Breed Standard of Northern Ireland Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club-1999

General Appearance : Smooth coated, well balanced, of great strenggthfor his size, muscular, active and agile.
Characteristics : Traditionally of indomitable courage and tenacity. Highly intelligent and affectionate, especially to children.
Temperament : Bold, fearless and totally reliable.
Head and skull : Short, deep through with broad skull. Very pronounced cheek muscles, distinct stop, short foreface, nose black.
Eyes : Dark preferred but may bear some relation to the coat colour. Round of medium size and set to look straight ahead. Eye rims dark.
Ears : Rose or half prick, not large or heavy. Full drop or pricked ears highly undesirable.
Mouth : Lips tight and clean. Jaws strong, teeth lareg with a perfect, regular and complete scissor bite, i.e. upper teeth closely overlapping the lower teeth and set square to the jaws.
Neck : Muscular, rather short, clean in outline gradually widening towards shoulder. Forequarters-Legs straight and well boned, set rather wide apart, showing no weakness at pasterns, from which point feet turn out a little. Shoulders well laid back with no looseness at elbows.
Body : Close coupled, with level topline, wide front, deep brisket, weel sprung ribs, muscular abd well defined,
Hindquarters- Well muscled, hocks weel let down with stifles weel bent. Legs parallel when viewed from behind.
Feet : Well padded, strong and of medium size. Nails black in solid coloured dogs.
Tail : Medium length, low set tapering to a point and carried rather low. Should not curl much and may be likened to an old fashioned pump handle.
Gait / Movement : Free, powerful and agile with economy of effort. Legs moving parallel when viewed from front or rear. Discernible drive from hindlegs.
Coat : Smooth, short, and close.
Colour : Red, fawn,white, black or blue, or any of these colours with white. Any shade of brindle with white. Black and tan or liver colour highly undesirable.
Size : weight: Dogs 28lbs to 38lbs. Bitches 24lbs to 34lbs. Desirable height (at withers) 14 to 16 inches, these heights being related to the weights.
Faults : Any departure from the foregoing points 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 into the scrotum.

Faults : Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree.

Very important as all dogs have a minimum of three faults, they should be judged on just how serious the faults are