# Science News - Insights Into the Motion of Dogs



## RaeganW (Jul 14, 2009)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110527080325.htm

This article came up on the Toller list this morning, since it has some pretty big ramifications for all breeds depending on how much stock you put in it I was interested in the thoughts of people with other breeds, or multiple ones. 

I haven't read the actual study since it's in German, but going off the article alone I'm not so sure this is as ground breaking as they might think. 



> But so far, scientists could only guess at the exact motion sequence within the locomotor system. The reason being: "So far scientific studies were limited mostly to the movement of sick animals or to single aspects of locomotion,"


This in particular, maybe they haven't been scientific studies but there's a pretty good base of knowledge out there. More than just "guessing" anyway. Rachel Page Elliot used radiographs (?) for example and you can see very clearly that the front leg swing from the shoulder blade. I have to rewatch Dogsteps to see if the shoulder joint remaining imobile is mentioned/shown.

But I think the really interesting bit of information, and the one that most effects dog breeders is this: 



> The Jena study provides another astonishing insight into the locomotion of dogs regarding the proportions of the front legs of the dog breeds examined. These were nearly identical in all dog breeds -- although, according to Fischer "it is clear that the upper arm of a Schnauzer is shorter than that of a Great Dane." Regarding the total length of a foreleg its length is always exactly 27 percent. Whereas the relative length of the shoulder blade varies between 24 and 34 percent. "The shoulder blade of short legged dogs is relatively long and that of greyhounds is relatively short. But the length of the upper arm always stays the same."


This suggests that something that I have heard described as the number one problem in the front assembly of American dogs - short upper arms - isn't really a problem at all, and isn't even something we can change. Instead, we should focus on shoulder blade length as the "thing to fix" in poor fronts. Short upper arms aren't the problem, long shoulder blades are.

I wonder if dogs with the problem now know as long shoulder blades also have a prosternum that is too low (below the middle of the chest on most breeds)? I have been told that the shoulder joint is always inline with the prosternum, and on a "perfect" dog that line bisects the ribcage.


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