14 month old American girl - Page 6

I have been lately watching some videos of American showline gaiting, I noticed too that their front legs stay closer to the ground while gaiting while quite few West German showline tend to lift up their front legs higher while gaiting !!!!

Ibrahim: "...while quite few West German showline tend to lift up their front legs higher while gaiting !!!! "

These dogs are not worth a second look, but for some reasons ( ? ) they seem to be trendy for some judges,,,

 quite few West German showline tend to lift up their front legs higher while gaiting !!!!

That's because they're moving from the elbow, not opening from the shoulder

Ibrihim, I think the shoulder opening has more to do with the blade lay back than the angle of the upper arm. If you look at Xeph's dog, the sholder is angled back very nicely. Also her dog has a bit better upper arm than many Am. s/l. Also, I think the joints on the Am. dogs are a little looser.

As far as the German dogs lifting, sometimes it may be a faulty front, but many times it is a result of the dog pushing very hard off the rear into the lead  and being lifted up. Also most Americans would never make a picture like this public.

Xeph, I have some pics of some of my dogs with varing degree of upper arm angle, I'll look them up if you're interested.

Rik

Xeph, I have some pics of some of my dogs with varing degree of upper arm angle, I'll look them up if you're interested.

Very interested!  Please do share :)  I really do struggle with fronts and seeing what others see.  I feel I can spot a pushed forward front, but struggle with lay back vs lay on and upper arm legnth/placement

from the chest the blades angle back and in towards the wither. the angle back is the lay back and the angle in is called lay on.

the red arrow is roughly in line with the upper arm, can you see how steep it is. it's a dark dog and hard to see, but if a line was dropped from the top point of the shoulder blade, the elbow would be in front of it. the upper is poorly placed, or steep. it does have good length. does this make any sense?

I understand what you're talking about.  I just have a hard time visualizing "steep".

Xeph, I'm not an artist but maybe this helps. The first is a shoulder with the mythical 90 degree angle and a well placed upper arm. The second is a well placed blade (scapula) and a poorly placed or steep upper arm. You may have to use some imagination.
Look at the shoulder on this dog, which imo is very nice and compare it to my dog above, http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/dog.html?id=575327

YES!!!! I get it!  I've been viewing the upper arm ALL WRONG!

Thank you sir, that was a great help :D