Shaking legs - Page 1

My gsd's legs have started to shake when we work. He's fine for most of hte sessions but ive noticed when he does a hold and bark his legs shake uncontrollably. After training he will stand around w/ the sleeve in his mouth and his legs will shake. he's been on vacation for the past 6 weeks, he has only worked three times, and i have switched him to a raw diet, he has lost some weight. So im thinking (hoping) its just muscle fatigue. Does anyone know what would cause his legs to shake really bad after a few hold and barks.

Could be fatigue, could be excitement, could be he's cold, or it could be an actual problem. I'd go ahead and get the vet to check him out just in case. No reason to risk your pet on guesses.

Nerves, fear, conflict. Medical problem. If he is standing around shaking after the session is over it does not sound like muscular fatigue. Nor is a double coated GSD which has just done protection likely to be cold unless you are training for an extended period of time in artic temperatures. I have never in 20 years seen a GSD who is doing protection work get cold even in -10 degree temps. You say he doesn't shake for most of the session, do you mean most of the protection session. You speak of a hold and bark, has he reviered the blinds prior to the hold and bark, if so, how many blinds. But even six blinds should not cause leg shake rather than being out of breath and lack of bark and intensity. What about the proximity of a threatening helper? The hold and bark is (or should be) a defense exercise. While many dogs routinely do it in prey barking for their bite in the blind, some dogs get nervous in the blind even if the helper is doing nothing. Maybe your dog stresses easily. How old is he/she. Could be going through a fear period if not yet a mature dog. If something is missing from his diet, than you should be able to reproduce this symptom outside of bite work. If you can't reproduce the symptom outside of protection sessions, you know you have a nerve/training problem.

Hi,i too was a big beleiver of raw diets until i started to have many problems and also started researching more on educational,study backed sites like www.mybluedog.com I dont want to offend or insult the many raw diet beleivers but its certainly worth looking at especially if this particular dog did NOT do this before

Start with a vet check to make sure their is not an underlying problem. Once that is ruled out, I would look at is he over excited or stressed out. fatigue is doubtful unless you are running some elaborate routine over and over again without a break. I do patrol bomb dogs in a very harsh enviroment where we search hundreds of vehicles a day. I have not had a single dog have shaky legs from fatigue and that included searches at 125-135 degrees. i am also from the mountains of colorado and have tracked people at extreme altitude and extremely cold temperatures and never had shaky legs in the dog, mine might have been but the dog was fine. I have one dog that paces and whines and occasionally shakes in anticipation if you pull him out and don't search right away. He loves his job and drags you to the vehicles to search. He is just over excited to search. Then you have the stressed out dogs.Bombs going off mortars, gunfire, Chaos has taken its toll and have seen these dogs shake when they get to a check point. They are what we say enviromentally screwed. Some work through it others get shipped back. Though your stress of working the dog in his routine is not as great, if he does not enjoy it, it could be taking it's toll.You need to look at how he is working not just the end result. Is he happy to be out there or is he apprehensive (nervous, tail down or tucked, ears laid back). If it is not a health issue then When we come across problems we have to take a serious look at the training and evaluate the dog again. Hope this helps

he's an very very very strong dog, he just turned 5 last month. Ive not noticed it in the past. just the past two sessions. he's fine when we begin work but at the end of the session i like to send him for barking (to condition him to barking when he is tired). Ive noticed his legs shaking really bad. After his session it seems like his legs are dead tired. But after the 20 min ride home he is fine. Last night i made him do a hold an bark for a ball and he was fine.

How was his OFA?

Hold and bark for a ball? What does that prove. Do a bark and hold with your normal helper on the field before you do all that other stuff. Test his nerves. A ball is not going to test his nerves or put any stress on him.

his hips are normal w/ zw of 76 http://www.schafer.is/gsd/pedigree/372196.html. Its not a nerve problem, conflict w/ the helper, or stress. Its a physical problem. He does the same thing when i play w/ him at home. if i go out and have him bark for a ball he'll do the same thing after about 4 or 5 hold and barks. when his legs start to shake nothing else changes, he still barks very strong, grips are still full, calm and powerful, just his legs shake. Has anyone seen or heard of dogs legs shaking, maybe due to some kinda nutrional problems. Im thinking he may be lacking something now that im feeding him raw.

There are alot of people who swear by raw, I am neither for or against it. I feed Canadae because it is human grade and dry is convinient. I actually switched to this recently because I was informed that what I was feeding before was not human grade ingriedients. I have not heard of the shaky legs from something lacking in the diet but that would make sense if you ruled out illness and especially if this just flared up after a short while on a new diet. Raw diet could be the greatest thing in the world but, if it is not working for your dog ie. weight loss, shaky legs by all means switch him back to what ever you where feeding before. Give it the same amount of time and see if the shaky legs go away. Then at least you can rule out diet. In Iraq we had over 120 dogs in our kennel all but one where fed the same diet. One of the dogs had constant diarrea and was loseing weight. We special ordered food for him and it was not something better than what was fed the others it just worked for him. Dogs like humans can develop all sorts of aliments from things lacking in diet. So are more sensitive to the missing ingriedient then others.