What Makes A Lhasa Apso? Type-Type-Type!

The glossary in the AKC COMPLETE DOG BOOK defines type as “The characteristic qualities distinguishing a breed; the embodiment of a standard’s essentials.” In other words, breed type is determined by identifying the standard’s essentials.

Although several descriptions existed, the first official AKC standard adopted in 1935, for the Lhasa Apso was written in England in 1934 at the time the Tibetan breeds were separated and identified. It was a description of Lhasa Apsos as they were seen in Tibet, and as they looked when they arrived in England directly from Tibet. Remember that the Lhasa Apso is a survival developed canine and not an ornamental man-made dog like many Chinese originated dogs, where the plush palace life allowed canines to be distorted to man’s fancy. At the turn of the century, they shared the name “Lhasa Terrier” with the Tibetan Terrier and were divided into ten inch and fourteen inch classes, with Challenge Certificates (CCs) being offered from 1908 until the end of WWI, when there were so few Lhasa Terriers that they lost their right to be issued CCs. Because of the confusion between Lhasa Apsos and the other Tibetan breeds of that time, this original standard was written not only as a description but also to specifically distinguish the differences between these Tibetan breeds as well as placing special emphasis on the Chinese bred Shih Tzu and to a lesser degree the Pekingese.

Scanning the AKC Lhasa Apso standard, which is the closest in the world to the original standard, reveals several type essentials with the first being Character, indicating that the authors believed this to be a very important type trait of the Lhasa Apso. “Gay and assertive but chary of strangers” is exactly as the Apso should be and explains why some are reluctant to show the gay and assertive side of their character the first few times they visit a strange place or go to a dog show. Because the “chary” Apso is harder to train for the show ring, many breeders have attempted to breed out the “chary” part of the Apsos’ character. The Lhasa Apso should never be expected to be overly friendly because this cautiousness is what helped the Apso to survive in Tibet, and makes it an excellent companion today as well. Character is also one of the type essentials that distinguished the Lhasa Apso from the Shih Tzu, whose standard says “…it is essential that its temperament be outgoing, happy, affectionate, friendly and trusting towards all.”

Another influential type essential is the Size section as follows: “Variable, but about 10 inches or 11 inches at shoulder for dogs, bitches slightly smaller.” This is the second requisite listed which makes adherence to this described size quite important. This section no doubt not only described the size of the Apsos as observed at that time, but also specifically distinguished the Lhasa Apso from the Tibetan Terrier whose AKC standard states, “Average height in dogs is 15 to 16 inches, bitches slightly smaller.” Additionally the Tibetan Terrier standard states, “Average weight is 20 to 24 pounds, but the weight range may be 18 to 30 pounds.”

There is a modern trend to reward Lhasa Apsos that are much taller and larger than the standard’s description. Remember that, according to the standard, a ten inch male is just as correct as an eleven inch male. In no way does the standard suggest that a 12 inch male is more correct than a 10 inch male; however, many times that 10 inch male is considered “too small”. Consider this—a 12 inch male is taller than the standard’s preference by 1 or 2 inches. Two inches is one-fifth, or 20%, of the total height of a 10 inch male. If you are five feet tall, one foot is one-fifth of your height and when added to your height makes you six feet tall! There is a noticeable difference between a five-foot tall person and six-foot tall person, and that same noticeable difference exists between a 10 inch and 12 inch Apso. A 12 inch tall, heavy boned, heavy bodied Apso strays significantly from the size essential stated in the standard.

The most described type essential in the AKC Lhasa Apso standard is the Head, which indicates the importance of explaining the uniqueness of the head and expression as distinguished from the other Tibetan breeds and particularly the Shih Tzu. There are 235 words in the AKC Lhasa Apso standard and 110 are about the head, with 63 of these descriptive words directly under the head section. The head section begins with: “Heavy head furnishings with good fall over the eyes, good whiskers and beard;” References to coat, hair, whiskers and fall are descriptive of what was useful in Tibet for protection and also distinguished the Lhasa Apsos from the Tibetan Spaniel whose standard says the coat is “…smooth on face….”

Outside Tibet, these heavy head furnishings have been glamorously featured and often enhance a good head, but can also distort a proper head or cover up a faulty head. It is necessary to feel the head through the fall and whiskers, as well as look at the eyes, when evaluating the Apso head. Continuing with the head section: “skull narrow, falling away behind the eyes in a marked degree, not quite flat, but not domed or apple-shaped; straight foreface of fair length.” The standard’s “narrow skull” description confirms that the Lhasa Apso should not have a broad, brachycephalic head, and the phrase “falling away behind the eyes in a marked degree” means that the head narrows behind and below the eyes toward the back of the skull. This means the head doses not have a broad frontal expression and further distinguishes the Lhasa Apso from the Shih Tzu, whose AKC standard states that the head should be “round, broad and wide between the eyes: and that a “narrow head and close set eyes are faults; and from the Pekingese whose AKC standard states, “topskull is massive, broad and flat......”

The meaning of the phrase “falling away behind the eyes in a marked degree” has been controversial and defined in different ways over the years. Another definition shared by some is: The standard’s “narrow skull” description confirms that the Lhasa Apso should not have a broad, brachycephalic head, and the phrase “falling away behind the eyes in a marked degree” indicates that the Apso skull has little or no rise behind the eyes, the shape “not quite flat, but not domed or apple-shaped.” This alternate definition indicates that the Lhasa Apso has very little stop and the supraorbital ridges or brow ridges are not prominent. If only we could speak with Mr. Lionel Jacobs who coined this illusive phrase and ask him for his definition.

“Nose black” and “Eyes: Dark brown…” Although the three Tibetan breeds and the Pekingese prefer a black nose and dark brown eyes, the AKC Shih Tzu standard states that the nose is to be black on all colors with the exception that it allows a liver nose on liver pigmented dogs and blue nose on blue pigmented dogs and lighter colored eyes are allowed on the liver and blue pigmented dogs.

Next, the AKC Lhasa Apso standard states that “the length from tip of nose to eye to be roughly about one-third of the total length from nose to back of skull.” A note of interest is that the original UK/US standards stated that the length from tip of nose to eye was to be roughly 1 ½”. The length of muzzle compared to length of skull varies between breeds; the Chinese breeds having the shortest muzzles. The AKC Shih Tzu standard states that the muzzle should ideally “be no longer than 1” from tip of nose to stop” and the AKC Pekingese standard states that the muzzle is “very short and broad.”

The head description of the Lhasa Apso is a good example of the concept that breed standards are not anatomical blueprints that would enable one who had never seen a specimen of a breed to know exactly what that breed looks like. Interpreting the head section of the standard is easier if a proper head is available for viewing. To have difficulty in understanding the head section of the standard could mean one does not know what a good Apso head should look like. Access to correct Shih Tzu, Pekingese, Tibetan Spaniel and Tibetan Terrier heads for comparison with the Apso will help this section to be understood more readily.

The AKC standard conveys very few negatives; however, the ones that are listed are noteworthy type essentials. With the exception of the coat and tail carriage, all of these faults are traits that are correct for the other breeds from which the Lhasa Apso was to be differentiated.

The first negative is found in the Coat section: “Heavy, straight, hard, not wooly or silky, of good length and very dense.” This describes the coat both as it should and should not be, because correct coat was very valuable to this survival developed canine as protection from the harsh climate in Tibet. The heavy, straight, hard, very dense outer coat needed to be self-shedding. If the coat was wooly or silky, complete felting occurred and the Apso could not rid himself of the excess coat when the weather became warm. The properly textured hair will feel like strands of straight human hair and the individual hair shafts should be detectable when rolled between your thumb and fingers. Because grooming dogs in Tibet was uncommon and probably limited to occasional combing to gather hair for weaving, and because animals were not sheared at the time Apsos were developing, the Apsos by necessity groomed themselves.

The standard’s phrase “of good length” simply means that the Apso should have enough coat for protection and does not mean a floor length coat is necessary to be correct. The Apso coat has now become a glamorous advantage for the western show ring, allowing, in too many cases, Lhasa Apsos with serious type faults to be successful in the show ring.

There is a tendency toward soft and silky coats in the United States, which are quite alluring but not correct because they would not have served the Apso in Tibet and are not the essential type the AKC standard describes. These soft and/or silky coats tend not to have any distinction between the outer coat and undercoat and actually appear to be all long, soft undercoat. “Heavy head furnishings with good fall over eyes, good whiskers and beard; heavily feathered ears both forelegs and hind legs heavily furnished with hair; well-feathered feet and tail” are descriptions of the Lhasa Apso coat pattern as well as differentiating the Apso from the Tibetan Spaniel and the Pekingese.

The next three negative type essentials are specific differences from the other breeds. “A square muzzle is objectionable” for a Lhasa Apso, while being an attribute for the Shih Tzu with its AKC standard stating that the muzzle is to be square and short. The Apso Head is “not quite flat, but not domed or apple shaped;” while the AKC Shih Tzu standard states that the head is round and broad with a domed skull and the AKC Pekingese standard states that the top of the head is to be flat. The Eyes of the Lhasa Apso are “neither large and full, nor very small and sunk”, which by process of elimination makes them oval or almond in shape and medium in size. The AKC Shih Tzu and Pekingese standards both ask for large, round eyes that are set wide apart, while the Tibetan Spaniel desires a medium oval eye set fairly wide apart and the Tibetan Terrier standard requests large eyes that are set fairly wide apart. The AKC Lhasa Apso standard does not address eye set; however, the request for a narrow skull would indicate that the eyes are not set wide apart.

Under the section on Tail and Carriage: “A low carriage of stern is a serious fault.” I believe that because the tail also reflects attitude, the tail that cannot be carried over the back is a serious fault. If the tail is dropped while the Apso is relaxed, uncomfortable or startled, but is carried well over the back most of the time it should be evaluated as acceptable. Historically, it was believed that a low carriage of the tail was a sign of “impurity of the blood.”

The lack of description of movement does not mean that the Lhasa Apso should not have a normal canine gait when viewed in a trot. Because the original standard was written to describe the type essentials of the Lhasa Apso and to emphasize the differences between the various breeds of that time, there seemed to be no reason to describe a gait that had no deviation from the basic movement of a small trotting dog. The standard corroborates this by asking for “Body Shape: The length from point of shoulders to point of buttocks to be longer than the height of withers, well ribbed up, strong loin, well-developed quarters and thighs.” This describes a sturdily built dog whose rear feet, at a trot, should reach under the body to push the body forward, the energy being transmitted through a level, firm back with the front feet reaching forward under the slightly forward carried head. The head should not be held high as in an ostrich appearance nor should it be held lower than the withers. The rear feet should not kick high, but should rise only slightly above the ground so that the pads are visible when viewed moving away. Any high stepping either in front or rear is wasted action and, although flashy, is not the efficient movement necessary for a survival developed canine.

What makes a Lhasa Apso a Lhasa Apso? The type essentials of the standard!

By Carolyn Herbel