New Insight Into An Old Subject

by Gretchen Bernardi

Faddism, a fashion or cause that is taken up enthusiastically for a time and then abandoned for the “next big thing,” is part of human culture and has existed across the ages.  We in the world of purebred dogs are not exempt, including breeders and judges, as our emphasis on various aspects of the dog show world ebb and flow.

When I began to get serious in the dog world, which was when I started looking for my first purebred, canine structure and especially as that structure applied to movement, was the rage.  And although I rarely hear the kind of heated debate on any subject now that used to be the norm, except on the subject of “bad judging,” structure and movement was then the “next big thing.”  Breed clubs and all-breed clubs had forums on the subject and brought experts in to give presentations to members and any interested persons.

I recently pulled out my copy of McDowell Lyon’s The Dog In Action and was amazed at the number of bookmarks and highlights that I had put there and yet I hadn’t picked up the book in years.  But Lyon’s book was on everyone’s lips and we tossed around terms like “static and kinetic balance,” “lateral displacement,” “gait diagonals” as though we knew what we were talking about.  Such discussions were old hat to those deeply involved in horsemanship, but in the early ‘70s, it was new territory to most in the dog world.

Written in 1950 and advertised as the “first book to thoroughly analyze, illustrate and explain the under-the-skin workings of the dog,” the book was later joined in the genre by books written by people we actually knew, or at least knew of:  Rachel Page Elliott with Dogsteps, Illustrated Gait at a Glance in 1973;  Curtis Brown with A New Look; Dog Locomotion and Gait Analysis, in 1986; Edward Gilbert’s, Thelma Brown’s and Curtis Brown’s K-9: Structure and Terminology in 1995.

But somewhere along the way we lost interest in structure or, at the very least, the subject lost its priority in our thinking.  Did the subject really become less important to us or did we feel we knew it all?  But whatever the reason, the focus of our attention turned to breed type, or rather the more obvious and more superficial elements of breed type and, more and more, we relied on our own perceptions of soundness.  If caring about that subject was a fad, I hope we can return to it with renewed enthusiasm and a new book is available that ought to hasten that return.

Dogs in Motion is an outstanding addition to any collection of serious books on canine structure and movement.  Written by Martin S. Fischer and Karin E. Lilje and illustrated by Jonas Lauströer and Amir Andikfar, the book is the result of extensive studies of 300 individual dogs representing 32 distinct breeds using the most highly technical equipment.  The financial plan for the study claims to be the first “major scientific study jointly funded by the 23 breeders associations involved and the Society for Cynological Research.”  Remarkably, the actual publication of the book itself was financed by the German Kennel Club.

One of the reasons for the cooperation among so many clubs, organizations and institutions is the wide focus of the study.  The study is not meant narrowly for one group of people, either breeders or judges or veterinarians, but as an educational tool for all involved with dogs in any capacity or at any level.  And it was not lost on these groups or the investigators themselves that the results would help improve the lives and health of all dogs.

Even though the investigation used “three high-frequency measuring techniques:  videography, marker-based movement analysis and biplanar x-ray videography,” the authors of the book wanted to write a “scientific book for non-scientists.”  They succeeded and did so with innovative and beautiful illustrations accompanied by serious yet lively writing.

In his introduction to the book, Dr. Peter Friedrich, president of the German Kennel Club, whets the reader’s appetite by writing that many of our long-held beliefs about structure and locomotion will become suspect and perhaps overturned as a result of this research.  An example:  “One of the most widely propagated explanations for short-strided, ineffective restricted seeming forelimb movement in the trot is the assumption that the upper arm is disproportionately short.  You will discover why this is false and what has been proven instead.”  He goes on to point out another assumption that will be overturned and the reader will learn that “only rarely and under very specific circumstances is it possible to draw conclusions regarding ‘motion parameters’ from the angulations of the standing dog.”

The range of the information is wide: motion sequence, pivot point of the limbs, maximum and effective amplitude, the contribution of a limb element to step length, motion pattern of the forelimb, motion pattern of the hindlimb, muscle elasticity, the transformation of chemical energy into mechanical and much, much more.  If this sounds stupefyingly dry and boring, I assure you it is not, because all is explained with the most clarifying illustrations and clear writing.

One of the most engaging chapters, “Results of the Jena Study,” begins:  “Speed is comprised of two parameters, stride length and stride duration.  The number of strides a dog makes per second is described as stride frequency.”  Forget everything you hold dear about “reach and drive” and think about this subject again.  Using the data from the 32 breeds used in the study (including, to name some but not all, the Airedale, Akita, Bearded Collie, Bedlington Terrier, Bernese Mountain Dog, Borzoi, Chihuahua, Dachshund, English Cocker Spaniel, French Bulldog, Golden Retriever, Great Dane, Mastiff, Standard Schnauzer, Whippet and, surprisingly, two types of German Shepherd, performance and show) an easily understood graphic shows the “horizontal excursion” of the fore- and hindlimbs in all gaits.  If you approach this scientifically gleaned information with an open mind, your old opinions may be reaffirmed, they may be altered slightly with new angles or they may be completely blown away.  Whichever is the result, there is no such thing as too much information as long as it is good information.  And this is very good information indeed.  I hope all of those involved in the study and the book are basking in a deserved glow of satisfaction.

The common reaction to this book just might be “who cares,” or even “so what?  And that’s fine, because it is undeniably a dense book, scientifically based and extraordinarily enlightening to anyone who has not taken gross anatomy in medical school.  From a purely intellectual standpoint, it is, in a word, fascinating.  From the perspective of the longtime breeder or judge, it is even more fascinating, since it debunks some long-held principles.

Dogs in Motion is an expensive book, but the quality of the printing, the writing and the illustrations justify the cost and it is full of scientifically proven observations that will make the reader think about canine structure with a new eye and a different perspective.  The book, along with its accompanying DVD that features over 400 movies, x-ray movies and 3D is available in its original German but also in English, with translation by Lucy Cathrow, and is available from most online booksellers.  More information can be found on the German Kennel Club’s website devoted to the book: http://www.vdh.de/dogs-in-motion.html.  Whether in gratitude to those participating breed clubs and owners or whether the added information helps to clarify the subject matter, the book includes profiles of the 32 breeds involved in the study, accompanied by the appropriate charts on each breed’s proportions, gait parameters and kinematics.

I can’t leave this subject without returning for a bit to McDowell Lyon, because he holds a special place in my heart and therein lies a story I am almost too embarrassed to tell.  My first dog was well-bred, but, to put it kindly, she did not quite live up to the promise of her bloodlines.  In addition to her several faults in temperament, type and construction, none of which I saw, of course, she toed out rather badly.  I entered her in a small local match where an Afghan breeder, an acquaintance of mine, was judging.  She placed her where she belonged at the end of the line and told me she had a lovely head, which I did not recognize at the time but came to learn was the equivalent of “She may not be pretty but she has a great personality and makes her own clothes.”

Young, stupid and lacking any real experience, I contacted the judge later, armed with, who else, McDowell Lyon, who believed that dogs should stand with feet slightly turned out.  “A good working dog,” he wrote, “will stand with his front feet slightly turned outward.  The pastern is not bent outward as we see in a ‘French front’ but the assembly from the pastern joint to the pad is rotated a few degrees.”  How could I not admire and respect this man who was able, with such authority, to make my dog’s fault into virtue?

Of course, it never occurred to me then that the author of the standard of excellence for the breed knew as much as McDowell Lyons when he wrote:  “Feet—Moderately large and round, neither turned inwards nor outwards.”  And it certainly didn’t occur to me that, furthermore, in the show ring, judges favored the standard over authors, regardless of their stature.  It pains me to remember that the judge had to explain to me that it was the standard that mattered, not McDowell Lyon.

Gretchen Bernardi
berwyck@ezl.com

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=3038

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