breeds dating back to the 14th century, this is recorded in many pieces of art work that date back to this date. Papillons have a dainty and well balanced appearance . Always alert and very intelligent.Skull rounded between ears, muzzle finely pointed and abruptly finer that the skull. Length from tip of nose to stop approximately one third of length of head. Black Nose. Papillons eyes are medium sized, rounded never bulging, dark with dark eyes, placed rather low in skull. Papillons ears are very large, mobile with rounded tips, heavily fringed set towards back of head far enough apart to show slightly rounded shape of skull. Leather firm but fine, When erect each ear should form an angle of approx. 45 degrees to head. Papillons shoulders are well developed and sloping. Chest rather deep. Forelegs straight, slender and fine boned. Elbows close to chest. Papillons have a fairly long body with level topline, well prung ribs, loin strong , of good length, slightly arched belly. Papillons will appear slightly longer than high when properly furnished with ruff and hind fringes. Papillons tails are long, well fringed, set on high, arched over back with fringes falling to side to form plume. Papillons legs when viewed from behind parallel. Dewclaws on hind legs removed. Papillons feet are fine, fairly long, hare-like. Tufts of hair between toes extending far beyond them. Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree. Although early papillons were often solid colours, today they are predominantly white and black, white and lemon, white and red, white and sable or tricolor, with red, black and tan. Phalene, although this breed appears to be very similar to the Papillon, it must not be confused with the (Broken) Soft Eared Papillon.