Hocky pups? - Page 1

I wondered how  common an occurrence it was to have /or observe  young gsd pups that initally (to varying degrees) appear to walk on their  hocks/waddle .  All the pups I have seen with this awkward gait have had in the main correct /clean movement as they have matured .. .. I recently had friends who had the beezejahs scared out of them  with a hocky pup because the vet concerned had never seen such an awkward gait on a pup and he feared the worst. ( their pup is fine now that he has matured)

What is the cause of this initial awkwardness?

Loose ligaments.

thanks :)

too easy - lets think about structure and the standard and the whole dog.  I'd say lack  of attention to the GERMAN shepherd standard and too much emphasis on sidegait

A lot of pups with decent angulation, especially high-line ones, are "hocky" in youth and somewhat down on the pasterns in front for awhile. The well-bred ones usually straighten up. No comment on American-Specialty style dogs... I still can't figure where they are going with those over-elongated rears. Boy, do they look funny standing naturally! I can't even LOOK at my GSDCA magazine... it goes straight into the burn barrel, never gets out of the bag.

SS

Shelley,

That seems to be true in my younger females' case.  She seemed very cow-hocked and had weak pasterns for the first 4 months or so.  Now, I cannot tell any more.  She is 10 months now.

fda-If you go to the messageboard search and put in cow hocked you'll get a lot of threads. I found a website with a good explanation and linked it on this one: http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins_read/139134.html#139244. I thought the article was interesting.

cheers AAD,    Thank you for the link to the linda shaw article , very informative !!