cross gaiting gsd - Page 3

OK if he's three he won't get any taller, will he;  and only reason he can get heavier is if you

feed him too much and exercise him too little (btw  I don't see the latter happening if he keeps

running about after vermin at the same rate as he has been !)

Dont tax my brain, BRO, what's  185cm  in old money ?

Edited to change that to "little   younger Bro'"  teeheehee

it's pure awesome is what it is, oh yeah.

What the heck  is "cross gaiting"? Do you mean he moves both of his legs on the same side of his body at the same time? Like this  \  \ ?  That's called pacing in the animal world.  Most dogs who pace look awkward, uncoordinated and their toplines will roll from side to side rather that remaining static and firm.

It's common in bigger dogs and you generally see it when the dog first starts out or when it gets tired (as Ibrahim already said, it's a resting gait). If this dog is as tall as you think he is, it's going to take a big increase in speed to break him out of the pace. The only place pacing is going to be a big deal is in the show ring. If you don't show him, I would just let him pace. It can be a very hard thing to break in a tall dog or a dog that is heavily angulated like my ASL who can pace faster than some dogs can run.  She paced while running next to a bike during most of 12 miles she ran for her AD. You could try running him next to an ATV or a golf cart to see if he breaks out of the pace. Few humans are going to be able to run fast enough to break him out unless you learn how to teach him to not pace by using leash corrections. Not easy, trust me.

It's never a bad idea to know the hip and elbow status of a GSD you are planning to train, so I'd suggest that you do that one day soon if you haven't already. Hip and/or elbow incongruities can be the underlying causes of pacing, so never overlook the obvious.

While trotting is the preferred and more appealing gait of the German Shepherd, pacing is still a correct gait especially at lowe speed. I studied many German VA gaits in the Sieger show on youtube and watched them at slow video speed, I noticed many of them start their gait by pacing then as they gain speed they switch to trot.

We had a discussion few months ago involving trot of Asl and I noticed the American VAs, almost all of them, start their gait by trot even at low speed, therefore suggesting that pacing is connected with longer back is not very correct in my opinion because Asl has longer back proportion than the WGSL and trots almost at all speeds while GSL has shorter back proportion but tends to pace at start of gait till it gains speed. I assume in German show ring pacing is not a "serioius fault" especially at start of gait or at low speed.

Correction: maybe I should have said American Ch instead of American VA

I believe the pace to be a very serious fault.  It is not a natural gait.  Horses have to be trained and bred to do it.  Cattle never do it and most breeds of dogs don't other than those that are bred for conformation.  I.e. the field labs don't have a problem with pacing in their lines but the conformation lines do. 

Most working GSD's don't display the pace but those that more approximate the V dogs do.  It's a byproduct of the changes in the structure.  What exactly causes it though I don't know.  If I was going to guess, I'd blame it on the overangulation (mainly cuz it sounds good and I believe the over angulation robs power from the rear end). 

^ well the show crowd claim ad naseum that it is precisely the angulation in the rear thaat gives them the strength and drive in locomotion.

go figure

Except the extreme angulation prevents them from jumping very high or with power.  Same in the running, most of the dogs with the extreme "correct" angulation run with a bunny hop motion in their hind legs.  They should be able to run correctly if the angulation is correct and they can't.  They are breeding them for the trot and the trot only.  The pace is an unintended consequence, which is why the judges look past it. 

oh but the purpose of the conformation show is to preserve the real intentions and purpose of the breed - the flying trot thingy is becuase the GSD uses it's legs to form the appearance of a fence to the sheepies to confine their movement.

have you ever seen a sheep dog have to retrieve a dumb-bell over an A-frame, no didn't think so.

you WL guys just don't get it.

I have a sheepie outrun a dog before.....

The most consistent pacer I ever bred was also one of the straightest dogs I ever bred. Not only was he straight both behind and in front, he was also very tall with a short body. I am 5 foot tall, short legs,  that dog was a good 27" at the shoulders and I could not start him out fast enough to prevent him from pacing from the start nor could I run fast enough to break him out of it once he started pacing

I had the same issue with an Irish Wolfhound I handled.  Neither dog was in bad condition.  I gave the first dog to a much taller handler who easily got him to trot after taking his first few steps. I've showed other dogs that I could break out of a pace simply by giving the dog an immediate lead correction.

My ASL will pace, she has a lot of angulation thus a very big side gait. She can cover more ground in 5 steps than a straighter dog can in 9 or 10. However, if she not moving at a fast enough speed, she will pace. As I've said, she paced during most of her AD running next to a bike because Eddie didn't want to bike her too hard in the FL heat. She started at the front of the pack (malis, GWLs, GSL, rotties) and finished way ahead of the pack. She barely broke a sweat in the FL heat while some of the dogs weren't allowed to continue, the judge thought they were too exhausted. Also, she has zero trouble clearing a high jump carrying a Sch dumbell. 

In my experience, I disagree that a dog that paces is faulty or lacks endurance. Maybe too angulated, but still able to get the job done.  It's mostly about about the length of body vs the length of leg vs the angulation and speed of movement. It's complicated.

If anyone wants to get into all of this more, you might want to buy "The Dog in Motion" by McDowell Lyons. With the use of stop action video we now know that some of his theories about movement in the GSD are no longer considered correct - he thought that the breed was the only with a flying trot where all 4 feet left the ground at the same time. We now know that most breeds do that to a lesser degree.