FCI-Standard No 295
CHARACTERISTICS: An active, well balanced, well muscled and well boned hound, full of strength and quality. Fearless, though of a kindly nature in or out of the pack.
Head: Broad skull with plenty of brain room. Stop slightly pronounced with a straight and powerful muzzle. Nose wide with open nostrils. An expression of great alertness, a little wicked at times. Head must be well set up on a neck of ample length, clean cut and strong.
Ears: Set high, lying close to the cheek and broad.
Legs: Forelegs straight with plenty of bone running right down to the toes but not overburdened but inclined to knuckle over slightly without exaggeration. Toes turned slightly inwards. Feet cat-like with close-knit toes and strong pads. A hound must stand right up on his toes.
Hindlegs: Legs and hocks stand square with a good bend of stifle and muscular thigh to take the weight off his body. Hocks well let down.
Elbows: Points set well away from the ribs, running parallel to the body and turning neither in nor out.
Body: The back should be level and muscular, slightly dipping behind the withers and not arching over the loins. Deep, well-sprung ribs, running well back with plenty of heart room and a deep chest.
Height: 45.7 - 53.3 cm (18 - 21 in), 48.2 cm (19 in) being the ideal.
Stern: Well set up, long and well controlled and rising higher than the back.
Coat: Short, dense, hard and glossy. Hair on the chest and under-side of the flag longer than body length.
Colour: Any hound colour.
The true modern Harrier is now divorced from inter-breeding of the Fox Hound and Beagle and is bred in its own right. Though the Standard has not been acknowledged by the Kennel Club (England) it has been in other countries. Also the Harrier is exhibited each year at the great Peterborough Hound Show in its own group.
The old idea of points making the Harrier a similar but smaller Fox Hound is not now recognised to the full extent by Harrier packs; he is now an individual and has developed a type of his own.
Note: Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.