What catches your eye first - Page 2

 I want it to look like the dog owns the ground they are standing on

That is as interesting as the expression of character HEX mentioned above, maybe it's part of the character HEX looks for !!!!!

We look for the overall expression of temperment and  nerve first.
Is the dog pacing in place, fidgety etc, or is the dog standing/sitting
calmly and self assured. That frantic cockroach scramble you see so
many dogs do while in a neutral situation is a good display of whats
going on in the head of the dog as well, or more important, whats not
going on inside their head. 'Presence' cannot be trained into a dog,
they either have it or they don't. After all that, we look to working ability,
structure, pigment and of course overall health.

At the first glance, it´s the combination of

expression
behavior
overall conformation

It´s "the whole package".

It´s like meeting  someone for the first time....as soon as you meet a stranger all of your senses are working, a few seconds decide about everything.
When these very first seconds were positive, man or dog are worth to take a second look at.
Sometimes I had to change my mind, but mostly the first glance was confirmed.

susie, in spite of my lacking so much, I still managed to catch my wife  

Humor aside, you are right, just like with humans, so much can be decided in that
first few seconds. Some women are physically pretty to look at, but as soon as they 
open their mouth they show how hideous and trashy they truly are   
No amount of physical beauty can overcome weak character in dogs or humans 

Jyl's avator says it all. Expression. What do you want me to do next? I'm ready. Gets me everytime I think about the german shepherd breed. How damn smart they are.

I agree with what jyl posted,

 "I want it to look like the dog owns the ground they are standing on, so to speak"


it's something that's hard to describe, but if you have been around nervy,
fearful dogs or dogs afraid of their own shadow then the difference is overwhelmingly obvious when you come across
 a dog and  see him move about with an air of confidence, a look of nobility, 
checking out his surroundings, coming up to meet you but not overly friendly.
A dog that shows his presence just in the way he struts around especially in unfamiliar surroundings.

I met a dog yesterday that was just that, he has just turned a year old, he stopped by my house with his owners,
he had never been over to my house yet he acted like he owned the place!

It was very refreshing to meet such an awesome boy, his temperament was so stable it was just plain awesome!

I took a few pics of him for his owners, and just put him in the database,
this is his link:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/dog.html?id=1909406 

Thank's for posting this Ibrahim, 
  Fun description's of what people are seeing in their own minds.
All have made great points!

Confidence!.....if I see confidence then I look at physical attributes to see the pluses. If I see any sign of temperament weaknesses I don't bother to consider the rest. As far as structure, I look to see if the dog is very moderate in angulation and a lithe body that would have no problem with agility and endurance.

I didn't read any one's post, in hopes of not reading what I want to say, but damn! I take a look at Gustav's and that's what I was going to say ! LOL.
Seriously though, the dog's attitude, demeanor, expression. Overall body language in one glance. If I take a double take, like "holy shit, look at that!" Then I'll check out feet, on up and out to each end.

Expression catches my eye first.  I can't like a dog that doesn't have an expression I like, even if they are perfect size VA1 BSP#1 dog, lol.