File under “Funny/Not Funny”:

An American invited to judge at a Mexican dog show for the first time was told by his more experienced fellow judges not to attempt to examine the Fila Brasileiro.

So imagine the collective alarm when during the group competition, the American started to briskly walk up to a huge, vaguely Bloodhound-looking dog. After an explosion of yells from both inside and outside the ring, he stopped in his tracks and judged the Fila from afar, as previously instructed.

“I know you told me not to touch the Fila,” he said to his exasperated colleagues when he sat back down in the judges section. “But you never told me what one looked like!”

The Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) recognizes almost double the breeds that the American Kennel Club does — 365 compared 201, respectively. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that when American judges have overseas assignments, they frequently encounter unfamiliar breeds, from Tornjaks to Wetterhouns to Saarlooswolfhunds. (Say that three times fast.)

But there is arguably no breed whose judging requires more advance knowledge and dog sense than the Fila Brasileiro. So, in the spirit of education — to say nothing of the literal preservation of life and limb — here is a brief primer on judging that native Brazilian breed.

First, one word explains why the Fila is to be judged from afar: ojeriza, a Portuguese term that literally translates as “grudge” or “spite.” Ojeriza in a Fila manifests in a dislike of strangers that is more proactive than just being “aloof.” As the absence of this hair-trigger combativeness is a serious departure from breed type, one can appreciate that the Fila will never be recognized by the American Kennel Club, which requires that all dogs submit calmly to a breed-specific exam.

At FCI shows, by contrast, this hard temperament is accepted and accommodated, with the breed typically judged from a distance of five to six feet — close enough to see, but out of range. The handler shows the bite, lifts the dewlap (the loose skin covering the throat), demonstrates the length of ear by extending it to the tip of the nose, lifts up the skin over the shoulders and topline to display its elasticity, holds the tail to the hock to estimate length and, finally, in the case of males, presents the testicles in the palm of the hand.

Napoleon, a top-winning FIla Brasileiro of several decades ago.

“Filas should be trained to be in conformation events — otherwise it’s dangerous,” professional handler Daniel Rosa — who has handled many of these dogs in both North and South America, and has also lived with the breed — told me recently.

“Do you mean so they understand that it is not a threatening environment?” I asked.

“No, so the handler can control them,” he replied.

In other words, the Fila Brasiliero considers every environment to be potentially threatening.

“They are like Secret Service agents,” says Daniel, adding that while Filas will respond to verbal comments from their owners, they will “override” the owner if they perceive the situation to be dangerous. As a result, functional dogs need to be not only willing to meet a challenge, but also balanced and intelligent enough to accurately read a situation and not overreact.

Daniel no longer owns the breed, because the liability is simply too great. Filas, he says, are the canine equivalent of a loaded gun.

And when they fire, their aim is deadly: Developed in Brazil to hunt escaped slaves, the Fila was not expected to allow the humans that it tracked to survive. Instead, the maimed corpses became an object lesson on the potential consequences of flight for the remaining plantation slaves.

Bred on plantations and cattle farms, the Fila was also used to fend off predators such as jaguar and to manage cattle. Here Brazilian cowboys, or vaquieros, herd a bull in an early-19th-century engraving by German artist Friedrich Wilhelm Goedsche.

For this reason, the Fila has a scissors bite — the most punishing, as it is a slashing bite. And when Filas launch, Daniel explains, they do so at a 45-degree angle, aiming for the face or neck, not the extremities.

Unsettling, to say the least, but it is important to understand the culture in which this breed evolved, so that one can act accordingly in its presence. While a dog of this temperament is unthinkable at AKC shows, a Fila entry is not a rarity at all-breed shows in Mexico and South America. Good dog men and women need to know the characters of the breed they are judging. And of late there appears to be an epidemic of new judges in the Working Group whose background in far merrier breeds does not prepare them for the strong character of the flinty guardian breeds — among which the Fila is the most reactive.

To that end, savvy Fila handlers — and, for that matter, judges — know to read the dog’s body language.

“If they move their tail in a circular motion, they are hunting you,” Daniel says. “And waiting for you to be within reach.”

Conforming Principles

If the Fila’s temperament is unusual — how’s that for an understatement? — so is its conformation. The breed is supposed to have a rollercoaster of a topline, with withers set lower than the croup, and then the backline ascending smoothly to meet that croup. While the FCI standard specifies that the “back line shows no tendency to sway or roach back,” the topline is as far from a straight line as one can get in a breed of this size.

And when the Fila Brasileiro first moves, it must pace — an energy-saving gait in which both legs on one side of the dog move in the same direction, just like those of a camel.

Pacing is a movement fault in almost every breed, but not in the Fila. (The same applies to the Neapolitan Mastiff. And not coincidentally, both breeds are surprisingly agile, able to leap with cat-like elasticity.) Long before I judged my first Fila, the well-known Portuguese judge Luis Pinto Texeira taught me that if a judge expects a Fila to start off at a trot, he or she is just pointing a blinking neon sign to a lack of knowledge of the breed.

Typically, when a judge instructs the handler of a Fila to do the “down and back” pattern — leaving from the judge in a straight line, then returning and stopping — the handler deliberately starts the dog off slowly so that it paces, then speeds up to bring the dog into a trot. Turning around for the return trip back to the judge, the handler repeats the process.

"The Hunted Slaves," an 1862 oil painting by English painter Richard Ansdell, demonstrates the marshy terrain the Fila tracked in -- to say nothing of the brutal work for which it was developed.  

Daniel added to my education by noting that during the pacing, judges should look over the top of the dog, to see if it is weaving side to side, in a kind of curved, wave-like pattern. This mimics the footwork required in the swamps where the dogs tracked, helping them widen their column of support in the soft, yielding muck.

Click here to see an example of a Fila Brasileiro being properly presented and gaited.

Two Styles

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that in addition to Mastiff ancestors, the Fila — with its pendant, low-set ears and melancholic expression — has Bloodhound in its background. While all Filas should have a relatively massive body and wrinkled skin, the breed tends toward two styles, each of which reflects those ancestors.

Mastiff-type Filas are, as their name suggests, heavier boned and more ponderous in structure. Hound-type Filas are lighter-boned, reflecting their Bloodhound influence. 

Daniel says houndy Filas have more prey drive, which works with their body style: Though they have less mass, they are faster and so have greater momentum when they reach their “prey.” They are typically more reactive than the mastiff types, something that can confuse judges, because the houndier dogs appear less menacing.

(Far more divisive than style is the subject of color in the Fila Brasileiro. But that's a whole other story in which we side philosophically with the purists.)

Don't let that melancholy expression fool you: Even as very young puppies, Filas intensely dislike interacting with strangers, and at best will distance themselves.

Daniel says that concerns about ojeriza have led to breeders producing “softer” Filas. “Which is dangerous in its own way,” he says, “because then people assume they can be approached — and then if you get a real one …”

And let’s qualify the meaning of “approached”:

“One day, a judge asked me if she could approach my Fila,” Daniel remembers. “I said yes, and then she grabbed the skin and pulled it.”

At that point, Daniel had to literally throw himself on top of the dog to prevent the judge from getting hurt.

Today, the Fila's traditional job is thankfully obsolete, but the instincts needed to execute it are still very much alive. When dealing with this breed — even with the youngest puppies — never forget what they were bred to do. Keep a respectful distance, don’t make any sudden moves, read the body language and — just as your mother instructed you when you went to the store as a youngster …

Look, but don’t touch.