Ragdoll Show Standard

The Ragdoll is without a doubt a truly beautiful, striking breed and will most definitely become the pride and joy of your household. Showing or exhibiting is not always for everybody but for those who might like to venture into exhibiting it is a very rewarding and exciting journey. If you decide to put your Ragdoll on show, the following is generally what the judges are looking for in a best-of–breed Ragdoll.

Head, Neck, Eyes, and Ears:
The head should be in total proportion, large and broad almost triangular shaped but with a gently rounded muzzle. There should be a flat plane between the ears and the cheeks should be in line. Jowls are permitted in adult males. Generally, the bone structure of the head should always be obvious when the fur is smoothed back away from the face. The overall head profile should be giving the impression of a slight curve, with a medium- length nose and a well developed strong chin that falls in perfect alignment with the nose and upper lip.
The neck should be heavy, strong in appearance and quite short.
The eyes should always be blue (the bluer the better), large, wide set and slightly slanted although not oriental.
The ears should be medium sized but wide set and flared. Ears should be broad at the base and slightly tilted forward.

Body, Coat, Legs, Paws, and Tail:
The body should always be large, long, broad and solid with very heavy boning. It should be rectangular in shape and equal in width across the shoulders and back legs. The body should be firm although a fatty pad on the stomach is acceptable. Females are generally accepted to be smaller than males and full weight and size is not expected for at least 4 years.

The coat is always silky, medium to long and should have minimal undercoat. It should flow with the body and break as the cat moves about. The coat should be longest around the neck giving the appearance of a ruff and it should always be short on the face, longer on the ruff, shorter on the shoulder blades and then lengthen towards the tail. Shorter coats are accepted in unaltered adults and in different months within the year to comply with seasonal change.

The legs should be very heavy boned and quite long although it is acceptable for the back legs to be longer than the front. There should be longer hair on the back legs with full feathered britches apparent.

The paws should be in total proportion, quite large, round and feather tufted between the toes.

The tail should be long and full, completely in proportion to body length and carried at an angle higher than the back.

Faults:
Any characteristics like too small or too rounded eyes, too pale or too dark eye color, a roman nose, a body considered cobby or too low on the legs, a tail that is too short in comparison to the body and any tail with any kinks or bumps present will quite often be considered a fault and will unfortunately penalize or disqualify your Ragdoll from the exhibition.

Overall:
Generally, the Ragdoll cat / kitten you plan to exhibit should conform as closely as possible to that of the foundation cats established by Ann Baker.

There are also standards applicable to the different colours and patterns now accepted but overall, the above mentioned notes are what the judges will be looking for in a typical best-of breed Ragdoll.

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