1072 DOES A TERRIER NEED LEG LENGTH
DOES A TERRIER NEEDS LEG-LENGTH?
by David Hancock
Terriers come in all shapes and sizes, most of them to do the same job. Is there a one size suits all conclusion here or does country and custom decide the issue? Dachshunds were once earth-dogs and Dandies have a different leg-length from Irish and Welsh Terriers. The decider may well be just how short a terrier breed's legs are and whether the eventual leg length isn't decided by show fashion in the pedigree breeds ahead of any working benefit. The Skye Terrier was always short-legged but never originally as short as the few remaining specimens today. There are other factors too in the field: are the terriers conveyed in a rider's saddle pouch or do they run with the hounds? Are they required to dig or squeeze into rocky crevices? If they are on their own four feet what is the going? But whatever the length of their legs, the soundness of their construction decides their success, it affects their stamina and their movement above all.
In the show ring, as in Poodles and Pinschers, the size of the dog can sometimes decide the breed, withsome breeds knowingly using the Breed Standard to create a breed, based on size alone, to start with, before the dreaded 'breed points' are introduced to 'cement' the newly-created 'breed'. In some breeds, even at Hound Shows, measuring sticks have been utilised to ensure that size matters! The Beagle is a case in point; does a too-tall Beagle matter if the longer legs suit the country? Does a smaller Beagle somehow become not a Beagle due to its shoulder height? In the terrier breeds, the Kennel Club Standard sets out the word picture. The Airedale is deemed a terrier or earth-dog despite a desired height at shoulder of two feet. The Australian Terrier is expected to be 10 inches at the withers, the Bedlington 16ins., the Cairn 12ins., the Dandie 11ins., the Irish 19ins., the Lakeland 14ins., the Norfolk 10ins., the Parson Russell 14ins., the Welsh 15ins. and the Westie 11ins. Were the foxes in each area hunted of a different size? They too had to manoeuvre below ground and in stoney, craggy openings.
Why doesn't the Smooth Fox Terrier have size strictures when the Wire-haired version does? A Bull Terrier doesn't have a size restriction but its miniature version does. Can the Border Terrier truly be any size and still be of that breed - or is weight a better guide on size? Is a larger Westie and a smaller Cairn less typical for the breed? Isn't the anatomy for an earth-dog to succeed more important than dimensions? Can you imagine a hunt terrier being rated on its shoulder height? Why are measuring sticks considered of value when, in an age of obese, out-of-condition dogs, a weighing machine is never used? Why set out size-advice, terrier breed by terrier breed, that uses weight in some cases and height in others? It doesn't contribute to uniform breeding or judging - or make for a better breed 'signature'.
We may not want our small terriers to move like ponies but we should try to ensure that they are able to lead active lives. A tiny Norwich, a sturdy Scottie, a cocky Cairn or a jaunty Jack Russell should, each in their own way, move soundly. It is not in the best interests of such dogs for them to be allowed to get away with poor movement or be judged as if sound movement didn't matter at all. Long standing faults in Dachshunds have been short necks, upright shoulders and loose elbows. Not surprisingly movement in the breed has long been a weak spot. The high head carriage helps this breed, but it has to take an awful lot of steps to get anywhere.
Unless the head is carried high, the appropriate muscles will not be able to pull the upper arm and then the whole foreleg forward to its full extent. Judges need to watch a dog moving across and then towards them and establish that the two forelegs are being brought well forward from the shoulders and the elbows. Any dog that 'marks time' is incorrectly constructed. Insufficient angulation between the pelvis and the spine, high placed hocks and straight stifles contribute to a short back stride and can be detected from a stilted action. But if that stilted action is actually admired, the fault is surely condoned. A canny judge will ask for small dogs to be moved slowly so that the true quality of the gait can be revealed. Just as the flying trot conceals a multitude of sins in the German Shepherd Dog, so too does the blurred too-hasty millipede-like leg movement in little dogs with little legs. Small dogs with short legs, just as much as bigger, leggier dogs, need sound construction to lead a healthy, happy life. 'Stepping short' on the parade ground is a deliberately artificial movement and a surprisingly tiring one; stepping short for a small dog too should be regarded as artificial, unnatural and undesired. All dogs can only move with the construction bestowed upon them by their fanciers and breeders. But I suspect, with some sadness, that breeders will continue to do their own thing whatever the effect on the dog.
But if you accept that movement is a manifestation of sound anatomy, why are poor movers tolerated in the ring? When I watch the judging even at working terrier shows, I still see weak pasterns, turned out toes and loose elbows up front, and cow hocks, bowed hocks, and too close or too wide a hind action. Poor shoulder placement and straight stifles and hocks are the cause of much poor movement in working terriers. Sound construction provides an action that is free, with appreciable but not long strides, parallel at both ends - showing the pads of the hind feet, with obvious drive from the hocks, a level topline - retained on the move - with the tail carried high, a determined carriage of the head and a definite air of assertiveness.
Unless the head is carried high, the appropriate muscles will not be able to pull the upper arm and then the whole foreleg forward to its full extent. Judges need to watch a dog moving across and then towards them and establish that the two forelegs are being brought well forward from the shoulders and the elbows. Any dog that 'marks time' is incorrectly constructed. Insufficient angulation between the pelvis and the spine, high placed hocks and straight stifles contribute to a short back stride and can be detected from a stilted action. But if that stilted action is actually admired, the fault is surely condoned. A canny judge will ask for small dogs to be moved slowly so that the true quality of the gait can be revealed, but this does demand exhibits trained for the ring.
The late Tom Horner, who knew a thing or two about terrier movement, has written on this subject: "If the upper arm is short and/or steep, the angle between it and the shoulder blade will be much greater - more open than the desired 90 degrees -- with the result that the elbow will be brought forward on the chest and the possible length of stride of the foreleg will be reduced. If shoulders are also steep the angle will be greater still and the stride even shorter." Small terriers with a shortened front stride are now almost the uniform exhibit in our show rings. It is extremely tiresome when this draws admiration from ignorant TV commentators at Crufts, who describe them as "simply flowing over the ground", perhaps because they can't walk naturally!
When a dog's shoulders are too upright they tend also to be narrower, shorter and bunch the muscles, giving a coarse look. This in turn shortens the neck and artificially lengthens the back, producing an unbalanced dog. Breeds like the Skye and the Dandie are now longer in the back and shorter in the leg than their ancestors. Working hunt terriers are usually a little longer backed than their show ring opposite numbers but for a good reason, the long, sloping shoulder tending to accompany the slightly longer back, with the pursuit of a cobby terrier, with the shorter back, encouraging the more upright shoulder. Dogs required to work underground need flexible backs so that they can work in confined spaces. Most of the show Fox Terriers would have some difficulty manoeuvring underground because of the construction now apparently sought in them.
In his book "About the Border Terrier", Walter Gardner has written: "The well-laid on shoulder allows for great range and liberty of movement. On the other hand, when the shoulder blade is lacking in correct obliquity and is too upright, it usually lacks the desired length and therefore muscle attachment. The movement is therefore contracted, and the action short, cramped and lacking in elasticity." It is this short, cramped, restricted forward movement which so many small breeds demonstrate in the ring -- and get rewarded for! Walter Gardner goes on to state: "..it is unfortunate that many of those who are judging dogs have never had the opportunity to judge any other type of stock." Certainly, working horses are often stocky in build but display superbly placed shoulders. This feature is prized in the horse show ring. So many of the pioneer judges at dog shows were pony judges too.
In this informative book on the Border Terrier, Walter Gardner queries: “How many of the world’s top athletes are short-legged or short-backed or both? How many animals which go to ground or can gallop and stay long distances have a short back?” It is a question to be answered by Border Terrier devotees. There are obvious conflicts between the anatomy of a scenthound, even a foothound, and that of an earth-dog. It would be a challenge for any breed-designer to set out the blueprint for a sporting dog which could do both effectively; galloping and digging demand different criteria. How can you construct a terrier for which the show bench requires a short back whilst the working role demands a longer one; when the latter expects an animal designed to work underground, with ease, and some huntsmen want them to run with the hounds!
There is a quote in Rawdon Lee’s book on Fox Terriers in which a Capt Handy, a Cotswold sportsman, remarks: “Now in these fast days, sportsmen cannot wait for a fox to be got out, and the order is ‘find another one’; hence the use of fox terriers to run with hounds has been discontinued, and the breed has not been kept up at Badminton.” In his Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports of 1870, Delabere Blaine was writing: “Terriers, we have already stated, were formerly very commonly used to accompany packs of foxhounds for the purpose of unearthing the fox…They were usually of a medium size; if too large, they were unfitted for penetrating the sinuosities of an earth, or creeping up a confined drain; if, on the contrary, they are too diminutive, they cannot keep pace with the hounds of the present day…in some few packs, however, both large and small terriers still accompany the dogs.”
Fox Terriers were not always of uniform height, even in the show ring. From 1876 and for a decade after, there were separate classes for dogs over and under 18lbs, and for bitches over and under 16lbs. At a show in 1875, one of Rawdon Lee’s winning dogs weighed under 15lbs. There was more concern over construction than size itself. Rawdon Lee wrote: “there are judges who have recently gone to extremes in awarding honours to these so-called ‘narrow-fronted’ terriers. Such have been produced at a sacrifice of power and strength. Most of these very narrow-chested dogs move stiffly, are too flat in the ribs, they are deficient in breathing and heart room, and can never be able to do a week’s hard working the country, either with hounds or round about the badger earth or rabbit burrows.” The show ring Fox Terrier of today would have depressed him.
In his informative The Book of All Terriers, Howell Book House, New York, 1971, John Marvin makes a key point for judges when examining both the leg length and the size and positioning of the terrier’s feet: “…a long-legged Terrier, when digging, throws the earth under his body and through his spread back legs. The short-legged breeds are different. Because of their low station, these breeds cannot throw earth under their bodies…Rather, they throw the earth sideways so that the low-slung body may pass through. In order to accomplish this it is necessary that the feet turn out slightly to guide the earth sideways of the body…Actually, feet pointing straight ahead on a short-legged breed are not correct and should be faulted although most judges do not look with disfavor on feet pointing straight ahead.” Sporting terriers, whether short or longer-legged were designed to dig! They must always be judged as terriers.
