Cranio Facial Ratio (commonly referred to as CFR), is the ratio of the length of the nose to the length of the head.
You can see in the two examples below how to measure it.
Both common sense and studies such as the one documented here, demonstrate that the main concerns we have with extreme flat faced breeds is exactly that! Extreme-flat- faces. Holland has just introduced legislation to ban any dog with a ratio of less than 30% (0.3 CFR).
As demonstrated by this article, this does not unfortunately put a stop to the welfare issues we see as we need to go to 0.5 to have the best chance of that. Starting at 0.3 however is at least a great start towards significantly reducing them. Below we include a number of examples of various ratios to provide you with an idea as to what we need to achieve. The two examples following show an extreme flat face of just 0.17 CFR, then a better example of a 0.33 CFR.
You can see the obvious differences and why it’s easy to understand the increased difficulties flatter faced breeds will likely have through life. Below we list a number of examples of ratios from flattest to longest.
