El Diablo Blanco - The History of the Dogo Argentino

Breedstandard

On this page we would like to inform you about the breeding standard of the Dogo-Argentino.

The breed Dogo-Argentino has been evolved out of the following breed's.

Bordeauxdog	Boxer	Bullterrier	Duitse dog
Engelse Bulldog	Ierse Wolfshond	Mastino Espanol	Mastin los Pirineos
Pointer	Perro Peleo de Cordobes
Scull Massive and round. The round form of the scull is caused by ceveral different muscles. Snoute Has the same length as the scull. The head shows, seen from the side, a round form formed by strong muscles. The snoute seems to give the idea of slightly curving upward at the tip of the nose. In other words, the dog has a doglike scull and a snout like a huntingdog. Eyes Dark or almond colored. Heavy eyelid. The pigmentation around the eyes must be black or light. The eyes must be properly apart from each other and give a vivid, intelligent though at the same time tough expression. Jaws The jaws must be properly propotioned and strong with large teeth. The most important is that all teeth are alike and properly aligned. The dog can’t have tooth decay or any other irregularities in upper or lower teeth. It’s important that the 4 fangs are big and obvious and cross perfectly when they are holding prey. Nose Must be black and have a slight curve upward at the tip of the nose. The nostrals must be wide. Ears Must be placed at the top of the scull. Must be worn standing up or semi-standing up. The form of the ears is triangular. Lips The lips must be dry. They can’t be hanging down. The rims must be pigmented black. The lump at the back of the scull (occiput) can’t be sticking out. Because of the strong muscles and tendons this lump is not showing. Neck Must be strong and cuved, but must have a certain grace. The skin on the throat must be thick and folded like Mastiffs and Bulldogs have, not smooth and tight like a Bullterier. Chest Broad and deep. Must give the idea that the dog has big lungs. The chestbone must reach past the ellbows. Thorax Large Shoulder Must be placed high and be strong with big muscles. volume. Seen from the side it must reach past the ellbows. Backbone Must be high at the front, go down to the back and slightly curved at the loins.Front legs.Must be straight and massive with short, compact toes.Loins.Severely muscled. Back legs Severely muscled and angular. Feet must be compact and can’t have a lychopod. Tail Must be long and thick. Is naturaly worn downward. In action the tail is worn upward with a continuing lateral movement. Like when the boss is greeted when comming home. Weight 40-50 kilograms. Height 60-70 centimeters. The judge can not be flexible with the hight of the dog. Under 60 cm is not acceptable. The same goes for weight. The Dogo Argentino is a huntingdog for large wild. Small dogs are less suitable for hunting. A male or female dog under 60 cm must be diskwalified. If there is to be made a choice between ceveral dogs of equal quality, the choice must be made in favore of the larger heavier dog whithout exaggerating height. The dogs pelt must be absolute white. Any spots of another colour means disqualification. Discwalifying flaws Glasseye. Deafness. Spots on the body. Hanging lips. Hounddog like scull. Long ears. Height under 60 cm. More than one spot on the head. Unpropotioned fysique. Creviced palate. White nose or too much white on the nose. A slight lack of pigmentation is tolerated. Lychopod is not a disqualifieing flaw, but it may cost the dog points. Pigment spots The Dogo Argentino is a white dogg, whitch means that the dog is white all over its body. The hair is short and has a hard structure. The racestandard states that a small spot on the head is tolerated. This means that only a little bit of colour is tollerated on the dog and then only at the appointed places, whitch means, not on its body. Often, dark pigment spots are seen on the skin, these are already visable on the pups abdomen. After a year these spots may develope at other plces on the body. These spots are neccesary for the dog to keep its pigmetation. The racestandard declares after all that the rimes of the eyes must be black, as does the nose. The lips also must be rich with pigment, whitch means black and not flesh colored rims of the mouth. Its also advisable to keep pigment in the palate and on the inside of the cheeks. Pups are borm without pigment. The developement of pigment is first seen after 10 days. Small spots appear on the nose which develope as the dog ages. The complete developement of pigment on nose, eyes and lips takes 1 ½ years to complete. Pigment loss When breeding Dogo Argentino dogs, the breeder must take under consideration that the goal of a complete white dog brings the problem of pigment loss. The rims of eyes and lips are no longer black and the nose is no longer fully colored. The loss of pigment causes severe problems like deafness and the leathal factor. Which means that the dog dies at a very young age. Deafness and epileptie Deafness is often seen in this race. A good breeder tests his pups before the new owner comes to pick them up. Epiletie is a health problem that every so often appears in this race. This doesn’t usually show untill the dogg is 1 ½ years old. When the dogs are still in the litter there are no indications to see if the dog has this disease. Ofcourse every self respecting breeder will check the breeddogs family line to check if there are any cases of epileptie there. Sometimes the disease has only occured for many generatrions back and checking is impossible. Imported dogs also give no guaranties because theres often very few information about its ancestors. Therefore always ask your breeder what kind of guaranties you get in case of herideterie diseases. We advise written guaranties, because it has proven hard to hard to prove that you have oral guaranties in case you get trouble when the dog is older. Glasseye Sometimes you come across a Dogo Argentino which has one dark eye and one light blue eye. It’s also seen that a dogg has two light blue eyes. This is called a glasseye and is an unwanted caracteristic for a Dogo Argentino. Form of the lips It’s sometimes difficult to interpret the racestandard. When this appears to be the case, one should look at the purpose of breeding the dogg. It wasn’t the builders intent to create a dogglike dogg. Dogglike dogs are dicribed as protector of home and stead and to go to war. The creators of the Dogo Argentino wanted to create a huntingdog for large wild with a good nose and moving abilities. Not too heavy or too light. When we go back to the form of the lips, its easy to understand what the racestandard states. No hanging lips like in dogglike dogs, and no drewling. The lips can’t be hanging over because this would hinder the dog when grabbing it’s prey. The dog could injure it’s own lips. Caracteristic for the Dogo is however the loose corners of the mouth. When the dog is holding it’s prey, this attribute gives the dog the ability to keep breathing. The wide nostrals and somewhat upstanding nose are signes for this function. After all, our Dogo Argentino is registered at the F.C.1 as catagory 5 dog, the walking dog. Function of the skin on the throat The race standard mentions a strong neck and throat with strong muscles and also loose skin visible in two folds. Usualy a lot af loose skin ruins a elegant neck. But with the Dogo Argentino this skin has a function. Because the neck is suited with this loose and elastic skin that isn’t tightly connected to the muscles and tissue beneath, this skin actualy protects the dog from injury. The dogs opponent which is trying to defend itself with teeth and clauws has less chance to hurt the neck or damage vains. Ears Although the standard mentions cut ears, lately there are only dogs with long ears. This because of Dutch law witch prohibits cutting ears. The country of origin has, sadly, not altared the standard for country that uphold such laws. Only the couyntry of origine can alter or change the racestandard. Dutch cynologie has to make up an own way of dealing with this new way of wearing ears. History of the Dogo Argentino The standard of the Dogo-Argentino has been written down for the first time in 1928. This standard was published for the first in the magazine "DIANA" in the year 1947 Buenos Aires. The "creator" of the breed, Dr. Antonio Nores Martinez was killed during the hunt in the province Cordoba on 2 december 1956. His brother, Dr. Agustin Nores Martinez started 3 Februari 1954 to registrate his breeded Dogos-Argentino's untill his death in the year 1978 he registered 1031 pups with his kennel name "DEL CHUBUT". The Dogo Argentino has been acknowledged as a breed by the Argentinian Kennel Club ( Federacion Cinologica Argentina: F.C.A. at 20 march 1964. By the Federacion Cynologique International (F.C.I.) the Dogo Argentino was acknowledged as breed on 31 Juli 1973. The First Dogo-Argentino exhibition ever was kept at 20 June 1971 and ofcourse it was in Buenos Aires. The Dogo Argentino was the first inland breed that has been established in Argentinia. To create the Dogo-Argentino 10 other breeds have been used. These breeds looked much more different as they do today, cause they lost their original purpose. Below is another example of the breed standard.