CHAPTER IX 

 POINTS OF THE CHINESE PEKINGESE TYPE 



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present-day Chinese attach chief importance to 

 head development in their specimens. This is 

 possibly due to the fact that strong and well-developed 

 body-points are the rule rather than the exception in Peking, 

 where the chief weaknesses are degeneracy of the head, 

 possibly due to exportation of many of the best specimens, 

 and shortness of coat, owing to the heat of the summers. 

 The Chinese distinguish between two distinct types of head 

 the abacus-ball-shaped ("suanp 'an tze-erh") and the apple 

 (" p'ing kuo") or dome-shaped. First-rate specimens of either 

 type are held in equal estimation. The abacus is the Chinese 

 counting-board, and the shape of the abacus ball may be 

 reproduced by cutting off about one-fourth of its width from 

 opposite sides of a wooden sphere. The characteristics of 

 this type are shortness between the face and back of the head, 

 together with broad dome giving, with the setting-on of the 

 ears, a rectangular look to the head. 



It is in this type of head that an endeavour is made to reach 

 the ideal of having the eyes so far apart and the tip of nose 

 and forehead so much in the same plane that a silver dollar 

 (about the size of a half-crown) will, if lying flat on the 

 plane of the dog's nostrils, touch the forehead, and at the 

 same time lie at its broadest between, and not covering, any 

 part of the eyes. The Chinese description of this type of face 

 is " knife-cut mouth " (" tao ch'ieh tsui-rh "), the idea being 



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