This article first appeared in the AKC Gazette.
Written by Marianne Sullivan
The human eye is very forgiving. We tend to take in the entire picture of a dog and ignore the finer points. It takes training, practice, and experience to appreciate and note the nuances of detail.
A fun way to train ourselves is collect a variety of photographs and study them. Isolate the dog’s rear, and if it is a dog you know personally forget your preconceived ideas. Remember, handlers can place legs for photos or the dog might be standing incorrectly for a number of reasons. This is simply a tool to train our eyes for details.
Begin with Lorraine Still’s illustrated drawings of the rear, and of course the standard, for comparison. It’s essential to have an ideal image in your mind in order to visualize the correct assembly. Collies function as herding dogs and as endurance trotters; this means differences in structure from sighthounds or sled dogs. The rear assembly starts at the top; the slope of the croup gives us a visual clue of the angle of the pelvis. An interesting exercise is to try to mark the points from the 1) point of the pelvis at the buttocks to the 2) point of the stifle joint, to the 3) point of hock joint. Then draw lines between these points and you can visualize angles and length of bones. Easier to guess these points on a smooth than a rough coated Collie!
The hocks (rear pasterns) should be vertical: not bent in or out. Take a look at the loin area, is it long or short? Is the dog standing too far “up under” himself? Where are the feet placed? Is the stifle too straight? Or is the dog over angulated; a fault that can appear aesthetically pleasing, but is still incorrect for our breed. Take a look at the feet, the metatarsal area; does it look firm and straight or is it weak and perhaps bent inward? It is natural for the dog’s feet to be pointed very slightly outwards. Are the toes well arched and the pastern nice and straight without any sign of looseness?
Bones are the levers and the tendons attach the muscles to the bone. Tendons and ligaments can be long or short and the joints elastic or stiff. Conditioning is extremely important; getting your Collie athletically fit can and does alter the dog and how it moves. So does our inadvertent training. For example, pacing is a rolling gait caused by the legs on the same side of the dog moving in the same direction. Novices and performance folks are particularly vulnerable to letting their dogs pace and it can become a default gait. Training classes where the handler initially moves the dog at a slow speed and then gradually increases speed teaches the dog to pace. To go from a walk to a trot requires the dog to take a stutter step. To get out of a pace you can make a quick turn, go from a stop directly to a trot, or slightly push the dog off center to correct the problem. Get those who know the difference to evaluate early on if you are inadvertently teaching your dog to pace. I hope you are inspired to take a new look at rears!
