[ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: Standing or gaiting
- From: "Tom Elkins" <firethorntemple@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <carolynmckenna@xxxxxxxxx>, "'showgsd'" <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2009 13:46:22 -0500
Carolyn -- As always, I thoroughly enjoy listening to or reading what you
have to say about motion. I'm again grateful for the fact that we have so
many knowledgeable people in our breed, as has been evidenced by the
discussion of motion over the last couple of days.
A long time ago Luke Geraghty recommended Rachel Page Elliott's little
illustrated book called Dogsteps to me, and I think that her basic tenets
about dogs in motion are still very valuable. One of the things that she
stressed that I think sometimes gets lost in these discussions is that a dog
should not be considered as a static piece of architecture when analyzing
its movement. Discussions of bone lengths and angles of assembly are
absolutely useful, but the skeletal system is inextricably tied to the
specific musculature and ligamentation of each particular dog. In other
words, if we could look at a giant x-ray of a dog's skeleton and study all
the bone lengths and angles, we still wouldn't know for certain how well or
how "correctly" that particular dog moved.
Another idea that someone brought up again recently is the business
about a dog's tail acting like a rudder on a boat. Probably some old sailor
started that one way back when. I've had lots of dogs, but I've never had
one that used its tail like a rudder. Anyways, I just did a Google, and
Dogsteps is still easy to find.
Thanks for sharing your expertise.
tom elkins
Firethorn Temple
http://www.firethorntemple.com
-----Original Message-----
From: showgsd-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:showgsd-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of carolyn mckenna
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 12:08 PM
To: showgsd
Subject: [ SHOWGSD-L ] Standing or gaiting
It is amazing that our breed has so many really good dogs out
there. Why ? Because our standard is really rather vague in the areas
where we have the most problems: the front assembly. Our standard
calls for " the upper arm joins the shoulder blade at about a right
angle". That's it as far as front angulation is addressed. Most breeds
in the herding, working, sporting group call for the same right angle;
however, it is more detailed, described in absolute: shoulder blade at
45% to ground, elbow directly below top of the wither, etc. The above
description MUST assume a right angle. Of course, our standard was
written decades ago when the sport was dominated by "dog men" who
discussed and really studied the breed so there was not the need for
explanation and detail in the standard. We have a huge problem with
upright upper
arms; if the upper arm is perpendicular to the ground, there is no way
a right angle can be achieved. ( some standards go so far as to state
"upper arm never perpendicular to the ground ") What does this have to
do with gaiting ? The dog whose upper arm is upright (or short) will
lift in front. A clever handler can cover this by moving the dog very
fast because it is difficult to see that the foot hits the ground under
the chest rather than out in front. A standard quite unlike ours is
the Ibizan hound : upright upper arm ..... creates a slight lift. The
effect is the same : upright upper arm = lift. Kathy's pet
peeves are legitimate, and our new illustrated standard needs to be
more explicit. Hopefully, it will be informative to all.
Carolyn
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POST is Copyrighted 2008. All material remains the property of the original
author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind
are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the
Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY
MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY
FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE
PROSECUTED.
For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx
VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org
NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/
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