Page 106 - ShowSight - July 2019

Form Follows
FUNCTION
THE STRAIGHT COLUMN OF SUPPORT PART 7 BY STEPHANIE HEDGEPATH
The goal of every breeder is to produce a dog that closely resembles the dog depicted in the Standard of Perfec- tion for the breed. In the majority of breeds, a dog should have an appearance of such harmony that no
single characteristic stands out, whether good or bad.
The word “balance” is bandied about any time there is a discus- sion concerning the purebred dog. A dog that has minor faults in several areas is preferable to the dog who seems near perfect at first view but who is found to have a single, extremely serious fault. If a dog has a certain characteristic, whether over or under developed, then the rest of the dog’s structure has to work in order to compen- sate for that out of balance part. This is done in order to bring the body into as close to a state of balance as the parts—both flawed
and correct—working together can accomplish.
There are as many ways for a dog to move correctly as there
are breeds. Movement cannot be considered to be separate from type, but an integral part of type. You cannot expect a Chow Chow to move like a German Shepherd Dog nor would it be correct if the hackneyed movement that is correct in a Miniature Pinscher were seen in a Smooth Fox Terrier. As breeders, we must first and foremost understand the essential breed characteristics that make our breed unique. Then we must strive for the balance and correct movement to make our breed fit to perform the duties for which it was first developed.
When analyzing the dog in motion, you must observe it from the side, coming towards you and also going away from you. The observer looks for different things from each angle. Again, different breeds of dog each move differently—either a little or a lot differ- ently—depending upon the original purpose of the breed. Because the mechanics which operate underneath the coat vary from breed to breed, if you can understand the basics of the locomotion of the average dog, you can easily adjust your observations to fit the breed being observed.
The dog moves so quickly that it is difficult to see and comprehend all of the movements that combined together move the dog forward.
It seems impossible to take in all at once the movement of the four legs, the motion of the head plus the spinal column and the body— all of which must be observed to ascertain the true movement of the dog! By breaking the dog into components and observing them each individually, we can learn to acquire a routine pattern for training our eyes to evaluate the dog both standing and in motion.
Before we get into learning this pattern of observation, I would like to again discuss why it is so important for a dog to move com- ing and going with a straight column of support from the shoulder to the foot and from the pelvis to the foot. What exactly does this mean? Visualize an average dog coming towards you. What you should plainly see are the front legs alternately reaching forward out toward the dog’s nose and at the same time reaching slightly under- neath its body toward the centerline. See Figure 1.
100 • ShowSight Magazine, July 2019