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What is the ideal head expression?

Before we go and talk about the ideal Cane Corso head expression, first I have to explain what is head expression indeed. This phrase means the front look of the dog. Not the profile of the head, not the back of the head, but only the front of the head. The face of the Cane Corso, the look of the dog, includes an eye view. The moment you look at the dog, and the dog look at you. This is the moment you can catch the Cane Corso expression. Or, the moment when the dog realizes something and is in full attention. If you take a look at the dog, you can see it’s expression.

Expression of a dog is also the moment when a dog sleeps with open eyes, playing crazy around, and all other situations, but this time we talk about quality expression. We must stay focused on that and improve our knowledge about breed quality.

After we have established what expression is, we can go into details about the ideal one. As you can assume, but I confirm it, 85% of expression is due to the dog’s eyes. Depends on its position and shape, and eyelids, it will has a good or less good expression of the dog.

Check out this two good examples

Now you have a rough idea of what is the ideal expression. Before I go with an explanation about the ideal Cane Corso expression, let’s quote the FCI and AKC standards of the Cane Corso breed about expression.

FCI says: “Expression is keen and attentive.”

AKC says: “Very alert and attentive. Some wrinkling on forehead occurs when alert”

Both of the standards say similar and both sections “expression” is written under the topic of eyes. This confirm I am right when I wrote that depending on the eyes quality, the dog will have a good or less good expression.

Now let’s quote both standards regarding eyes.

FCI says: “Medium-sized, slightly protruding, but never exaggerated. Close to ovoid in shape, set well apart in an almost sub-frontal position. Eyelids close fitting.”

AKC says: “Medium-size, almond-shaped, not round or bulging, tight fitting rims preferred with only a minimal amount of haw being visible.”

Now, check the photos below of the dogs with good expression

Of course, there are still 15% of the other factors on the head which is related to the head expression, like width of the muzzle, nose mushroom, lips, forehead, ears… But in 85% the expression depends of the eyes and quality of it. There are some dogs with thin muzzle, not enough stop, very wide skull, but if they have positioned and good shape of the eyes, they still have a good expression, not the ideal but still good. Other facts are more related to the type of a Cane Corso.

How to know the Cane Corso expression is not good?

It’s not simple indeed. In case you are a Cane Corso lover and you have spent not so much time on research about the breed’s quality and its look. This is the point of this article, for the people who aren’t experts to learn how to recognize the good and less good expressions of the dogs.

This might hurt some people and opinion about their dogs. Some people claim they have beautiful top-quality dogs, I agree they are all beautiful, BUT… Words such as “beautiful” and “quality” are not related in the cynology world indeed. All dogs are beautiful, but only the dogs which are under the standard proportions are quality ones. It’s the same with the Cane Corso expression. All dogs are beautiful, but there are good and not good expressions.

Some dogs with not good expression, check photos below

Of course, there are some photos of dogs with different types of expressions, but also different type of heads. Some of them even have a good Cane Corso type, but due to the lack of quality of the eyes, they do have not a good expression, like this one:

Without good or excellent Cane Corso expression, the dog is losing its general quality. For example, the modeling world has its criteria to choose and select the top quality models. We, the people in the Cane Corso world, have also standards that we have to follow to know how to recognize the quality of Cane Corsos. This article might help you when you are choosing your Cane Corso puppy, so you can go with the one which has excellent expression.