The Show Dog

Your dog has approximately 700 muscles and approximately 320 bones. When we see stiffness, gait irregularities, lethargic movement or lameness it is the musco-skeletal system that may often house these issues.

As you are asked to move your dog around the ring the judge is looking for something called Kinetic Balance or Conformation On The Move. Quite often dogs who are benched for a long time become stiff and a short run up and down is simply not enough for the dog to be able to show and move to the best of their capabilities; which is why all of my clients are shown how they can manually warm up their dog before they enter the show ring.

Canine Massage for your show dog/pet is a treatment you should be proud of having your dog. By you taking an interest in their muscular health you are enhancing your dogs comfort and wellbeing in a positive and natural way.

So, if you are seeing any gait irregularities or nervous issues in the ring, why not give me a call to see if a session at the Canine Massage Therapy Centre would be beneficial to them.

Gait irregularities are a common issue in judging. Here is some of the terminology that is used as well as a brief description of each term

Balance

A balanced dog should show symmetry in its body parts and muscular system. A wasted muscle on one side and an atrophied muscle on the other relational group would be an UN balanced dog. Of course the judge is also looking at skeletal symmetry eg: back length in relation to entire body, head shape and size etc..

Pinning

Front Paws meet at pastern when trotting, may involve some bowing out of the distal fore arm (elbow and below) As the fore feet meet at the front the dog may look although he is "pigeon toed". Quite often seen in puppies before they are fully mature and are still "learning how and why to walk" pinning is easy to view from the front. Adult dogs may exhibit pinning due to genetic bone conformation, over exercised as a puppy.

Hackneying

High stepping, prancing action - named after performing hackney horses - part of the dogs natural conformation and gait in breeds like the Miniature Pinscher but a fault in most. May be caused by over angulation of the back legs which may collide with the front legs on the trot. The dog will adjust itself by prancing with the front legs so as to avoid collision with the back legs. Some dogs will hackney as a result of muscular tightness of the neck, front of the shoulders and extensor muscles of the forelimb.

Goose Stepping

a little like hackneying where the forelimb is overly elevated but this time the pastern has full out right extension. Although the dog may look like it has good reach it is actually not covering the ground efficiently. This may be as a result of natural genetic skeletal conformation or tightness in the front of the shoulder or neck and compromised muscles in the middle of the back (Thoracic Longissimus)

Crabbing or Side Winding

Back end moves out on a sideways bias. Although the dog may appear to be moving on a straight line from the front, close examination of the rear will show that the dogs back end is moving to one side. This can be as a result of a bad habit, lower back pain, spasm in the Serratus Thoracicus muscle or may be as a result of a vertebrae out of place in the complex spinal column (ask your vet to refer you to a Mctimoney Chiropractor if possible). The dog may be "unbalanced" as a result of injury, collision or impact and is holding an issue in its muscular system.

Lameness

A blanket term which may refer to dropping of the shoulder, unable to weight bear equally on all four limbs, limping, hopping on one or more legs and a general inability to walk normally without pain.

There are two types of lameness:

1) Conformation Lameness - may be genetic or acquired through accident.

2) Pathological lameness - may be through a knock, a fall, overexertion, repetitive strain, over exercise, or a mishap in day to day life, this can result in inflammation, swelling, scar tissue, muscular adhesions, knots, tears and strains. Lameness is usually down to pain.

If your dog shows signs of intermittent lameness then I urge you to go to your vet and ask them if they know of any canine masseuses or to see someone who as if the issue is held in the system a lot of the time it can be resolved or at least supported through so incidents of lameness can be reduced. Rather than giving your dog long term drugs to mask the pain you can actually help to resolve the issue. NB. This is not a substitute for professional veterinary care. Please see your vet whenever in doubt.

Paddling

Leg inclines outward, tight at elbow. In this fault the shoulder has very little movement which may be caused by natural genetic over angulation of the joints or may be caused by muscular tightness in the shoulder area. The elbows are tight to the body but the front feet are thrown outward. The dog does not have a clavicle or collar bone as does the human. Instead their shoulder is held in place by a vast and complex muscular sling. Tightness within the tendon of the tricep muscle may also contribute to this poor movement.

Single Tracking

The foot fall of the paws fall into a single line, a major fault in the rear legs of the dog which if not due to natural conformation is due to excessive tightness in the hamstring group of muscles ie: the very backs of the back legs(semimembranosus, semitendinosus & biceps femoris) by lengthening these muscles a skilled canine masseuse can help the dog to achieve greater comfort when walking, trotting and showing. Single tracking on the front limbs often goes with pinning as discomfort has knock on effects to the rest of the body as the dog tries to overcompensate.

Winging

Alignment broken at pasterns. The dog throws its paws out to the side. Looks uncomfortable and makes for inefficient ground coverage. May be due to natural conformation of tightness in the flexor muscles of the fore leg.

Pacing

Using limbs together on same side rather than opposite diagonals eg: Wrong = front left leg and drives off with hind left leg Correct = front left leg and drives off from right hind leg.

Pacing is considered to be one of the worst faults and quite often owners cannot work out why their dog is pacing. Pacing is acceptable when a dog is simply walking around outside of the ring as it is a natural way that the dog conserves energy.

Pacing may be a learned behaviour "oh this is comfortable, think I will do it all the time", may be a result of muscular injury, shortening or scarring, under development of the shoulder muscles, poor skeletal conformation, bad habit or perhaps the dog who objects to showing (I have seen dogs who trot lovely at home and only pace in the show ring - something you can overcome) Sorry to say there is no quick fix for pacing but if you put in the time and effort to try several body work techniques you may be able to rectify the issue.

Roaching

Arching of the spine. Can happen at any point of the spine although the most common is the roaching which happens at the rump area. There are several reasons for roaching; poor genetic conformation, post partum (the strain of pregnancy adds pressure on the spine), a collision or injury (head on collisions with other dogs cause many dogs with the perfect topline to become "roached" over angulation of the stifle joint (causes the pelvis to be pushed up to far as leg alignment is thrown the pasterns may become weakened over time).

If your dog has suddenly become roached it is advisable to see a Mctimoney Animal Manipulator or in the US a Veterinary Chiropractor and Masseuse in conjunction with one another as the Mctimoney/Chiropractor will rectify any movement of the vertebrae and the masseuse will lengthen and manipulate tight muscles that may be pulling the bone out of place. If your dog has been roached from a puppy, likelihood is its skeletal conformation.

There are a distinct lack of resources relating to Canine Gait Analysis on the internet
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