Please show me your WL gaiting! - Page 15

Holy shit Ibrahim, i can actually see what you are saying now you have said it. it did take me several views of the clip and i had to jot yr words down and look at them while my eyes flicked to the clip. on a phone so only see one post at a time.

shit dog you are the truth.

note to the newbs lurking, this is a great and interesting thread but please don't think its content ie gaiting is anything of major importance when assessing a gsd.

I will expand a little bit

 

^?

 The gait of a GSD is not important? Did I read that correctly, VK? Why do you think that? It was important enough to give Dingo the German Sieger title and to make him a celebrity to this day.

 

Hundmutter, not all, but many judges in the US also ask for the dogs to be walked. They feel that it reveals more than a fast gait. If I remember correctly one of the judges at last year's GSDCA national walked her "keepers"  prior to making her final selections.

Dear Vk4gsd,

 

Dog people sometimes say when describing a GSD's front reach "elbow does not open well", I will try to explain one of the reasons for that, only ONE REASON.

 

In above diagram, on the left is a very good shoulder where shoulder angle (the angle between shoulder blade and front upper arm) is as small as possible, close to 90 degrees in theory. While the diagram on the right represents a shoulder of steep front upper arm like we see in the dog GSD Lineage posted in gait, where shoulder angle is bigger and thus front upper arm is thus steeper.

The shoulder joint is flexible, while elbow joint is Semi-Rigid. When front upper arm moves forward it pushes with it the elbow joint forward. The more forward is this push the straighter gets the imaginary line which starts from top of shoulder blade then to shoulder joint then to elbow. In left diagram the way the front upper arm is set allows it to swing more forward while in right one the swing forward of the front upper arm is limited.

Bravo, if you want to get into canine movement more, buy the book "Dog Steps" by Rachel Page Elliot. It's a good one and makes it easy to understand the dynamics of canine movement. If a well conditioned and trained dog can't move correctly for its breed, that dog is not going to be an asset to the breed. Movement matters.....a lot.

 

Le'st see what happens when both dogs try to make full reach. Black color is of the good shoulder, pink color is of the steep front upper arm shoulder. You can see that the front upper arm of black swung more forward and placed the elbow ahead of that of the pink, and thus caused the elbow joint to open more, making it flatter and now the leg bone + front upper arm bone + shoulder blade bone are in straighter line, ofcourse not 100% in line, but closer. Also note that tip of toes reached more front and foot is closer to ground.. 

When we are watching a GSD gaiting we don't see clearly the movement of shoulder blade and upper part of front upper arm, but we see the elbow and leg more clearly.

 

 

And we say the dog opens elbow well or dog does not open elbow. The reason actually is not in elbow itself but the front upper arm is steep. 

 

Hope I could convey my thoughts well

 

Ibrahim

 

P.S: All above diagrams are exemplary, they are not precisely drawn and do not represent exact angulation in movement, just for demo.

Ibrahim that about works for me and i got shit for brains. in post above blitz, yr last left should be right, so not to confuse the kids watching.

blitz what's a sieger, sounds like a  word, i would rather here from thr anonymous illiterate shepherd who made the breed than care what some sieger shmeiger show is.