Tell Me About "Gait"

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Gertie
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Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by Gertie » Sat Oct 01, 2016 1:59 am

What do you look for? What does a "well gaited" dog look like? I'm looking specific descriptives and how a good gait is manifested not (and I mean no disrespect) "poetic" terms. I am very much trying to learn how to evaluate the endurance and motion of a dog through body mechanics and gait analysis here. Looking forward to reading your responses. Thank you.
Last edited by Gertie on Mon Oct 03, 2016 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

shags
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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by shags » Sat Oct 01, 2016 5:33 am

I look for the dog to appear to float over the ground. His gait looks effortless. A shooting dog gait is animated by a head above shoudler level, high active tail, and shorter strides, but the dog still looks smooth going. To me an all age gait is less fancy with long powerful strides, a head more level, and not so much tail. Either way there is speed and power evident. This is how I describe my own dogs based on their performance and range, so other people will have different criteria terminology.

A poor gait, a dog will pound the ground with the front end. The gait can look fancy but looking closelt will reveal choppy; or just awkward. The feet, legs, shoulders don't hold up over time.

Another poor gait, what some call rocking horse, in which the front end bobs up and down as the dog goes. This wastes energy, as vertical motion doesn't take them anywhere. I see this a lot in dual-types of the setter breeds; they look nice at the trot but they have difficulty running.

Being too straight fore and aft makes pounders; too much shoulder layback and rear angulation makes rocking horses. Moderation on both ends, leaning somewhat to straighter, seems to be the ticket.

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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by reba » Sat Oct 01, 2016 5:53 am

Dog Locomotion and Gait, by Curtis M Brown is the book you want.

It has many drawings of different breeds showing their movement and gait.

I worked for Mr Brown back in the 70's. The book is excellent!

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SCT
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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by SCT » Sat Oct 01, 2016 8:02 am

Yes, Curtis Brown's book is the best I've read, and I have several. There's a newer book called "Dogs in Motion" that I'm going to get soon that looks very good as well.

Here's a video of the kind of gait I like to see in my pups. He's only 8 months old and averaging 12-13 mph. When he is fully developed he will average 16-18 mph and his gait will stretch out some and will actually be smoother, even though I consider this fairly smooth. And I love his tail action and set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcyPw5PFF6Q

His aunt has a gait that is very fast and so smooth it looks like you could set a glass of water on her head and not spill a drop.

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SCT
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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by SCT » Sat Oct 01, 2016 8:12 am

Here's another video, this time of my 19 month old male Copper, and even though he's small in the video, towards the end you get a side view. He is not as smooth as the female I was talking about, but he has a huge stride and doesn't always look like he is going real fast, but he covers ground very fast because of his stride. At the end of this 40 minute run he averaged 18.5 mph on the Garmin Astro. However, his first 5 miles averaged over 20 mph. I consider him an all age dog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN3hCd7STIY

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Gertie
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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by Gertie » Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:02 pm

Thanks so much for the responses. I ordered the Brown book and "Dogs in Motion" (ouch $). Fun stuff! I like the analytical side of this stuff and you really can geek out as much as you want to :D

Btw, great videos Steve. They do a very good job of illustrating what you are saying. Much appreciated.

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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by oregon woodsmoke » Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:29 pm

Stand behind the dog and watch him move away. The hock joint should not bend to the outside or the inside. The feet should point straight ahead. The back leg should make a straight line. The feet will most likely land slightly closer together that the width of the pelvis, although it is perfectly OK if the legs move directly under the widest point of the hips and the feet land directly under the point of the hips. You just don't want to see the hocks move close together and the feet move wider (cow hocked). Or the hocks to move wider than the path of the feet (bow legged)

Stand in front and watch the dog move towards you. The front leg should form a straight line as it moves. You don't want to see the elbows sticking out or the feet turned inward or outward. Toes should be pointing forward.

From the side, the movement should look easy. You want a long elastic step. The hocks should be picked up and the step clear, not shuffling. The front pasterns should fold a bit. You should see the shoulder assembly sliding forward and back (unless the dog is disgustingly fat).

Different breeds have a different standard about whether or not the back foot should land in front of where the front foot has just been. Check your breed standard.

Feet are important. Look for feet that have toes closely held and thick pads. Loose toes and flat feet are more in danger of being broken. Again breed standards vary about what sort of feet, but all breeds should have compact feet and thick pads. Pasterns are important. They should be strong and not turned in or put.

You don't want to see the dog pound or bobble as it moves. If it jerks its head up and down, it is probably lame.

And after all that, a dog does not have to move well to be a personal hunting dog. If you have a dog with a big heart that isn't the prettiest mover, he can still hunt for you. Good movement is less tiring for the dog and less prone to injury. So if you are breeding, you deliberately bred for good movement and if you are picking out a new puppy, you try to get one with good movement.
Last edited by oregon woodsmoke on Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by oregon woodsmoke » Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:39 pm

If you really are interested in the technical stuff, you'll get a longer, more elastic stride if the hocks are well let down and the dog is long through the stifle. If the dog has a shoulder blade that lays back well and the upper arm is the same length and a mirror image of the shoulder blade in angulation, you will get a longer stride in front.

You won't get that long elastic floating gait if the dog can't take a long stride.

The lay back of the shoulder and the length of the upper arm, plus the low hocks are visible from the day the pup is whelped. Stifles often look short on young pups and will often length over the first few months, but by 8 weeks, you should be able to tell

But from day one, if you train your eye, you can pick out good structure. Good structure is the skeleton and the skeleton doesn't change much except to get bigger as the pup grows.

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SCT
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Re: Tell Me About "Gait"

Post by SCT » Sun Oct 02, 2016 5:05 pm

You will love Brown's book Holly, and likely the expensive one;-). I'd love to hear what you think about both books. I recommend you read every word from the preface forward in Brown's book. Every time I pick it up I get excited about his ability to affirm his logical findings.

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