Breed Standard - Dogue de Bordeaux
- General Appearance
- Powerful with muscular body. Has harmonious outline. Not appearing leggy in any way.
- Characteristics
- Powerful, stocky, athletic, imposing. Distinctive head with forbidding expression.
- Temperament
- Natural guarding instincts, vigilant and courageous without aggression. A good companion and very affectionate.
- Head and Skull
- Very large with characteristic expression and appearance. The skull is broad and short, wider at ears than eyes. The upper region of the skull is slightly rounded from side to side. Pronounced stop forming a near right angle with the muzzle. Median groove is deep, lessening towards the back of the skull. The forehead dominates the face and is wider than high. The head is furrowed with symmetrical wrinkles on each side of the median groove. These are mobile when the dog is alert. Prominent cheeks due to very strong muscle development. The muzzle is powerful, short and slightly hollowed below the eyes with moderate folds, the width hardly decreasing towards the tip of the muzzle, when viewed from above looks square. Topline of muzzle is slightly turned up. Length from nose to stop between a quarter and one third of the length of the head. Broad, well-opened nostrils, well pigmented according to mask colour. Jaws very powerful and broad. Lower jaw curves upwards. The chin is well defined and must not overlap the upper flew excessively nor be covered by it. Upper flew thick, moderately pendulous in profile and shows a rounded lower line. In front, the edge of the upper lip meets with the lower lip then drops on each side, forming an inverted 'v'.
- Eyes
- Oval, set wide apart. Frank expression. Showing no haw. Colour hazel to dark brown for dog with black mask, lighter colour tolerated in dogs with brown mask or no mask.
- Ears
- Relatively small, of slightly darker colour than coat. The front of the base of the ear is slightly raised. They must fall forward and down but not hang limply, the front edge being close to the cheek when the dog is alert. The tip of the ear is slightly rounded, not reaching beyond the eye. Set rather high, at the level of the upper line of the skull, appearing to accentuate its width even more.
- Mouth
- Undershot, the back of the lower incisors not in contact with the front of the upper incisors. Strong teeth, particularly the canines. Lower canines set wide apart and slightly curved. Incisors, well aligned, especially in the lower jaw where they form an apparently straight line
- Neck
- Strong, muscular and solid, skin supple and loose. Circumference almost equals that of head. The well defined dewlap starts at the level of the throat forming folds down to the forechest without exaggeration. Neck very broad at base merging smoothly into the shoulders.
- Forequarters
- Well laid shoulders, withers well defined. The legs are strong, exceptionally muscled and as straight as is compatible with a broad-chested dog. Pasterns strong and slightly sloping.
- Body
- Chest broad, powerful and deep, let down below the elbows. The depth of the chest is more than half of the height of the dog at the withers. Ribs well sprung, but not barrel shaped. Back solid, broad and muscular. The length of the body is greater than the height at the withers as 11 is to 10 measured from the point of the shoulder to the point of the buttock. Underline slightly tucked up.