The Boxer breed of dog is a fawn or brindle colored middle-weight dog with an intelligent and alert expression. Boxers have served as seeing-eye dogs and as couriers during war time. The ideal Boxer is a square-built dog with a short back, strong limbs, and short, tight-fitting coat. His well-developed muscles are clean, hard and smooth. His gait is free and ground-covering, his carriage proud. His expression is alert and his temperament steadfast and tractable. The Boxer breed of dog has a chiseled head proportionate to the body. The broad, blunt muzzle is the distinctive feature. In judging the Boxer, special consideration is given to the head. The beauty of the head depends upon the harmonious proportion of muzzle to skull. The blunt muzzle is 1/3 the length of the head from the occiput to the tip of the nose, and 2/3rds the width of the skull. The head should be clean, not showing deep wrinkles. Wrinkles typically appear upon the forehead when ears are erect, and are always present from the lower edge of the stop running downward on both sides of the muzzle. The Boxer's eyes are dark brown, frontally placed, and generous. Their character, combined with the wrinkling of the forehead, gives the Boxer head its unique quality of expressiveness. Third eyelids preferably have pigmented rims. The ears are set at the highest points of the sides of the skull, and customarily cropped, cut rather long and tapering, and raised when alert. If un-cropped, the ears should be of moderate size, thin, lying flat and close to the cheeks in repose, but falling forward with a definite crease when alert. The top of the Boxer's skull is slightly arched, with the occiput not overly pronounced. The forehead shows a slight indentation between the eyes and forms a distinct stop with the topline of the muzzle. The cheeks should be relatively flat, maintaining the clean lines of the skull as they taper into the muzzle in a slight, graceful curve. The muzzle of the Boxer breed of dog should be proportionate in length, width, and depth, with a shape influenced first through the formation of both jawbones, second through the placement of the teeth, and third through the texture of the lips. The top of the muzzle should not slant down or be concave, but the tip of the nose should lie slightly higher than the root of the muzzle. The nose should be broad and black. The Boxer's bite is undershot, with the lower jaw protruding beyond the upper and curving slightly upward. The incisor teeth of the lower jaw are in a straight line, with the canines preferably up front in the same line to give the jaw the greatest possible width. The upper line of the incisors is slightly convex, with the corner upper incisors fitting snugly in back of the lower canine teeth on each side. When the mouth is closed, the teeth and tongue should not be visible. The upper jaw is broad where attached to the skull. The lips should meet evenly in front. The upper lip is thick and padded, filling out the frontal space created by the projection of the lower jaw, and laterally is supported by the canines of the lower jaw. Therefore, these canines must stand far apart and be of good length so that the front surface of the muzzle is broad and squarish and, when viewed from the side, shows moderate layback. The chin should be perceptible from the side as well as from the front. The neck of the Boxer breed of dog is round, muscular and clean without excessive dewlap. The neck should have a distinctly arched and elegant nape blending smoothly into the withers. The back is short, straight, muscular, firm, and smooth. The topline is slightly sloping when the Boxer is at attention, leveling out when in motion. The chest is fairly wide, with the forechest well-defined and visible from the side. The brisket is deep, reaching down to the elbows; the depth of the body at the lowest point of the brisket equals half the height of the dog at the withers. The ribs, extending far to the rear, are well-arched but not barrel-shaped. The loins are short and muscular. The lower stomach line is slightly tucked up, blending into a graceful curve to the rear. The croup is slightly sloped, flat and broad. The tail is set high, docked, and carried upward. An undocked tail is severely penalized. The shoulders of the Boxer breed of dog are long and sloping, close-lying, and not loaded or covered with too much muscle. The upper arm is long, approaching a right angle to the shoulder blade. The forelegs are long, straight, and firmly muscled, and, when viewed from the front, stand parallel to each other. The pastern is strong and distinct, slightly slanting, but standing almost perpendicular to the ground. Feet should be compact, turning neither in nor out, with well-arched toes. The hindquarters are strongly muscled, with angulation in balance with that of the forequarters. The thighs are broad and curved, the breech musculature hard and strongly developed. Upper and lower thighs are long. The legs are well-angulated at the stifle, with clearly defined, well "let down" hock joints. Viewed from behind, the hind legs should be straight, with hock joints leaning neither in nor out. From the side, the leg below the hock (metatarsus) should be almost perpendicular to the ground, with a slight slope to the rear permissible. The metatarsus should be short, clean, and strong. The front dewclaws may be removed; the Boxer has no rear dewclaws. Colors for the Boxer breed of dog are fawn and brindle. Fawn shades vary from light tan to mahogany. The brindle ranges from sparse but clearly defined black stripes on a fawn background to such a heavy concentration of black striping that the essential fawn background color is barely (but clearly) visible. Any white markings should be distributed in a way that adds to the dog's appearance, and may not exceed one-third of the entire coat. They are not desirable on the flanks or on the back of the torso. On the face, white may replace part of the otherwise essential black mask, and may extend in an upward path between the eyes, but it must not be excessive, so as to detract from true Boxer expression. The absence of white markings is acceptable and not penalized. The gait of the Boxer breed of dog is a smoothly efficient, level-backed, ground covering stride with a powerful drive coming from the rear of the dog. Although the front legs do not impel him forward, they must provide adequate reach to avoid interference, overlap, or sidewinding. Viewed from the front, the shoulders should remain trim, with close elbows. The legs are parallel until gaiting narrows the track in proportion to increasing speed, then the legs come in under the body but should never cross. Viewed from the rear, a Boxer's rump should not roll. The hind feet should dig in and track relatively true with the front. As speed increases, the normally broad rear track will become narrower. The Boxer's gait should always appear smooth and powerful.