Page 124 - ShowSight - October 2019
P. 124

                Form Follows
FUNCTION
PART 10
BY STEPHANIE HEDGEPATH
  In the previous article, I described what to look for when observing a dog trotting from the side, concentrating on the motion of the feet. Once you have a fairly good idea of where
the feet are landing and what they do while in the air, you can then start to observe the other compo- nents of the side gait. When I observe a dog moving around the ring, I first watch the front footfall, then the rear and then observe what is going on under- neath the body with the feet. Is there a gap under- neath the body where the front feet leave and the rear feet land? Or are the feet interfering with each other, or does the rear paw land where the front paw just vacated? Are the rear feet over reaching where the front feet hit the ground? Then I take a look at the topline including the position of the dog’s head carriage. What is going on with the topline? Can you see it bouncing up and down? Do there seem to be dips and bumps in the back as the dog moves? Is it level or slanting? Is it higher in the rear than at the withers? So many things to look for–foot-timing, motion in the topline and lateral instability are just a few of the components of movement. When study- ing movement, you must observe individual compo- nents of movement repeatedly. Only after you are comfortable with what you are actually seeing can you actually put all of the information together into a true picture of the dog’s way of going.
WHEN
 STUDYING
MOVEMENT,
you must observe individual components of movement repeatedly.
 122 • ShowSight Magazine, october 2019
























































































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