Structure in Motion

While studying the kinesthetics of canine locomotion, I started looking back on all the blurry Sunny action photos from over the years. Sunny had fantastic structure, which gave her easy movement and the speed, grace, agility and flexibility of a true athlete. It was lamented she was ineligible for the conformation ring (due to excessive white) because otherwise she had incredible structure and a "breath-taking side-gait". Her build was also remarked on frequently by high-level agility competitors as being ideal for performance. So, knowing what good structure looks like at least in one ideal, and realizing she was effortlessly demonstrating all of these in every photo, I thought I would start a series using photos of Sunny demonstrating structure in motion.

[*Drawings and excerpts from the Textbook of Small Animal Orthopaedics]

Figure 1: Walk

"When walking, the dog never has fewer than two feet on the ground (usually three feet), and occasionally all four feet may be on the ground."

Figure 2: Trot

"The trot is a symmetric gait produced when the diagonal pairs of legs move almost simultaneously, causing the duration of contact with the ground to be slightly longer for the hindlegs than the forelegs."

Figure 3: Flying Trot

"The trot usually places two feet on the ground at all times; however, some dogs have a suspended phase that is termed a flying trot."

Figure 4: Pace

"The pace is a symmetric gait in which support is maintained by the animal with lateral pairs of legs... It is a gait commonly used in long-legged dogs with close-coupled bodies and allows the animal to move in a straight, forward direction without the interference between front and hind legs that may occur at a trot. The lateral oscillations of the body produced by the pace seem to be handled best by long-legged dogs."

Figure 5: Tranverse Gallop

"The gallop is an asymmetric gait used for high-speed locomotion. There are two patterns of gallop in the dog: the transverse gallop similar to the pattern used by the horse..."

Figure 6: Rotary Gallop

"...and the rotary gallop, which seems to be preferred by the dog and which in the horse is referred to as a crossed-lead gallop."

Figure 7: Two-period Greyhound Gallop

"Some animals bred for speed, such as the greyhound, will show two suspended phases per stride, with the first phase occurring after hindfoot pushoff in a leaping portion of the stride and the second phase occurring following push-off of the leading forelimb."