cow hocked puppy - Page 3

Blitz is 100% showlines. He is cowhocked, has been since the day he was whelped and has never improved as his breeder said he would. His hips looked very good at 8 months, so I don't think there is any problem there. His movement is very much like you have described your dog. To add further insult to injury, his front is also bad, he's every east-east (his front feet point outward and his elbows are tied in to his body) and his pasterns are long and weak. His movement is not pretty, but he's soon 5 years old and it's never seemed to cause him any discomfort or to slow him down much. He just doesn't look very coordinated when he runs. In my limited experience with GSD's and 35 years of breeding and showing another large breed, with very few exceptions, a cowhocked puppy is always going to end up a cowhocked adult. If the dog is close behind (his hocks touch when he stands naturally) and if his rear feet point ahead as they should, you have a chance of his maturing into a dog with a decent rear albeit not a great or excellent rear as he will always move close behind. These are the young dogs that are said to have "loose ligaments". However, if those rear feet turn outward while the knees point forward, not much is going to improve and he will remain cowhocked. The only real improvement I've ever seen in a cowhocked dog was one that was kept on a chain for the first year of its life. After this dog was rehomed with a new family who took him for walks, etc, he did improve some but never did have a great rear. Blitz is a fine pet, his structure has not harmed him in that way. However due to both a bad front and a bad rear, I would not train him in any activity that required a lot of jumping and flexibility such as Schutzhund or agility. I've found that a poor front is a much bigger detrement for a working dog than a bad rear and, generally speaking, more dogs break down in front before than do behind. Breeds with short hocks and moderate to straight rear angulation rarely have cowhocks. It is a lot more common in breeds that are bred for acute rear angulation and the accompanying long hocks. You can't have one without the other. It's just the mechanics involved in dog structure, for evey action there is a reaction. Good luck with your puppy. I'm sure he will be a great pet for your family.

well said Blitz... Also one other thing I forgot to mention. If you haven't neutered him yet (he still looks too young for that in the pictures, but some vets like to jump the gun) I wouldn't neuter him till he's 18mos-2yrs old. But if you wait you MUST be prepared to deal with an intact male (ie. marking, aggression, sexdrive, etc.) Aggression is a steriotypical issue that every vet will scare you with when trying to get you to neuter at a young age, IMO not much of an issue and can be kept in check with socialization, training and assertiveness on your part. You have to take responsibility for your intact dog and keep him confined (some males will do crazy things to get to a bitch in heat). I say this because males need their testosterone to mature properly both mentally and physically. I had Roman neutered when he was 7 months old. Mainly because of his condition (cryptorchid) and from pressure to do it asap by my vet. If I had it to do over again I would have left him with the dropped testicle till he was 2yrs. IMO neutering him young as affected his maturity. Yes much of it is probably genetic, nothing anyone can do about that, but he is lacking many secondary sex characteristics that I feel was at least affected by the lack of testosterone through adolescence. With the idea that perhaps age will/can improve the hocks I feel that removing an essential part of maturity (testosterone) will also remove that possibility. Not to say that if I left him with a testicle he wouldn't be cowhocked now, but maybe it wouldn't be so severe. I firmly believe that he stopped maturing mentally and physically when he was neutered. Just my opinion...

hi all i'm really thankful for all the great replies , i really think that discussing such an important and common problem will serve the benefit of the this great breed especially that there is no enough resources about this issue . well, today i have consulted a breeder via the internet and this is what she told me after seeing the pics : The flat feet and splayed toes should be helped by giving him grass and soft flooring. concrete and the like are very hard on the feet. selenium will help bring up the pasterns..selenium 2 pills each day, calcium 4 pills daily...fish oil is ok but the 3 omegas are better . well, the bigger part of my garden is grass and the rest is concrete , so i think he does exercise on grass . about selenuim does anybody know what it is ? do i get it from the pharmacy or smthn like that ? from an anatomical point of view are pasterns found in the front and rear limbs or only in the front ones ? and is it good to supplement a growing pup with an abnormal rear structure with Ca ? wouldnt that just encourage the growth of malformed bones of his rear ? thx all , i'm waiting for the nice informative replies as always .

Boode, feet might improve some, but here again you are dealing with a genetic issue and bad feet will probably always be bad feet although some do improve a bit over time. In my experience, most dogs with long, flat feet also have long, soft pasterns. Blitz has both. This is true in most all breeds. Pasterns are the "wrist" joints of the front legs. I think the things you are seeing in your puppy are pretty typical of the breed overall. Frankly, I am not big on supplements and would do a lot of research before giving any dog selenium. Ask you vet, Google it on the net and read up on it first. Same for calcium. Over the 50 some years I've owned dogs and worked as a vet tech I've seen more harm than good come from supplementing dogs. Some breeders seem to think that if a little is good, then more is better which is not always true. Like many minerals calcium is not absorbed on it's own, it needs other additives like Vit C; they work synergistically. Omegas are probable OK if not overdone. "2 pills" and "4 pills" can mean almost any dosage. You need to determine first the daily dose, then the dose contained in each tablet and then compute the number of tablets needed per day. If you're talking 250 mg of calcium per tablet and give the dog 4, he would get a total of 1000 mg (or 1 gram) per day. Whereas if the tablets are 1 gram each, he'd be getting 4 times that dose. I think you will find that most breeders have their own favorite way to feed and supplement puppies. Some only feed a good brand dog food, but most can't agree on which is best. Some supplement with special combinations, some use a multi vitamin for puppies. In most cases, excess vitamins and mineral are excreted in the dog's urine, but some, like selenium can actually cause poisoning when given in too high a dose and calcium can create a host of problems if given by itself or in excess. I know - it is very confusing, but the rule of thumb is -first do no harm.

I have a Bazi daughter - Anke. She is 6 months old and is very small for her age and has wobbly hind legs. She is "Cow Hocked" and drags her toes...they knuckle under and our vet says that here is something very wrong....I have not had her X-ray'ed yet.

...did someone just see a Cowboy?

hey cowboy can u get us a link to see ur girl while moving and to see her pics while standing and how shes cow hocked . thx alot all .