Breed standard

A breed standard (also called bench standard) in animal fancy and animal husbandry is a set of guidelines which is used to ensure that the animals produced by a breeder or breeding facility conform to the specifics of the breed. It is also used in competition to judge a given animal against the hypothetical ideal specimen of that breed.

The breed standard contains a narrative description of the breed and a detailed list of points of conformation (to the standard), deviations from which are considered faults, and result in penalties against the individual animal. Some breed standards specify the percentages or number of points to be awarded for each characteristic, the total of which equals the animals overall score.

Format

The form in which breed standards are written differs among the various breed clubs, but also differs from club to club within the same all-breed organizations. There is inconsistency in the amount of detail required to describe a particular characteristic, and sometimes even in the wording used for the characteristics. The result is that breed standards are open to interpretation and to a judge’s individual taste.

Faults versus variants

A further problem is that a deviation from the standard in one breed might result in a fault, where a similar deviation in another breed might be an acceptable variant; in a third breed the same deviation might be a disqualification, while in another breed that deviation might result in a breed separation.

ee also

*American Standard of Perfection
*Animal husbandry
*Animal fancy
*Breed type
*Selective breeding