The Lhasa Apso Breed Standard
| GENERAL APPEARANCE: | Well balanced, sturdy, heavy coated. | |
| CHARACTERISTICS: | Gay and assertive | |
| TEMPERAMENT: | Alert, steady but somewhat aloof with strangers. | |
| HEAD & SKULL: | Heavy head furnishings with good fall over the eyes, good whiskers and beard. Skull moderately narrow, falling away behind the eyes, not quite flat, but not domed or apple-headed. Straight foreface with medium stop. Nose black. Muzzle about 4cm (1.5 ins), but not square; length from the tip of nose roughly one third total length from nose to back of skull. | |
| EYES: | Dark. Medium size, frontally placed, oval, neither large, nor small and sunk. No white showing at the base or top. | |
| EARS: | Pendant, heavily feathered. | |
| MOUTH: | Upper incisors close just behind lower, i.e. reverse scissor bite. Incisors in a broad and as straight a line as possible. Full dentition desirable. | |
| NECK: | Strong and well arched | |
| FOREQUARTERS: | Shoulders well laid back. Forelegs straight, heavily furnished with hair. | |
| BODY: | Length from point of shoulders to point of buttocks greater than height at withers. Well ribbed up. Level topline. Strong loin balanced and compact. | |
| HINDQUARTERS: | Well developed with good muscle. Good angulation. Heavily furnished with hair. Hocks when viewed from behind parallel and not too close together. | |
| FEET: | Round, cat-like with firm pads. Well feathered. | |
| GAIT/MOVEMENT: | Free and jaunty. | |
| TAIL: | High set, carried well over back but not like a pot hook. Often a kink at end. Well feathered. | |
| COAT: | Top coat long, heavy, straight, hard neither woolly nor silky. Moderate undercoat. | |
| COLOUR: | Golden, sandy, honey, dark grizzle, slate, smoke, black, parti-colour, white or brown. All equally acceptable. | |
| SIZE: | Ideal height: 25.4 cm (10 ins) at shoulder for dogs; bitches slightly smaller | |
| FAULTS: | 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. | |
| NOTE: | Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum. | |
| *Reprinted with kind permission from The Kennel Club |
Web Editor: Pamela Ogden