BOOK REVIEW

by William Kachman

I don't know how many books of the non fiction persuasion I have read that directly or indirectly relate or can be applied to a better understanding of our canine friends; probably about five or six dozen or so. The number of articles and magazines... too numerous to remember. Some of those books and periodicals have had super information; some were junk; and many were somewhere in between. Then it occurred to me: Hey! I'll bet there are people in the Bouvier club who would like to know before they buy and read a book if it is worth the necessary financial and time commitment or if it's a dud. With that in mind I propose to do a few book reviews. My format will be to start with a summary of the seminal contents and theme of the text and wind up with my critique and recommendation on the book. To start things on the right foot I am going to commence with a splendid book - the bible of canine movement - Dog Locomotion And Gait Analysis by Curtis Brown .

Curtis Brown is an engineer. He brings that experience to this work like a breath of fresh air! Canine movement books as well as ( dare I say it) Breed Standards have often been little more than the compilation of generations of wives' tales, mythology and simple minded guess work.

I believe Brown's work is the most significant step ever made on this front and - if it gets its rightful recognition - will revolutionize the way we judge and breed dogs. With that said I will try to summarize this benchmark publication.

Brown's central theme is that a dog's function will dictate his form. If the dog is supposed to chase down foxes then he should have a body that best suits fox chasing; if he is supposed to kill vermin then he should have a body that best suits vermin killing; and so on and so on. Doesn't that make sense? Of course it does! In fact, you're probably tempted to ask " What fool wouldn't know that? " Well, the answer, incredibly enough, seems to be "Virtually everyone." Previous text books and even many breed Standards are based upon an analysis of the horse , of all things! In this book Brown reveals obvious and not so obvious fundamental differences between horses and dogs.

Having shown us why we cannot use horses as a model for canine skeletal and muscular structure Brown then analyses wild animals related to the dog. Wolves, jackals, foxes coyotes, dingoes and such are examined in word and picture, both in motion and at rest. Why study these wild relatives of the dog rather than start immediately into an examination of the dog? The answer is quite straightforward if you think about it for a moment. If we start our analysis of how dogs should be built by looking at how they are built, we'd work in a circle to a foregone conclusion. It would be like studying a 250 pound body builder to decide how a normal, fit human should be built. Let me explain it another way. Dogs have been bred and molded by man for thousands of generations. They are so changed from their origins that few if any of our breeds today could even survive long in the wild. Just look at the Toy Poodle and the St. Bernard, for example, and imagine: these are the same species, both derived from the same ancestor. Since the two can still breed with each other we know the differences are, in the overall realm of things, rather superficial; and yet, those differences are indisputably significant. With that in mind how could we start our analysis of the "typical canine" by looking at either the Toy Poodle or the St. Bernard , or any other breed for that matter? No, the "basic canine" should start from basic, general principals proven effective by survival in the wild.

Brown's analysis indicates the key to survival for wild canids is their endurance . Wild cats survive by being faster than their prey. Their hunts are short and rely upon lightening speed. Wolves, coyotes and the like cannot usually outrun their prey. They outlast it. They let their prey tire out by sprinting way out front. It doesn't matter. The canids use their keen sense of smell to track down their prey as they relentlessly stalk it., hour by hour. To accomplish that goal they use an energy efficient style of moving known as the trot. It is the trot that enables them to move long distances at moderate speed without tiring. On the other hand, their top speed is curtailed by the very structures that make them efficient trotters. That makes sense: cheetahs can hit speeds of 70 mph for a couple hundred yards. If wolves were to hit those speeds they would have to have bodies very much like the cheetahs'. However, as soon as they appeared similar to cheetahs they wouldn't be able to trot as efficiently , so they'd have to hunt by relying on speed rather than endurance.

Having identified their optimum movement Brown next analyses several canid species and pin points the physical features responsible for that movement. Brown explains these in wonderful detail and with great clarity. A short list of these would include:

  1. front angulation is moderately oblique at about 120 degrees, rather than "well laid back " at 90 degrees;
  2. rear angulation is also moderate with the animal's rear feet un -der his rump , not behind him, as so many judges like to see;
  3. his neck is moderate, not long;
  4. there is a definitely prescribed leg length to torso depth ratio;
  5. withers are flatfish (only slightly arched), not high and graceful;
  6. the hock is short;
  7. the back is longish, not "cobby" or "square";
  8. contrary to popular opinion, canids should not have too much reach in front nor too much drive in the rear.

From the canids' diet and need to hunt, Brown also identifies head specifications, such as;

  1. large, strong teeth;
  2. wide, heavy, bony jaws and muzzle;
  3. eyes well set, not bulging or sunken;
  4. scissor bite;
  5. head about twice as long as it is wide.

There we have it: the "basic" canid. Having identified these tools of survival for wild canids, we are reminded that our domestic dogs have had their function changed from the wild by man, some to a greater degree and some to a lesser degree. As a result, the form required by wild canids is the form appropriate for our domestic breeds, except to the extent each breed's specific function dictates.

Thus Brown launches into a brief review of the Standards of a few breeds taken at random. Here he identifies how the "basic canid structure" will be modified for each breed according to the specific function of that breed. Unfortunately, the Bouvier is not among the breeds discussed. No matter. Brown gives us much more than an explanation of our breed. He gives us the tools we need to do that examination ourselves. Brown brings us back to first principals :function dictates structure. It is for this reason , Brown explains, that the most important part of any breed Standard is its Statement of Origin and Purpose. If you know where a breed originated and what it was used for (ie: its function) , you have all you need to piece together how its body should be shaped. On the other hand if a Standard omits this Statement and merely says the shoulders should be "so" and the ribs "thus" etc., we have no way of saying whether the Standard correctly or incorrectly portrays the breed.

This leads to another important revelation by Brown: Standards can be wrong! It is not enough for us to merely memorize the Standard so that we can recite it in our sleep. We must examine it in relation to the origin and purpose of the breed. From that we can verify the details set out in the Standard or, if necessary, identify its mistakes! (I believe the principals revealed by Brown lead to the conclusion that the FCI Standard for the Bouvier does indeed contain some errors and that the Canadian and U.S. Standards contain even more. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on that conclusion. But I must say: I'd almost certainly feel obliged to justify my conclusions in another article).

RECOMMENDATIONS

I believe this is one of the best dog books ever written. The text is clear and precise and liberally illustrated with meaningful diagrams and photographs. It would be cheap at five times the cost! I think every dog owner should buy it, read it and re read it. I don't think anyone should be permitted to breed a dog of any breed until they've mastered this work (I'm being facetious, of course, but not by much) . Dog Locomotion and Gait Analysis is available in soft cover and can be purchased by writing to Hoflin Publishing Ltd. at 4401 Zephyr Street, Wheat Ridge , CO 80033-3299, U.S.A.