19/11/2025
From Canine Construction and Conformation:
Good article.
“Lets Talk About Movement
An Examination of Movement in the Dog (Part 1)
with Deborah Andoetoe
When we take a dog down and back we are looking for the perfect trot for that dog. Ideally, the dog moves at a speed that allows each leg to be seen, the flight path noted, and the structure appreciated. The trot is the gait that best shows balance and scope or reveals aspects that are less desirable. Taking a dog around the ring, so the side gait can be examined, we generally look for rhythm with appropriate reach and drive.
In Warmblood Sport Horse Registries, animals are recorded by parentage but must also be graded and licensed once they are mature before given a breeding designation. Today’s sport horses are scored numerically against a standard and stallions are often additionally graded for trainability and temperament. Our current show dog fancy strives to similarly reward the elite, the top “specials,” while also recognizing adequate breeding candidates and, hopefully, preventing poor specimens from passing on their genes. Dogs are examined and judged against other dogs presented on a particular day with the breed standard as the ideal.
Unlike modern sport horses, today’s responsibly bred show dogs are not inspected and graded individually. They are not awarded a single numeric score that defines them and ranks them as dictated by the breed standard and follows them throughout their performance career. Rather, judges balance what has been defined in each standard with the animals standing before them, allowing for good and bad days and differences in handlers and conditioning. Every dog in each breed of all seven groups must be examined and judged. This task is so huge that judges work as teams, each coming from their own background. Each judge brings their own preferences and understanding of breeds they have been licensed to judge to the ring. At the end of the day, only one dog is awarded Best of Breed and competes in their designated Group where adherence to the standard is the only way for judges to sort out the soundest dogs who best conform to breed type for further competition.
Dissociation at the Trot
The trot is defined as a two-beat gait with diagonal limbs moving in unison. Rather than being a pure, two-beat gait, the trot is often a four-beat gait with diagonal pairs of feet striking the ground at nearly the same moment. Diagonal Advanced Placement (DAP) is where diagonal pairs of feet (in the trot or three-beat gallop) do not hit the ground simultaneously. In many breeds, the best moving animals — those most uphill in their movement with freedom of shoulder, great reach, and a strong drive behind — show positive dissociation at the trot. Dissociation is a discernible difference between good structure providing superior movement and poor (occasionally immature or unbalanced) structure providing inadequate movement particularly in breeds where spectacular side movement is desirable.
As diagonal pairs strike the ground, if the rear paw hits first, it is termed positive dissociation of the trot. For many breeds, this is the most desirable movement, especially in dogs who work at speed or over distances. If the front foot hits first, it is negative dissociation of the trot. Often a negative dissociation makes the animal appear to move on the forehand.
Illustration “1a” shows positive dissociation at the trot. Illustration “1b” shows negative dissociation of the trot. These are identical drawings, the only change has been to balance, rotating the drawing to change which leg of the diagonal pair hits the ground first. We can easily see how “1b”’s rump is higher than his shoulders and his hind foot moves further behind him than “1a” who moves with an uphill balance. The dog in “1b” is moving downhill, and his rear “bounces” behind him as he moves. True uphill movement is the result of proper balance with the reach and drive available from good conformation combined with suspension. Without both, even a dog with superior structure would fail to exhibit this kind of reach and drive. This is the main reason puppies need time to grow and gain dexterity and control of their limbs before having a successful show career.
It is important to recognize that positive dissociation at the trot and negative dissociation at the trot both come from reach, drive, and that moment of suspension, or hang time. This is not the same as disunity where a dog’s front legs may hover over the ground or the dog may have a broken rhythm to his gait. Disunity is always bad movement. An example of disunity is the trained display of the Spanish Walk in a horse where the front leg takes a huge, high step and the back leg takes a small, short step. Dissociation comes from suspension. Disunity comes from poor conformation.
All movement, good or bad, is the result of physics; the combination of lever lengths and corresponding angles moved by muscles. For most people, physics can be very confusing; physics speaks of torque and angles, lever arms, and moment. Think of torque as the rotation of an object about a pivot point (think of joints as pivot points). Just as force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist. The longer the lever (bone), the bigger the twist – so we need big joints and strong bones to withstand the increased pressure as size increases. Crooked levers may twist in unexpected directions, or put undue strain on joints, tendons or ligaments, and weak connective tissue may allow joints to wobble, damaging the joint. Bones are not completely straight and we can affect the amount of curve or the position of various markers/shapes in each bone through breeding choices.”
