Very interesting, I had no idea. Sirius and Sky seem to be able to run at the same speed. I don't know if Sky self handicaps to make the game more sporting or not. I don't know if it is just her smaller size or a function of her leg structure, but Sirius seems to run very low to the ground. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it. I'm also not sure that there is much bounce in her pace. I'm trying to remember now. It just strikes me as the image of a low flying bullet. Her legs pump so fast they just become a blur. Sky can run very quickly, but her run is more graceful and bouncey. That is also very interesting about the gait of the GSD'semmabeth wrote:Ah now some interesting points here..
Firstly Sirius... bearing in mind she is NOT a sighthound of course, and I apologise for this in advance as I am pointing out a fault here.. her hind leg is very straight and she has a very short second thigh.
If you compare her hind leg to Sky's, you can see this quite clearly, there is not a lot of curve down the back side of the hind leg and the distance from the knee joint to the hock joint is short - not a huge fault in a non running dog, but the uprightness will shorten her stride.
In some breeds they actually appear to breed FOR a very upright hind leg but we are not talking breed showing here, I am talking 'mechanics' - the hind leg that is upright won't cover so much ground (shorter stride) and won't act so much like a spring, so moving requires more effort.
Now if you look at Opal running in slow mo, though it would be easier to see in a straight line - watch just HOW far her hind leg moves from when she picks it up, to when she puts it back down. She over tracks, ie, her hind leg comes WAY past her front leg before it hits the ground.
This is the point, of considering hind leg angulation, the back, upper hind leg and lower hind leg act like a spring and the more action that can be achieved through 'elastic' energy, the less effort the dog needs to put in, the more ground it can cover.
I am hoping to get video of the dogs running the lure course this weekend. Then I just need to figure out how to post it.
I did notice that the second dog looked very bouncey, but I received the impression that the second dog was perhaps still a puppy. Some of the dogs seemed to be running sideways. Their front end seemed closer to the handler than their back end. I noticed this on the last 2 dogs that were judged in particular. I wasn't sure if that was a function of poor body structure, since I'm pretty sure one of the dogs that seemed to run sideways was identified as a champion, or perhaps discomfort on the part of the dog in having their hind feet so close to the handler's feet. I thought the first dog looked very smooth in motion.
Still working on getting her in show pose...she'll stretch one leg back if I put it there, but she won't bend the other leg like show GSDs seem to do.
Again, I have absolutely no clue what I'm meant to be doing here. Can anyone give me some pointers? 
