A breeders success starts and ends in the litter box. That is fact; if you are serious about becoming the best breeder possible. How and what you chose for your pick of litter is dependent on your knowledge and what you observe as the litter progresses from birth on. While we all agree all puppies are cute, there are only a few that fulfill the criteria of possibility of becoming a top quality dog for the show ring and ultimately breeding, where you once again find yourself in the litter box! This is a guide to help you determine which puppy might be your pick of litter!
Pigmentation
Some people claim they pick their show-quality puppy at birth. I am doubtful of this, but hey, if it works, great. That said, there are traits you should begin observing immediately after birth. The first being pigmentation. A puppy born with dark pigmentation will likely be a strong carrier of pigmentation. Full pigmentation is most desirable. A puppy, no matter the coat color; that has a pink or Dudley nose, un-filled eye rims, pink or partially colored feet pads; will not be as strong in producing dark pigment when eventually bred, especially if bred to another dog equally genetically weak for pigment. Look for any deviation away from full pigmentation.
Next up, how fast does missing pigment fill in? The faster the better! Ideally by eight weeks pigmentation should have filled in on the eye or nose. Be aware the pads may never fully fill in. In this case, understand that pigmentation can still fill in later, but if it does or doesn’t, you will need to note this and use this information when deciding whether to keep this dog for breeding or choosing a mate. I would not keep a dog with incomplete nose or eye rim pigmentation. I can forgive incomplete lip pigmentation and a pad or pads that are pink, but when I do, I note this as a dog that will weakly pass on genes for full pigmentation. The slower the pigment fills, my experience tells me the less likely the dog is strong in passing good pigmentation on to offspring. and this trait is passed on to future offspring.
Bone
Also at birth, consider the amount of bone each puppy has. You should look for a chunky monkey! I don’t mean a fat puppy, but one with a fair amount of bone. It should give the appearance of strength. I look at the legs of the puppy and head size just after birth to get a handle on who has what. I rather see a heavily boned baby than a delicate puppy with fine bone. As the puppies grow keep an eye on their bone diameters, and make sure their bone is rounded rather than oval on the legs. Löwchen puppies that don’t have the correct amount of bone from the beginning will not put it on later. EVER. Löwchen should have a moderate amount of bone despite being a small dog, they should not be a delicate dog. Conversely they should not be over-boned and look like a tank. There is a happy medium, this breed is a breed of moderation. When new to the breed, understanding what the correct amount of bone is at each stage can be difficult to determine.Hopefully you have a mentor in the breed that can help you.
The Magic Week
I observe my puppies as soon as they are on their feet, looking for the most balanced puppy. I do not make a determination on who I like best, just note which ones I am leaning to based on what I am seeing, both physically and temperament-wise.I wait to make my evaluation for show prospects at eight weeks.
Eight weeks is the most optimum time to evaluate Lowchen puppies. Make sure the puppy has been properly clipped in the Löwchen clip for optimal evaluation. This is the “magic week”. My experience has been puppy evaluations made at eight weeks generally hold true through to adulthood. What you see at eight weeks is what you will see when the puppy is an adult. It’s important to strongly scrutinize the puppies and not make excuses for any deficiencies. If you find a fault at this age it generally will be there later.
When making this evaluation do not be tempted by a trait that stands out above any other. Nothing should stand out on the puppy in the eighth week, no extremities; such as; extreme angulation, large head, extra-huge eyes, long back etc. This is a moderate breed and all parts should contribute equally to the over-all picture of the dog.
Yes puppies fall apart and come back together again, but note which ones don’t. After you have evaluated them in the Magic Week some will lose what made them so nice; their gait can go off, their muzzle might get long, etc etc. Remember, when the puppy pulls itself together later and improves, note this since these are faults that may show up in future generations and not go away in adulthood. Dogs that stay solid and don’t “fall apart” are most preferable for a breeding program, since they strongly carry desirable genetic traits. A puppy that never went thought the puppy uglies is valuable!
Head
Backskull
I’ve heard some people claim this breed is a “head” breed. It is not and should never be considered this. All parts are equally important in this breed. I start with the head which should be well filled out and strong boned. The back skull needs to be relatively square, measuring equally between the ears as well as from occiput to stop. Avoid domed or “apple-headed” puppies. Ears should not rise above the plane of the back skull. If they are high at eight weeks hopefully the puppy is still teething. When Löwchen puppies teethe their ears often lift, dropping back to level slightly above the eye when teething is done.
Eyes
I want them to be round, large and dark. Never pick a puppy with an almond eye. Ever. The round eye whether dark or light is a hallmark of this breed. Eye rims should be fully pigmented. Parti-colored dogs will not always have full pigmented eye rims and may never get them, this should be avoided. Eyes should not be too close together since that creates a snipey appearance to the face. Often brown and creme puppies have lighter eyes. Generally, those that do, their coats will fade out and not retain a rich dark brown color. A brown puppy with dark-dark brown eyes and strong brown pigment often also has a deep rich colored coat as an adult and is preferable. Green eyes or yellow headlight eyes should be avoided no matter what.
Fore-face
The face should be wide rather than narrow. The stop moderately defined and not sloping gently or rising abruptly from the nose plane to the top skull. Again, moderation. The muzzle should be approximately 2/3 length of the back skull. Any longer and you will have a long faced dog more like a poodle, shorter would be too extreme and Lhasa Apso like. There should be bone on and width to the muzzle making room for full dentition.
At eight weeks you will not be able to determine how many teeth the dog will ultimately have, but you will be able to determine the bite. Ideal bite is scissors. Some people will keep dogs in the breeding program if they have level bites if all else is good. Over-shot or under-shot are not acceptable at all. Löwchen puppies occasionally have had wry bites. This should be eliminated from the breeding program.
Löwchen have a prominently sized nose in comparison to other similar sized breeds. Hopefully you will find the puppy has this.
Body
Neck, Top-line, Tail & Tail Set
Once I am satisfied with the head, I move on to the neck. I look for a moderate neck that decently separates the head from the body. I don’t want a short or exaggerated neck. I check the withers to see if the upper arm is equal length with the shoulder blade, with ideal angulation of 90 degrees between the scapula and humerus. I run my hands down the top-line, assuming the puppy is properly stacked. I want to find a level top-line. I will not keep a dog that is not level on the top-line. It cannot slope down towards the shoulders or towards the tail, or is a roached top-line. The level top-line should culminate in a tail set coming right off the back.
Set lower than that and there can be movement issues in the rear. One way you can tell if a Lowchen’s tail set is low is by noting if there is a fold directly above the tail when the tail is held into position for the tea cup handle tail. This stands true from puppyhood on. Un fortunately a fat Lowchen will also have this fold, but it would have to carry considerable weight for a fold to show. In most cases a fold above the tail indicates a lower than desired tail set.
The tail should curve in a tea cup handle even at this age! If it is carried straight or like a flag or saber, this is a pet quality dog. I would not keep it. Loose tails are a degeneration and not desirable in a Löwchen breeding program. If a puppy has a strong curl to the tail, that is good genetically since keeping a dog like this in your breeding program will help preserve your tea-cup handle tails. Yes it might not play well in the show ring, but this is a dog, if everything else is nice that you should consider keeping in your program.
Proportion
While the ideal Lowchen appears square, it is actually very slightly longer than tall. Measure from the top of the withers to the tail and from withers to ground. The proportion should be 11 parts long to 10 parts tall. (Side note-This proportion was decided between Liz Vargo & myself during the 1980’s in Rayland Ohio, where Liz had her Destiny Kennel. We were trying to determine the ideal traits of Löwchen to further refine the standard and guide us in our choices of which dogs to keep for breeding. This proportion was eventually incorporated into the breed standard, but not exactly as we devised it. ) Proportion is difficult to exactly measure on a puppy, but you should be able to eyeball it to see if the puppy has the correct proportions. One method I devised to determine if a dog or puppy us correctly proportioned is by using the string method. I take a piece of string, hold it level with the withers and move the other end to the base of the tail. Keeping my fingers in place on the string where the tail starts, I then drop that end of the string down alongside the body. If the string touches the ground the dog is square, if it is slightly longer the dog is slightly longer than tall. You get the idea. Ideally the puppy will not be too long or too short. A too short backed dog will not be able to move right since the hind legs will interfere with the front legs during movement. Longer backed dogs have no such issue, still this isn’t desired. Interestingly enough, the original LCA standard allowed for bitches to be longer backed, to accommodate the carrying of puppies. This exception was eliminated in the next standard. SHOW PHOTO OF STRING TECHNIQUE HERE
There is a tendency for this breed to drift in general, towards being rangy if breeders don’t pay attention. Rather they should be strongly built, cobby dogs possessing great elegance. You can find tall Löwchen in the show ring that don’t have enough body. Their chest is not deep enough. They may have bone, but the proportions are off, there is more leg than body. While hard to catch sometimes in puppies it can be seen, you have to train your eye to recognize it in adults and you will easily begin to spot it in puppies. PHOTO OF RANGEY DOG HERE.
Chest
Run your hand down the side of the chest. Feel for width. Ribs should be well sprung. The fore-chest has some distance between the two front legs, and is never narrow. The chest should be full, but not barrel shaped, able to accommodate a pair of good-sized lungs. A chest that is narrow or recedes into a V shape at the bottom is not desirable. The chest should have depth, if it ends above the elbow, it will be too shallow. In either case, the dog has a high chance of exhibiting poor front movement.
Rear
The rear of the Lowchen should sport 90 degree angle of the pelvis & femur. The rear should not be narrow or wide-again moderate. Movement should be efficient. As the dog speeds up its movement it should not double track. If the tail set is low, a wide tracking movement is the usual result, the degree correlating with the depth of tail-set. This is already evident on an eight week old puppy. Good rear movement is easily identified in puppies this age, when clipped. There is no such thing as a horse-shoe shaped rear, despite what some breeders may say. This is not what the original breeders were looking for in their dogs, evidenced by their writings.
Movement
Lowchen should move cleanly and efficiently with little effort. The puppy should not cross in the front, throw its feet or elbows, paddle, double-track or move wide ( or any other deviation of movement that is incorrect) in the front or rear. Front movement in the breed has been lost significantly over the last decade and this is something breeders need to pay extra attention to. Side movement should show good extension and reach, as well as strong drive. When observing the side movement pay attention to the top-line. It should stay level.
Angulation
While ideal angulation of front and rear is 90 degrees, the range of degree is acceptable to 110 degrees. The most important thing to consider is that the rear and front angulation should match. If not, the dog will likely not have a coordinated, clean movement.
Coat
Puppies at 8 weeks should have a very plush coat. This is even more evident once the puppy is clipped. You will not be able to determine what the puppy’s coat texture will be as an adult at 8 weeks. This is unfortunate, since it is hard to eliminate a dog with incorrect texture once you have invested so much time and effort into it, only to find out it is incorrect. Be aware eliminate you must-especially if they are; soft coated dogs since they matte easily, or if the extremely frizzy coated dog, verging on having a poodle coat. This is very hard to get out of a bloodline and should not be kept for breeding. Be aware you will not be able to evaluate this until the puppy is between 6-12 months old, depending on the maturation rate of the bloodline the puppy stems from.
Open-faced puppies are self evident at this age. The puppy will not have a profusion of coat on the muzzle and between the eyes, in comparison to siblings or other puppies at the same age. An open face exhibits the genotype for smooth coats. At this age you cannot predict the degree of smooth coat the puppy has. It is difficult to guess how open or sparse the face will be coated as an adult. The optimal time to fully evaluate this is around 6 months when the puppy is larger and the coat has begun to fill in. You may chose to not show the dog if it has a very open face, but do not throw this dog out of your breeding program, unless there are other serious faults. This trait is not a bad thing. More on smooth coats in another article. But let it suffice to say the smooths often have excellent movement and produce dogs with very thick luxurious coats.
Color
If you have a solid black or brown that does not show evidence of fading out, this is exceptional and valuable to the breed. Using these dogs can help bring the clear colors back. Clear colors are colors that do not fade. They were very predominant until the early 1990’s when faded coats began to be more prevalent. Also, Irish Pied patterned Lowchen often keep their deep rich colors and do not fade!
Be aware brown dogs and faded brown or Cafe’ au Lait dogs are the only dogs that will have brown pigmentation. If the pigmentation is black, you do not have a brown dog. A Cafe’au Lait Löwchen has a brown nose, while a creme Löwchen has a black nose.
Creme or parti colored dogs that have black skin are genetically valuable and they will pass on strong pigmentation.
Fade factor. Most Löwchen coat colors will change with age, with a few exceptions, due to the fade factor. We early breeders, for the most part, did not fully understand the fade factor and also were dealing with small numbers of dogs to chose from, so coat color played a secondary consideration in our breeding selection. This was a mistake that may not be able to be reversed, sadly. Faded coats are coats that fade from the original darker color possessed by a puppy. Black and tans will fade out to silver and cremes, black & white parti-colored dogs may fade into grey & white parti’s, a rich dark red coat becomes blond, etc. Clear colors are colors that do not fade out. Blacks and browns stay dark with no hint of light colors in the coat except as a white patch. A very rare clear color is a lemon. Clear colored dogs are Lowchen that never fade out. They are incredibly valuable if we are to try to save those colors, we are on the verge right now of losing them forever.
MORIAH
If you are new to the breed don’t hesitate to reach out to a very experienced Löwchen breeder for advice as to what color to register your dog as. It takes some time as a prolific breeder to be able to predict what color a puppy will be as an adult.
Temperament
Lowchen puppies must be bold and fearless. A seriously shy, withdrawn puppy will not become the life of the party later. It is important to pay attention to each puppy’s personality as they grow through their puppyhood. Löwchen go through stages, but at 8 weeks you should be able to conclude the general temperament of each puppy. Shyness is a trait that is extremely undesirable, especially if you are showing your dogs but also selling them to the public. Shy dogs are harder to find good homes for! Breed away from this trait, the only way to do this is to not select the shy puppy, no matter how fabulous the dog is. An experienced breeder could work with this dog genetically since they know their bloodlines well, but if you have limited experience, I would say less than 10 litters under your belt, I recommend against working with shy Löwchen. That said, experienced breeders rarely will chose to use a shy dog in their breeding program. Remember Löwchen should be bomb-proof!
Conclusion
Evaluating puppies is not so easy because there is so much you have to be aware of at the same moment. Eventually if you see enough puppies through the years and can watch the development of their traits from puppyhood through adulthood, you will become better at it. It’s important to admit the faults in front of you. Don’t lie to yourself or say “the dog will grow out of it”. It won’t. Generally what you see at 8 weeks is what you will have as an adult, in larger form. If you want to develop a bloodline that is consistent, your skill in evaluating puppies is crucial.
If you have a puppy that does not go through puppy uglies, be aware this is a very special Löwchen who carries strongly excellent traits to pass on. These are the dogs that go into old age as youthful and healthy as they are when young. The more you have of these types of Löwchen in your breeding program , the faster your program develops into a consistent, predictable as well as identifiable bloodline.
Don’t hesitate to talk to an experienced breeder who has seen many, many litters. They should be able to help you with your selections! And ask them to explain in detail what they are observing and why they would pick one puppy over another. One word of warning though, do not expect someone not specializing in this breed to be 100% helpful, even if they bred or finished over 100 champions! They don’t understand the nuances and hallmarks of this breed and have been known to eliminate exceptional dogs, keeping mediocre ones instead. Remember, who you are as a breeder is determined by what you pick out of your litter box.