Majorca Shepherd

		Majorca Shepherd
		FCI standard Nº 321

Origin		Spain (Balearic Islands)
Group		Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs (except Swiss Mountain and Cattle Dogs)
Section		Section 1 Sheepdogs
Working		Without working trial
Acceptance on a definitive basis by the FCI		Wednesday 26 May 1982
Publication of the official valid standard		Wednesday 26 May 1982
En français, cette race se dit		Chien de berger de Majorque
Diese Norm ist in deutscher Sprache sichtbar		Mallorca Schäferhund
En español, esta raza se dice		Perro de pastor Mallorquin
In het Nederlands, wordt dit ras gezegd		Herdershond Mallorca
In his country of origin, his name is		Ca de Bestiar

Usage

Herding, Guard and Defense Dog.

General appearance

Subconvex profile dog, big size without being exaggerated and medium weight. He is completely black or black with a white spot on the chest, well balanced, coarse, strong, muscled, robust and agile. There exist two varieties of hair : Short hair, the most common variety and long hair.

Important proportions

Sub-hypermetric, of medium proportions and subconvex dog.
• In females, it is accepted that the length of the body is up to a 3% longer than the height at the withers.
• The length of the muzzle must be as the length of the skull.
• The length of the head must be as the length of the neck.
• In adult males, the thoracic perimeter, measured from the withers behind the elbows, is approximately, a bit longer than the height at the withers.

Behaviour / temperament

A very noble dog, of an only owner that accepts the presence of strangers with difficulty. Intelligent, docile, affectionate, extremely shy and reserved in his youth; his sentimentalism reaches unsuspected limits. Loyal to his owner until death. If we look into his eyes, we will have the feeling that he thinks. He is brave and quarrelsome.

Head
Cranial region
Head		Slightly triangular profile; seen from behind it is wider in the upper part than in the lower one; massive, but not heavy; wide enough to house a good intelligence; well shaped and in proportion to the body; it must be rather big, but never molossoid type. Upper planes of skull and muzzle are parallel. The cranio-facial axes slightly diverging.
Skull		Subconvex profile. The width of the head, measured between the temporal muscles, must be slightly superior (approximately in 1,2 %) to the length between the supraorbital region and the occipital crest. It can be seen a little furrow in the first third of the middle frontal line. Well defined occipital crest.
Stop		Well defined, but never abrupt, with slight slope.

Facial region
Nose		Humid, fresh, black, big, with open nostrils; not split. It will noticeably rest points if it has sort of light brown spots or clearer.
Muzzle		Wide, rather strong; not sharp, but the height and width must be noticeable when near the eye socket. In the variety “Ca Cabrer” (long hair), it is sharp. The dorsal profile of the nose is Subconvex. The profile of the lower jaw is straight. Black palate.
Lips		Black; the upper lip covers the lower one when the mouth is closed; not very marked corner of the lip and they are unnoticed for being well proportioned to the head.
Jaws and teeth		Very white teeth, well developed and placed, scissor bite, the extreme upper incisors really seizing with the lower canines. Developped molars.
Eyes		Rather small, slightly almond shaped; neither prominent nor deep-set; not very distant, well-balanced, slightly oblique, bright. The colour is a mixture of rosemary honey (light) and carob honey (dark). Enigmatic expression, intelligent and sad look at the same time, showing even distrust. Thin, black and oblique eyelids, very closed to the eye.
Ears		Bent, of small size in relation to the head, triangular, the end reaching the corner of the eye in that side, i.e. approximately of the same length as the skull. Non-cropped, somewhat thick, high set, the tip slightly distant from the skull, with a longitudinal fold and another transverse around the first third. Position of the ears: usually folded and fallen, slightly separated from the muzzled. At rest, they tip backwards; in a state of attention they rise up by the transversal fold, more separated from the muzzle than usual.

Neck

Solid aspect, muscled, strong and proportioned to the head and the body. Thick, with a small dewlap, cylindrical, the diameter being more marked in the base. The skin is hard and elastic, neither thin nor thick, very closed to the neck in the upper and lateral parts, slightly more separated in the inferior part.

Body
Body		Robust, very well balanced, making the impression at the same time of strength and agility.
Topline		Dorso-lumbar region straight, horizontal, never saddle-backed.
Withers		Marked and at least at the same height as the upper part of the croup; the area between the shoulder blades broad and strong.
Loin		Broad and powerful.
Croup		Medium, slightly rounded, wide, powerful and muscled; never prominent nor fallen. The upper part must be at the same height as the withers. His interiliac width must be the same as the iliac-isquiatic length.
Chest		Broad and high, reaching at most the height of the elbow; the width is approximately the same as the length of the neck; quite deep, not prominent, with a slightly pronounce sternum. Arched ribs (neither flat nor in barrel).
Side		Medium bulky flanks.
Underline and belly		Slightly tucked up belly, never greyhound-like, nor descending so that it can be confused with the continuation of the chest. Somewhat stylized, must give the impression of liveliness.

Tail

Horizontal insertion and circular section, a bit thick at the root. Around 8 cm from the root, it is slightly flat in the bottom part, in about 10 cm long, to continue the descending circular section until the tip. Without docking. The length must reach the hock joint, never touching the floor. Without plume, although it is authorised if it is slight in old-age dogs. In the long-hair variety, the plume must be abundantly covered with long hair. Tail hanging: while at rest, it just hangs or is slightly curved outwards, lightly touching the hock joints, considering a serious fault if the tip touches the floor. Waving and raised over the horizontal in a sickle, without rolling it, while in action.

Limbs

Forequarters
Generality		Strong legs, vertical; seen from the front and in profile, parallel and perpendicular to the floor.
Shoulders		Oblique and strong. Scapular-humeral angle : 115°.
Upper arm		As long as the shoulder blade.
Elbows		No deviations, close to the thorax. Humeral-radial angle 130°.
Forearm		Strong, well angulated, perpendicular. Vertical bone structure, strong, long and straight.
Pastern		Short and slightly oblique.
Forefeet		Almost harefeet (a bit shorter and wider than these), with semihigh, semiarched, placed together toes and a very hard and black pad. Without marked interdigital membrane.

Hindquarters
Generality		Muscled, strong; vertical. Attenuated and hard muscular relieves. Coxal-femoral angle 115º, like the scapular-humeral.
Upper thigh		Strong and muscled. Femoral-tibial angle 130º, like the humeral-radial.
Lower thigh		Long and powerful.
Metatarsus		Well marked.
Hock		Little pronounced, very open angulation of 135º. The height of the hock joint is approximately inferior to the third of his height at the withers.
Hind feet		Almost harefeet, flat, semiarched and placed together toes. Hard and black pad. Arched, hard and black nails. Without marked interdigital membrane. He can be born with or without dewclaws, these have to be amputated in the first case.

Gait and movement

His gait must be firm and elegant. Trot in diagonal bipeds, slightly tilting the rear third with regard to the front one. Gallop is natural, coarse, quick, the hind legs well apart at the base, placing them on the outside part of the front legs, as if he moved jumping. The preferred gait and the working one is the gallop.

Skin

Elastic, without wrinkles, hard and light grey.

Coat
Hair		Short and flat, its length varies between 1,5 cm and 3 cm at the loin; very thin subhair, scant thickness and very flat. In the long hair variety, it can be slightly wavy at the loin, of more than 7 cm approx. depending on the season of the year and corresponding the largest to the winter. Well distributed subhair and scant thickness, being longer in the plume of the tail, tip of the ears and rear part of the limbs. In both varieties, it must be soft, hard and thin enough.
Colour		The only accepted colour is black, in its varieties of jet black, common and pitch. White is just accepted on the chest, as a thin tie below the neck and on the fore and hind feet, resting points according to its visibility in nails and tiptoes. Jet black is the best considered, losing value the common black and the pitch black.

Size and weight
Height at withers		Between 66 and 73 cm for males, between 62 and 68 cm for females. Dogs with a height one centimetre over or below the mentioned limits are admitted; in this case, some points can be deducted.
Weight		Around 40 kg.

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 and its effect upon the health and welfare of the dog and its ability to perform its traditional work.
• Faults listed should be in degree of seriousness.

Serious faults

Slobbering dogs.

Blunt canines (tusks) cut.

Very raised ears at rest, very big and separated from the face or completely close to it.

Tucked up belly (greyhound-like).

Rolled up tail; white tip of tail.

White spot on the chest over 1 dm².

All the toes of a foot white.

Disqualifying faults

Aggressive or overly shy.

Mastiff head, very wide and heavy or greyhound-like, long and narrow with a scarcely pronounced stop.

Pink or white nose.

Upper or lower jaw prognatism over 3 mm.

Eyes with different colours; eyes not being between the colour of the rosemary honey (light) and carob honey (dark); very light eye.

Cropped ears, straight in action and nearly straight at rest.

Neck with double dewlap, thicker close to the skull than at the base, longer than 10 % of the length from the nose to the occipital crest.

Too long or short body; height to the upper part of the croup a 3 % higher than the height at the withers.

Very thick tail or the same thickness at the base and at the tip; excessively long touching the floor; docked or lacking 2 cm to the hock joint; with abundantly plume in the variety of short hair, or without plume in the variety of long hair.

Another colour but black, or in black dogs, one white or other colour fore or hind foot, any of the limbs with a short of white shoe; no totally black body (except the chest, any hair on the belly, prepuce or tip of the tail), whose spots, not disqualifying, will noticeably rest points.

It will not rest points the white hairs consequence of bites, traumatisms or other similar bounds, nor the white hairs of the face typical of the age.

White toes are not disqualifying, unless the animal has more than six, noticeably resting points each toe; one only white or other colour toe in the fore feet disqualify the dog.

Height at the withers of more than 74 cm in males and more than 70 cm in females.

The height at the withers of less than 66 cm in males and less than 60 cm in females.

The weight under 30 kg and more than 50 kg in males, under 25 kg and more than 45 kg in females; even though they are within the mentioned limits, very thin dogs, visibly obese or very saddle-backed (being tolerant in pregnant females).

NB :

• Any dog clearly showing physical or behavioural abnormalities shall be disqualified.
• The above mentioned faults when occurring to a highly marked degree or frequently are disqualifying.
• Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.
• Only functionally and clinically healthy dogs, with breed typical conformation should be used for breeding.

Bibliography

https://www.fci.be/

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Majorca Shepherd