GENERAL APPEARANCE: Medium size, well muscled due to constant activity. Very keen sense of smell, sight and sound.
CHARACTERISTICS: A herding, hunting and fishing dog, great learning ability, adapts to almost all situations.
TEMPERAMENT: Faithful, obedient, brave and well tempered.
HEAD AND SKULL: Strong, elegant,, with parallel axles of the skull and muzzle (from base of skull to stop and from stop to tip of nose to be parallel). Occiput not prominent. Length from tip of nose to eye : eye to back of skull is 2 : 3. Nose has well defined nostrils the same colour as the darkest colour of the coat, must be solid, never patched.
EYES : Slightly oblique, set well apart and very expressive. Hazelnut to deep brown depending entirely on coat colour. Conjunctiva not noticable (haws not visible). Pigmentation of eyelids follows nose colour, no patches.
EARS : Pendant, V -shaped slightly rounded at tip, medium insertion set level with the eyes.
MOUTH : Strong jaw with perfectly regular and complete scissor bite i.e. the upper teeth closely overlapping the lower teeth and set square to the jaw with full dentition. Lips the same as nose colour without patches.
NECK : Short, muscled with no dewlap. Set well onto the shoulder.
FOREQUARTERS : Oblique, well muscled, well laid shoulders. Elbows close to body. Legs straight and parallel.
BODY : Robust, level back, wither not prominent. Deep chest with well arched brisket showing important heart and lung room. Depth of brisket to height at wither is 4 : 8. Length of body to height at wither is 9 : 8.
HINDQUARTERS : Moderately angled, well muscled, well let down hocks.
FEET : Round, webbed, tight. Toenails may vary in colour.
TAIL : Medium set, short, often born natural bobtail - if not customarily docked between the 2nd and 4th vertebrae.
GAIT/MOVEMENT : Sound, elegant, powerful drive.
COAT : Woolly, always curly forming cords when long. May be clipped in total - no aesthetic shear allowed i.e. coat should be same length all over.
COLOUR : Solid coloured black, brown or white in their different shades or parti-coloured with white and any other clour but never tricoloured.
SIZE : DOGS - 41 to 50 cms (16 to 19.5 ins) BITCHES - 38 to 45 cms (15 to 17.5 ins)
WEIGHT : DOGS - 16 TO 20 kgs (35 to 45 lbs) BITCHES - 12 to 16 Kgs (25 to 35 lbs)
FAULTS : Any departure from the foregoing 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 in the scrotum.