Head: the most striking part of the Mudi is undoubtedly his head. To the observer it should give the impression of an alert, always energetic, cheerful and intelligent animal without any trace of timidity or aggressiveness. The head is wedge shaped, tapering towards the nose. Skull: skull and forehead are slightly domed. Occiput not pronounced. Superciliary ridges only slightly developed. Stop: Barely pronounced. Nose: narrow, rounded at front with moderately wide nostrils. In the colours black, white, fawn and blue-merle, the nose is always black; in the other colours the nose harmonises with the coat colour; e.g. the nose in a brown dog is brown and blue grey in a blue grey dog. Brown (liver) coloured dogs have brown eyerims. Blue grey dogs have blue grey eyerims. Muzzle: moderately strong. Bridge of nose straight. Lips: tight-fitting to the teeth. Corner of mouth slightly jagged. The lip pigment corresponds with the pigment of the noseleather. Jaws/teeth: complete scissor bite according to the dentition formula. Regular teeth of medium size. Eyes: narrow, slightly pointed at inner and outer corners, set slightly oblique, thus having a “dare devil“expression. The eyes should be as dark as possible. Only in blue-merle dogs, wall (white or blue) eyes are not faulty. Rims of lids are tight, close-fitting to the eyeball and evenly pigmented. Ears: high set prick ears which are of a reverse V-shape and covered with abundant hair reaching beyond the edges of the external ears. The response of the ears to stimulation is very lively. The dog can turn the ears independently of each other like a radar screen. Ears are approximately 10 to 15 % longer than their width at the base.
Neck: the slightly high set neck forms an angle of 50 to 55 degrees to the horizontal. It is of medium length, barely arched and well muscled. Without dewlap or pronounced neck ruff. In male dogs there can be a barely developed mane; this must, however, never be noticeable. Topline: cearly sloping towards croup. Back: straight, short. Loin: of medium length. Croup: short, very slightly sloping, of medium breadth, muscular. Chest: forechest slightly curved. Ribs somewhat broad and rather flat. Underline and belly: sligthly tucked-up.
The shoulder blade is moderately sloping and well muscled. Upper arm: of medium length. At 45° with the horizontal. Elbow: close-fitting to the body. Carpal joint: firm, dry. Pastern: steep. Forefeet: round with well knit toes. Nails slate grey and hard. The hind legs are a little overstretched beyond the rear. Upper thigh: long, well muscled. Metatarsus: short and steep. Hind feet: like front feet.
Set on at medium height. In repose, hanging, with lower third raised almost to horizontal. When alert and during active movement, the tail is carried in sickle shape, higher than the topline. Docking of tail is undesirable but is not regarded as a fault. If the tail is docked, two or three of the tail vertebrae must be visibly left. Dogs born without or with a natural stump tail are rare; this is not regarded as a fault. The tail is abundantly coated; the hair on the underside can even be 10 to 12 cm long.
Skin: tight, without wrinkles. Hair: head and front of limbs are covered by short, straight and smooth hair. On other parts of the body, the coat is uniformly very wavy or slightly curled. It is dense and always shiny, about 3 to 7 cm long. At some spots, cow-licks and ridges are formed. The coat is longest on the back of the forearms and the upper thighs, where it forms pronounced featherings. Colour: Fawn. Black. Blue-merle, i.e. black speckled, estriped, -brindle or -spotted on lighter or darker bluish-grey primary colour. Ash coloured (blue grey). Brown. Only slightly extensive white markings are tolerated but not desired. A white patch on the chest, less than 5 cm in diameter, and small white markings on the toes are tolerated but not desired. White.
The Mudi’s characteristic movement are mincing steps.
Height: Dogs — 41-47 cm. Bitches — 38-44 cm. Weight: Dogs — 11-13 kg. Bitches — 8-11 kg.
