Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

The Cane Corso muzzle

It’s a very big discussion about the muzzle, what is the perfect Cane Corso muzzle?
While some people understand this perfection on their way, others claim they have a right with their understanding of the standard, but there is ONLY one proper way to understand the ideal Cane Corso muzzle.

So, let’s start…

In some of the past articles, I have explained Cane Corso size as the starting point for other measurements. To understand the proper measurement of the ideal muzzle, I also explained the ideal Cane Corso head profile. The head profile is crucial for the muzzle proportion we will discuss in this article. Let’s remind the ideal Cane Corso head profile on the photo below:

The perfect Cane Corso muzzle length is half of the skull. It is deep from the profile view. Viewed from the front, the muzzle is square, which means the same width and depth. It is very clearly written BUT… How easy is that for understanding?

The perfect Cane Corso muzzle – front and profile views

It is important now to get that down jaw/downside of the muzzle and its width should be equal to the length of the muzzle. This is the only proper way of understanding the right measurements of the muzzle and its size.

The down jaw is the most important segment for the width of the muzzle. If the down jaw is narrow, then it’s not possible that the dog has a square muzzle. At this moment, it’s important to know how the down jaw affects the width of the muzzle.

If the dog has a broad down jaw, the dog will have a square muzzle viewed from the front. If the dog has a narrowed down jaw, the muzzle will be no square. Check please below on the photos:

If we take a look at the photos which present the profile and front views, we will see the same but also to understand the crucial point, how the down jaw affects the width of the perfect Cane Corso muzzle, check here:

AKC Cane Corso standard says that the front view of the perfect Cane Corso muzzle forms the trapezoid. Yes it does, but then we must consider the lines of the lips if we went more in detail, but it still makes an equal depth and width of the muzzle even with a trapezoid. Here is the same muzzle, bigger or smaller trapezoid, but the point is the same.

The nose and nostrils play a very important role in the width of the muzzle, but I will talk about it in some of the upcoming articles.

Now the lips

The upper lips – seen from the front, form an inverted ”U” at their meeting point. If we take a quote from the FCI Cane Corso standard. Seen from the side hangs moderately which you can check if you scroll up and see the profile of the head and the lips. They cover the lower jaw and determine the profile of the lower part of the muzzle.

It is hard to notice the quality of the lips when the puppy is, but definitely, if you are looking for a Cane Corso puppy you should go with the quality bloodline and from the parents which have this segment quality. The bigger are chances when your Cane Corso puppy turns into an adult dog, will have the inverted U lips if parents have.

The very important fact from AKC Cane Corso standard, check please

As we talk about the perfect Cane Corso muzzle. I must go and critique AKC this time regarding the breed standard and its description.

The part when AKC says, I quote: “the depth of muzzle is more than 50 percent of the length of the muzzle”.

This means that if the dog has even 51%, 75%, or 110% depth of the muzzle versus muzzle length seems that all measurements and depths are fine, but not really! If we take that muzzle depth is 75% of the muzzle length, we will get front and profile look like this:

We will have the look of the duck indeed, and it’s not the breed characteristic. Even though AKC says the muzzle is deep, they said the depth of the muzzle must be more than 50% of the length of the muzzle. With this, AKC left so much space for the people to think that a shallow muzzle is acceptable. I consider they MUST be more precise and write that depth of the muzzle MUST BE at least 100% of the muzzle length or slightly deeper.