PWDStructure

PWD Structure

	Poor unfortunate creature on the left! Her elbows are so loose they flap in the breeze. Her wrists pull in toward each other, and because her body is constantly looking for a straight line of support, her feet turn out to try to supply it. This dog could be a pet, and good grooming would help her not look so much like a poor-quality ShihTzu cross, but doing any dogsports, work, or long walks would be out of the question. She'd be limping in no time at all.		The 5-month-old pup here has a superb front end. Her elbows are neatly tucked in, and her legs go straight down from there. The bend at the top is to give her ample room for heart and lungs.

	Her back end is going to give her trouble, too. Her pelvis (the white square) isn't as much longer as the dog's on the right, you're just seeing the entire face of it. You can tell better by looking at the side view following. The 4-month-old pup on the right has a pelvis that slants a lot more from top to bottom so you're seeing it on an angle (again, look at		The pup on the right has a brilliant straight line of support from the hips down. The correct angles of her bones allow correct muscle attachments, which give the muscles on her outer (green arrow) and inner (yellow arrow) thighs to grow.
the side photos below). The dog on the left's knees point in opposite directions, and she's pulled her hocks in close to each other to compensate. Because her hocks turn in and her knees turn out, her feet have to point out as well. Try it yourself!		The outer thigh muscle has already developed a nice hard vertical ridge, and the inner thigh is showing the "cathedral window" arch on each side


From the side, this poor baby will need to be examined in detail. First, she has a "ewe neck", which means, due to improper structure not allowing proper muscle development, her neck looks as if it's put on upside-down. It's narrow at the bottom and wider at the top. Her shoulderblade is nearly straight up and down, so her muscles have little support from the bone. Note that the top of the bone is beside her neck, which is why the muscles of her withers haven't filled out as they have in the photo below (red arrow below).
Because her body is looking for support, her elbow is much further forward than it should be. This gives a very shallow angle between the shoulderblade and upper arm – a "straight front" in the photo of the pup from the front above is a good thing, but the "straight shoulder" this girl is showing is a very bad thing. To put the finishing touches on a very, very unfortunate front end, her wrists or "pasterns" are soft. They slant forward to her feet, which is another place she could break down, though given the rest of her, I wouldn't be spending too much time worrying about her pasterns. Her rear is the scariest part of her. (I've edited her tail out of the picture so you can see her back leg better). Her pelvis tips down, which causes that amazing lump in her back, produces a corresponding skislope of a croup (blue arrow), and sets her tail down far too low for it to stand up correctly. Her upper thighbone can't go straight down to the ground because of how it joins the pelvis, so she has to stand with her whole back leg too far forward. To balance this, she has a shallow angle at the knee, which is her biggest physical problem. This straight knee is the weakest part of her body, and she's going to rip the knee ligaments if she sneezes hard, requiring expensive and unpleasant surgery. The angle of the pelvis and the straight knee also mean that she has her entire back leg straight, and directly under her, or even slightly forward. You can see that the bottom white line in her back leg is pointing forward. She'll do a lot of work to move, since she has no ability to reach forward or drive backwards with any power. I suspect with any amount of exercise, her body would compensate for her very bad rear end by having her pretty bad front do most of the work, so her front would become more and more muscular and her rear would become less and less fit, putting even more strain on the knees.
This 4-month-old pup is still growing. Her head isn't large yet, and her body hasn't quite caught up to her neck. Also she's longer than tall, but not by much. These are "breed type" concerns, however, and have nothing to do with her excellent structure. Note the strong slope from the white patch on her neck into her back (red arrow). These are her "withers". That slope is caused by the large muscles attached to her shoulderblade, which slopes backward correctly. Her elbow is almost directly under her withers, which, because of the slope of the shoulderblade, means that her upper arm slopes back nicely as well,
setting her front legs well under her and leaving her an ample forechest. From the elbow her front leg goes straight down to the ground, and her pastern (black line) is correct – straight up and down enough to be strong, slanting enough to provide good cushioning for jumping. Her pelvis angle is excellent, and her croup slopes very slightly from the front of the pelvis to the tail. The slope of the pelvis allows the "femur" or upper thighbone to come out of it at a more appropriate angle than that of the dog above, and that in turn gives the knee a correct bend into the lower leg. Any knee can get ripped in an accident, but, as knees go, this one is strong and safe. From the "hock" to the ground, her back leg is either straight up and down, or slanting back slightly, which just means the pup is interested in what's in front of her. Note in this pup that there is "a lot behind the tail" – an indication of correct pelvic and knee angles, and of a strong, correct dog. Many words can be used to describe the capable and sound structure of this young dog – she's "foursquare". She "stands over a lot of ground". She's "handy". She's a strong, solid, athletic dog.