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Angles: Front
and Rear |
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by Fred Lanting |
The Front
Variously called the front
assembly, forequarters, or shoulder, the whole combination made by the shoulder
blade (scapula), upper arm (humerus), breastbone
(sternum), and their related soft tissues is at the heart of much poor movement
in German Shepherd Dogs the world over.
Shoulder
assembly — The
least understood and most controversial portions of the Standard as well as of
the dog relate to the angles proscribed for the forequarters and hindquarters.
I disagree with the angles commonly reported to be ideal in the shoulder area,
though much of the discrepancy may be a matter of how that angle is usually
measured. To specify angles is useless unless exact points of reference are not
only agreed upon but also easily determined. Since the bones forming these
angles are curved, such "landmarks" as the highest point of the
scapula, the foremost point of the upper arm where it meets the shoulder, and
the topmost point of the elbow should be used as well as a detailed
illustration decided upon. None of the German Shepherd
Dog Standard editions or versions has been so explicit, nor have any in other
breeds. Some years ago I radiographed standing dogs
and found that what I had been reading in books and seeing in artists' drawings
was not so. The call for a 45-degree shoulder layback plus another supposed
45-degree angle to the "line" of the upper arm, equaling
a 90-degree shoulder angle, is inaccurate and misleading. If
lines are drawn along the scapular spine and down the center
of the humerus, as they usually are, a 90-degree
angle in the real, live dog standing there before you will never be realized.
Since the time I started challenging this notion, there have been noted
authorities who have corroborated my claims with independent research, but it
will be a long time before the old books are all revised and longer still
before writers do their own investigative work instead of copying sketches from
each other. Probably the best drawing of the ideal German Shepherd Dog ever
published in this country is Lloyd Fanning's which appeared in the Review and
in a small booklet on the breed published by the German Shepherd Dog Club of
America. Strange that so many have used incorrect
representations instead of this accurate sketch.
Sketches in this chapter
represent the typical German Shepherd with a good
shoulder. Dogs with better reach and a floating gait have close to the same
angles and layback. I suspect much more credit for such gait lies in the
muscles and ligaments than has been imagined, measured, or hinted at in the
past.
In actuality, the ideal shoulder
with a 90-degree (approximate) angle from point of elbow to point of shoulder
to highest point on scapula has about a 35-degree layback, not 45 degrees (see
page 62). Additionally, factors such as the relative lengths
of scapula and humerus, and the angle at which the humerus inclines, play parts in the standing appearance and
in the reach in motion. While they didn't have all the answers, Humphrey
and Warner had most of them, and they determined that 102 degrees was ideal for
the working German Shepherd Dog.
The scapula does not articulate
with any bones at its top, but is attached by four muscles to the spinal column
at a number of places from the first cervical to the ninth thoracic vertebra
and to the first seven or eight ribs. This is the case whether the dog is
steep-shouldered or well-laid back, so differences between the two types must
be due to differences in scapula and humerus lengths
and ratios; perhaps the lengths of the vertebrae; and the tightness and
condition of the ligaments and muscles which hold the bones in their positions.
In examining the standing dog,
the good layback of 35 or 30 degrees can be determined either by feeling the
slope of the scapular spine or by palpating the highest point of the scapula
and the most forward point of the upper arm (point B in Fig. 1 a.) and
imagining a line between these points. The two lines will be essentially
parallel, so take your choice; in either case, you will have approached the
question scientifically. By observing the facts for yourself you will be able
to arrive at a conclusion or hypothesis. The sooner we understand what is as
opposed to what we imagine, the sooner we'll understand how to get the most out
of our dogs.
Another problem in reporting a 45-degree or greater layback
is that it doesn't occur in the standing dog. Possibly you might exclude achondroplastic dwarf breeds such as the Corgi, although a
noted Dachshund breeder once told me that my statement about “no such shoulder
angle as 45 degrees” was true for his breed as well. It does happen
when the dog is trotting, running, deeply crouching, or lying. The reason for
this is that the scapula is not fixed or stationary; its lower end is pulled
back by the trapezius and forward by the omotransversarius and serratus,
with many other muscles being involved to a lesser extent. These angles can be
visualized by watching slow-motion movies or the frames taken from those, and
superimposing (technically, infra-imposing) the skeleton or lines representing
the bones. Examining many dogs of varying qualities, hopefully with the
guidance of a knowledgeable veteran, will enable you to see these proper angles
in motion and in standing.
Hindquarters
The thigh — What is meant by
"the whole assembly of the thigh" in the wording of the AKC Standard?
Viewed from the side, it includes the croup, upper thigh (femur and associated
soft tissues), and lower thigh (tibia and fibula). If these three skeletal
sections are too "vertical" or steep, the hindquarters will not
present the broad picture called for by the Standard. Obviously, if the croup
and lower thigh are slanted downward toward the rear, the femur will not also
be so. Nor is it angled forward when the dog stands in a normal pose, in spite
of the Standard's inaccurate statement about it paralleling the scapula. Many
books on many other breeds have made the same error; even some written by
well-known judges who should have known better than to report on something they
did not experience in real life.
From experience both in radiographing live, standing dogs and in feeling for the
bones in the hindquarters, I have found that the femur is vertical when the
metatarsus (hock) is vertical. The natural stance for German Shepherd
Dogs is with one rear leg placed a little under the torso for added support of
a long, substantial body. In this leg, the femur is not vertical, but neither
is the hock. Lift the dog's rear leg while you feel with your fingers for the acetabular (hip) joint capsule, and make a chalk mark
there. Then feel the depression between the upper and lower leg bones. This is
some distance below the patella, which is too hidden in cartilage to be
accurately palpated. You can now see that the femur is quite straight and
vertical between these two easily-located points.
The slant of the lower thigh
roughly approximates that of both the croup and the humerus,
and although there is considerable variation, it probably comes closest when
the metatarsus is vertical, but even then not in all dogs. The angle the lower
thigh bones make with the femur in a natural stance is not a right angle. Here
again I am forced to contradict a poorly worded line in the Standard which is
more fancy than fact, and probably harks back to the days before radiography
was used much.
Even von Stephanitz
may have understated conditions a little when he said this angle should be
"90 to 100 degrees, sometimes even a bit more." He was talking about
the angle made between the pelvis (croup) and femur, which I have shown is not
possible. But one of the axioms of geometry indicates that if the croup is
parallel with the tibia, the angle between the femur and tibia equals that
between the femur and croup. Remembering that this premise of parallel lines is
approximate at best, consider the fact that most excellent, moderately, or even
very-angulated dogs have 120 degrees or more between lower thigh and femur,
however one measures it.
The angle between pelvis and
femur is not a right angle. With a slope of 35 degrees to the croup, and a
nearly vertical femur, that angle will be around 125 degrees in the ideal dog
(90 + 35). To have a right angle would necessitate a horizontal croup or a
forward- slanting femur, neither of which are found. The angle between a
vertical line running through the stifle and approximating the femur, and the line from stifle to point of hock varies from
95 degrees in an extreme dog to about 130 or 140 degrees in a less-angulated,
straighter-stifled dog. This means the angle of the lower thigh from the
horizontal varies from 5 to 50 degrees in various breeds.
