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.
Breedstandard 
