Page 172 - ShowSight - February 2020

If You Only Read One Thing Today Please Make It This
BY MICHELLE SCOTT continued
WHAT IS LENGTH OF LEG?
What are you comparing it to? I’ve always considered it the length of the front leg compared to the dog’s height at the withers. For example, The CKC breed standard for the Poodle says “leg length 55% the height of the dog”— they are considered high on leg. If a breed's illustrated breed standard addresses it they often use the same mea- surement—percentage of the height of the dog.
In Canine Terminology, Spira doesn’t address length of leg per se but does have “Leggy, syn. high on leg. Tall, but not necessarily rangy, height-off-the-ground appear- ance. Normally caused by two conditions or combina- tion thereof, namely: (a) excessive length of leg for a par- ticular breed, and (b) inadequate chest depth in relation to leg length. In some breeds legginess is required, e.g., in the Greyhound group.”
I’m bringing this up because of comments about a dog, whose breed standard calls for 50% of the height to be length of leg and depth of chest to be at the elbows, and while this dog had legs that made up 50% of its height, its chest was far below its elbow—and there were many comments about this dog being low on leg.
I’ve never equated length of leg with the depth of the body. To me, they are two separate issues.
NOT EVERYONE IS CUT OUT TO SHOW DOGS
170 • ShowSight Magazine, February 2020