Pacing

[barly]

Hi all,

I am posting this for a friend. THey have a 14mth old large breed, the dog has grown nice and evenly and has been hip/elbowed scored and came back with good scores. His parents, g/parents have good scores too.

Now the problem is that he paces. Not constantly but it is stopping my friends showing the dog. When the dog does gait he has lovely drive and good reach. Now we are trying to rule out a few things. Does anybody have suggestions how to get the dog out of it or have been in a similar situation.

Thanks in advance

Edited May 26, 2010 by barly

[Sandra777]

With some bigger breeds it is a bit inbuilt for them to pace because they're big and akward and "floppy" and not designed to go long distances anyway. Is this the case with her breed?

Apart from this dogs mostly pace because either they are unfit or they are being moved at the wrong speed so what has she tried?

It's probably a bit late to train the dog to fall into a trot as you could a puppy so it's likely to be more a matter of the handler changing the circumstances for the dog (speed, fitness). It is sometimes possible to unbalance a dog out of a pace with a change of direction (not necessarily accute) or a leash correction, but the bigger the breed the harder I could see the latter needing to be to have any effect!

[poodlefan]

I find a "courtesy turn".. circle before setting off.. can assist with establishing the correct gait.

The handler probably needs to experiment with different speeds to see what assists.

[Affie]

I had an afghan that did exactly this until he was about 12mths old. He has an absolutely beautiful gait when he got going but was more comfortable pacing.

I had a friend teach me how to put my foot out just as we were going in to the ring and trip him which put him off balance and sort of knocked him out of pacing and in to the right gait.

This is a bit hard to explain and i also found it very awkward for me to do with out tripping us both.

I ended up with two simplified versions, one was to lead him around me in a circle in the assemble area before we went in and also in front of the judge when they ask you to do a triangle or up and back. This also puts the dog off balance and when they straighten they are already moving in to the correct gait.

The second I used when he seemed to have gotten the idea and is less obvious to people watching, i would either give him a large correction on the collar or show him some food something that would make him leap forward in to his gait rather than just plod in to it (which is when they tend to pace)

Hope this helps

[whippets]

Unfit dogs can pace as it is a more comfortable gait for them. Also unbalanced, unsound dogs can pace rather than gait correctly. When we had Newfs I found the dogs that were to short in body paced.

[pesh]

We had a bitch we brought in, lovely bitch to watch moving, but slow her down in the ring, she'd start to pace.

Tried doing tight figure 8 with her, swimming, and tried retraining the movement. Nothing worked.

Sometimes it's in the lines.

[RallyValley]

When retraining an ex harness racehorse we used lots of hill work and work in boggy sand. Maybe if your friend had a clicker and got someone to click the dog for trotting.

[poodlefan]

Pacing is one method by which a dog can cope when its front and rear leg actions aren't equal at the trot.

Crabbing is another method. The dog either steps around itself or uses both legs on the same side to avoid discomfort.

Speed can affect this.

[t-time]

If nothing else, try a chiropractor.

[WreckitWhippet]

Chiro for me too.

You can also begin to move the dog by placing your hand under the chin and neck area and lifting the dog slightly as you move off. This will often work, providing the dog isn't so big that you can't get any lift. It's an all in one motion of taking the first step and lifting at the same time.

[sas]

My dog started to pace when he was young, we would always turn before we took off and if for some reason he started pacing again going around the ring we'd knock him off balance.

Now, the reason my dog started when young was to be found out later....he had Osteo-Arthritis.

Edited May 26, 2010 by sas