GSD Splayed Legs During Stretch - Page 2

Dogs jumping more than their own knee height before their plates close is causing your dog future pain and injury.

I had a pup do that stretch...the frog stretch. Breeders told me she had excellent hips... she ended up having severe genetic dysplasia in both hips. Again, what others have said....if there are no other signs than I wouldn't worry. In my case, other signs were present.....good luck.
 

Every dog I've ever owned over the last 50 years that laid on its stomach stretched out like a frog had normal hips when x-rayed. Not sure if that's what you are describing or if you're referring to a dog that will stretch out it's rear legs with the knees pointing to the ground, most all dogs do that and it means nothing.

My male does that a that stretch a lot and he has very good hips and have been scored to say so

I have a follow-up question for vk4gsd and Jenni78- I have definitely read that you should limit jumping for young puppies as it can damage growing and developing bones. However, the information I've seen for the "cut-off" age for this limitation was six months. This puppy is almost ten months old and, while she is still growing, has entered the much slower phase of growth.

I am always looking for increased education about the breed and so, I would be very interested in studying your source of information for the posts.

If my pups want on the picnic table they find a way to get there. When they are ready to get off, they jump. Some start at eight weeks and I've not had any injure themselves. If they're sound they can do things like run up a bank so they can jump off. Then turn around and do it again. Babying a pup that's not sound isn't going to prevent it from being unsound. Puppies need to extend themselves at will ( I'm not suggesting forced jumping), and a ten month old jumping out of a pickup isn't a deathknoll......as long as the truck is stationary when the dog leaps:-)
Op, the stretching is just a fun thing dogs do...I've seen dogs do that stretch and drag their belly across the carpet or grass. BTW, I imported a puppy that would stretch out with hind legs frog legged behind her when relaxing....took her for xrays at four months because I could feel her hips popping out of the socket. Exrays showed she had very very bad hips, so laying with hind legs frogged out behind doesn't mean good or bad hips.

I've only had little dogs do the back leg stretch so I have no insights there.

But I agree about limiting the height for jumping down when young.
Just from my experience, no 'official' source of information.
My older gsd was a jumping maniac and I didn't stop him. He went through several limpy phases in the front that are thankfully over. My younger gsd is 1.5 years and I've not had him jump down from the tailgate yet. He is even larger and heavier in build so I figure it is possible it might take longer for bone formation to finish out. Plus there is even more weight slamming down on the front legs in a straight down jump.
To amend I will say I'm sure one jump down wouldn't be a problem. It is usually repetition that causes injury.

I am NOT talking about "frog legs." Not at all. I thought the OP was talking about a walking stretch where the legs are totally straight behind, dragged a few paces. THAT is what I am talking about, what I'm referring to when I say none of mine (both owned and bred) who have done that have ever had poor hips. Lots of dysplastic dogs will lie like a frog.

There is no crystal ball to tell when the anconeal process is fused. Xray is the only way. I have been stunned on xrays to see how immature a dog was still at even a year and a half, so I do ZERO jumping down (down only) onto unnatural surfaces like asphalt and concrete from any kind of significant height. So long as there is growth remaining in the long bones (radius and ulna) you can do damage that will prevent the elbows from coming together with optimal congruency.

As far as picnic tables...uh, not the same thing, unless you have super high picnic tables on concrete. Mine are on and off picnic tables all the time, up the bench, usually, but not always, and down onto grass or other soft ground. Depending on the vehicle, a tailgate can be quite high, and it's also a vertical jump down whereas jumping off a table, if they choose the bench sides, is more of a reach out and not quite so jarring on the elbows.

Even beyond the dangers of UAP caused by incongruency (which can be from trauma to the distal ulnar physis prior to completion of growth), jumping significant heights while growing can cause abnormal cartilage development, early arthritis, etc...after all, it's wear and tear. For the same reason you don't send toddlers to the gym, you don't do heavy jumping with young dogs.

Case in point: I have a 4yr dog whose owner let him jump out of the back of their Suburban every time he was in the vehicle from puppyhood through adulthood. I was not expecting great things on his elbows. We xrayed them and sure enough, they have DJD1. The dog likely would have passed at 2, and would still pass the European rating system, but I bet he'd have passed at 4, had he not had repeated significant frontal landings onto unforgiving surfaces all those hundreds of times since puppyhood. It's not a pain or soundness issue in this case, of course, but it *IS* the difference between passing and not passing, so.....

If the gsd as a breed is so fragile that pups can't run and play and jump without injury, it doesn't say much for the soundness of the breed.
I'm not talking about fullout agility training or forced jumping, but allowing pups to do what they want in the way of taxing themselves at will. If something is not fun because it hurt them, they can quit if they want....till next time.

Well, I've had a lot of dogs stretch out frogged when they are hot, they weren't displastic. But then, I haven't had a lot of displastic dogs.