Immune System Problems in the GSD and Other Breeds
© 2006 by Fred Lanting
[Note: the original appearance of this article did not include “and Other Breeds” in its title, but since then I’ve had many reports of dogs of different breeds being similarly affected, with demodex and thyroid insufficiency at the top of the complaint list.]
The German Shepherd Dog is a very popular breed. In fact, it is Number One worldwide although in the U.S. it ranks much lower partly because of AKC clubs’ non-adherence to the international Standards — usually in the AKC top ten, though. As a result of there being so many GSDs, veterinarians and others typically see more cases of most disorders than they do in other breeds. Popularity has its drawbacks, and undeserved notoriety is one of them. Take the incidence of dog bites, for example. Many breeds have far more of a tendency to bite people than does the GSD, although they don’t get the same “press” (publicity). Min-Pins, Skye Terriers, American Cockers, Chows, and many others will sink their fangs in you more readily and with less provocation. But the popularity of Shepherds, Rottweilers, and a couple others is their downfall.
Of course, not all popular breeds are involved in as many biting incidents. You have to travel a long road to find a Golden Retriever that has ever bitten a person, and Labs have an intermediate incidence compared to others of its size. Nor do big dogs bite more (although perhaps with more damage) — the mastino types are usually placid, while the feists like Chihuahua/terrier-types and mixes give credence to their name and the word “feisty”.
That was just an example of generalizations that abound in the dog world. Some are unfounded; others have a basis in statistical facts. Another example is the incidence of hip dysplasia. Rottweilers and American Pit-Bull Terriers may have nearly the same percentage and typical severity of HD as in the GSD, but the Shepherd is almost unique among breeds in that HD causes more discomfort and lameness than same degree of looseness in the joints of the more stoic breeds with some bulldog heritage.
Another problem seen quite frequently in the GSD is the deficient immune system syndrome (a syndrome is a collection of symptoms). It is characteristic of this problem to manifest itself in one dog in a certain way, and in another dog in a different way, a little like a pleiotropic trait. Some evidences are so slight that many owners and vets miss or don’t guess at the underlying cause. This leads the doctor to wrongly prescribe a certain medicine or none at all, and the breeder to go ahead and breed a covertly defective dog that should not be mated. Further complicating the matter, and preventing as much progress as could be had, is the subclinical nature (a lack of, or hardly-noticeable, signs. Many intermittent or mild complaints that owners have are not identified as related to the dog’s immune system, and others have taken years of badgering by breeders before the veterinary community has acknowledged what breeders had known all along. So you will find some disagreement in some of what I will present in the following material. I don’t want to just list a table of disorders under the subject heading, but you might want to do that for yourself. Let’s take a look at some of those immune-mediated disorders after a few more words about the general subject.
The GSD has more than its “fair share” of immune-related problems, and they appear in the intestines, eyes, skin, and other places. The breed has many individuals with a deficiency of a particular immunoglobulin called IgA, and this genetic defect may be very close on the chromosome to genes controlling general immune problems.
Autoimmune disorders
The dog’s “Defense Department” has a number of soldiers: antibodies, immunoglobulins, specialized cells, and more. Some vaccine ingredients, adjuvants, or carriers have been known to cause an over-reaction by this army and result in an autoimmune situation in which the body also attacks its own cells. A recent vaccination development called “recombinant vaccine”, helps avoid bad reactions to vaccines or the medium in which they are cultured or carried into the blood system, but is not effective against parvo. Nowadays, the over-reaction is more often a matter of genetics than any stimulus from vaccine components.
The German Shepherd Dog is at risk for a number of immune system abnormalities, and while not all have been directly linked to immune suppression, there is great suspicion of a connection with most of them. We have seen such problems in the breed as pannus (chronic superficial keratitis), corneal dystrophies, and plasmacytic conjunctivitis in the eye; lupus and anal furunculosis in the outer integument; and plasmacytic colitis in the gastrointestinal tract; these we suspect are related to autoimmunity. The various components and functions of many glands and chemicals in the normal body are lumped together to refer to their joint action of protection, and given the name “immune response” or “immune system”. It involves such things as T cells, phagocytes, white blood cells, antibodies (immunoglobulins), complement proteins, and others. Together, their job is that of a second line of defense against antigens and other threatening “foreigners”; the skin, mucous membranes, and stomach acid are some of the first-line defense mechanisms that bodies have, and if something harmful gets past the frontline troops, the interior guard must go to work.
Invading organisms may be viral, bacterial, parasitic, fungal, and may come into the body via puncture, swallowed foreign objects, impurities in eaten material, absorption through the skin, intake by the lungs, or other routes. This second line of defense even goes after waste generated in the cells, or abnormal cells which if left alone could become cancerous. To do this, the soldiers must be able to recognize the enemy, and do so by chemical means, such as “seeing” if the projections on the suspects fit like jigsaw pieces into receptors carried by the troops. If so, they attempt to neutralize by putting chemical handcuffs or a half-nelson on those invaders until they can dispose of them. Some of the home guard, macrophages, actually “eat” bacteria; some poke holes in the invaders or mark them for other cells to eat or destroy. When such interactions occur, the guard is stimulated to call for reinforcements (multiply rapidly) to search for more of the invaders’ ilk. Our B-lymphocytes have antibody protein molecules on their cell surfaces that recognize the foreign molecule called an antigen. One result of this encounter is that these B “white blood cells” become antibody factories called plasma cells, and can turn out their product for many years to come. Thus, some diseases are warded off the rest of our lives because our bodies continue to have patrolling soldiers that can recognize them. The other type of defender lymphocyte is the T cell. They directly kill “bad” cells without using antibodies. Besides killer T cells there are helper T cells and suppressor T cells; the latter call off the attack so the white blood cells (lymphocytes) don’t get carried away over-multiplying (hopefully!) or that would present other problems.
One hitch in the war machinery is that some lymphocytes get confused and mistake normal body (called “self”) proteins for the “bad guys”. If “Self” doesn’t kill off these errant traitors, as normally happens in the embryo and very young individual, we have what is called an “autoimmune” situation. An oversimplification would be to say that the body is “allergic to itself”. In any case, the body uses the home guard to attack and possibly destroy part of itself (its self). Such a defect can affect immune response all through the body. It is possible that this is happening in pannus, “allergies”, lick granuloma, and a number of other problems in your or my dog. In human AIDS, all the active helper T cells are destroyed, so the body no longer has adequate defenses against any and all antigens. In most disorders, only one or two pathways are affected, so a problem may show up as an itch, skin blisters, hemolytic anemia, a corneal defect, rheumatoid arthritis, or something else in one or more organs.
Demodex — One of the most easily identified immune-mediated problems is demodectic mange. To distinguish between this and the purely contagious sarcoptic mange, see some of my other articles or buy my book on the GSD. The demodex mite is ever-present on nearly all dogs and humans, but doesn’t cause a problem unless the host is weakened by something, especially another immune system related disease or stress. It is widely believed that stress of various kinds, whether of a genetic origin such as a very nervous temperament, or either a genetic or acquired immunodeficiency disease that suppresses T?cell function in the immune defense system, may be the major factor in an outbreak of symptoms such as demodecosis in a dog. With lowered cell?mediated immunity, the individual reacts adversely not only to the mite and its toxins, but also to the presence of other microbes and antigens. “Neutering” reduces stress in the individual and helps brake the spread in the gene pool. A bitch in estrus is in the highest state of systemic stress that any dog normally encounters, outside of severe trauma and shock. Often enough, demodecosis is concurrent with another immune-related defect. If your dog has demodectic mange, look for another condition that should be treated at the same time. Is there a history of subclinical pancreatitis? Has there been recent surgery or other physical or emotional trauma? Any exposure to debilitating diseases? Even the minor stress of teething may be sufficient to tip the balance and encourage sudden proliferation of mites and their symptoms in susceptible dogs “on the borderline”. Very healthy dogs rarely show symptoms even when exposed intentionally by clinical transmission of the mites. Stress (such as illness) seems to “awaken” the mites. Combating demodecosis is largely a matter of curing or controlling the dog’s other ills, both physical and psychological. Use of steroids is contraindicated because they compromise the dog’s immune defense. See my “Total German Shepherd Dog” book for more detail on this topic.
Pancreatitis: In its chronic, subclinical, or often-undiagnosed mode, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI or PI) is fairly common in German Shepherd Dogs of certain bloodlines. It has even been identified with demodectic mange, possibly because during the stress of the dog’s affected digestion, its body is less able to immunologically suppress the proliferation of the mange mites. Supplementation with vitamin A and pancreatic enzymes should be supervised by a veterinarian who is knowledgeable in this area and has been made aware of the genetic nature of the problem in certain lines of our breed. The occurrence in pancreatic insufficiency among German-line dogs in the U.S. has increased since the 1970s, but I believe there are a couple of different reasons for this, if it is an accurate observation.
Malabsorption (poor digestion and poor stool condition) are frequently seen in the GSD, and in my experience, has been more so in the heavily linebred typical lines in American-bred dogs since the 1970s. EPI is one of the conditions that can contribute to the malabsorption syndrome. The symptoms can be exacerbated by physical or emotional stress, change of food, and other things. I suspect that dogs with subclinical weakness in immune systems or pancreatic function may be most likely to show these reactions. With EPI, the fur often becomes dry and brittle, and even lost to some extent, and Staphylococcus infection scabs may appear on the skin because the compromised immune system doesn’t allow the dog to fight off the infection. The symptoms of EPI mostly show up when the TLi value is down (Trypsin?like immunoreactivity test). So there seems to be a possible connection, with insufficient pancreatic function and other resistance” all being tied to the immune system.
A dog with the sub-acute form of pancreatitis may exhibit coprophagy, which means he eats his own (or others’) stools. It may be that he smells the undigested fats and carbohydrates and instinctively consumes it as food to give those nutrients “another chance.” Often, the addition of liver to a low?fat diet and daily administration of enzyme powder or capsules, or regular supplementation with ground pancreas if you are lucky enough to get some from a nearby slaughterhouse, will bring the condition under control or at least improve it. Researchers at Tulane University found that a commercially available enzyme supplement could improve blood analysis, neonatal vitality, digestion, and general health. The manufacturers of Viokase™, a dried raw pancreatic enzyme brand, have shown that supplement/medicine to be effective in combating nonspecific diarrhea as well as German Shepherd Dog subclinical pancreatitis. The juvenile-onset generalized demodecosis often has a spontaneous semi-remission because of better stress management.
Dogs that exhibit symptoms such as much flatulence, or intermittent diarrhea or pasty light-brown/yellow to clay-colored stool, perhaps should be tested for levels of Lipase, Protease and Amylase, or just fed the recommended preparations without testing. But keep an eye out for other immune-system signs, too. Some people perceive a probable connection or coincidence between anal furunculosis (perianal fistulas) and EPI. Both of these problems may show up in the same dog, strengthening the suspicion that they are manifestations of the same underlying immune system weakness. A great deal of the digestive tract functions and stages may be affected one way or another by the same genes governing immune response.
Pancreatic insufficiency is an abnormality that suggests removal from the gene pool, whether the dog has a severe or a mild case or is asymptomatic most of the time. Most vets take very few hours of nutrition and practical genetics classes in vet school, and then forget most of it because they don’t use it every day. Breeders are sometimes more reliable sources of information. Unfortunately, many people who offer their EPI males at stud do not admit or declare any cautions about their dogs. As one observer quipped, “It’s funny isn’t it, that those who deny all those things have Viokase-V on the shelf in their back rooms?” Although it is good for various unspecified causes of diarrhea, the product is so much more expensive than Kaopectate, that it makes you wonder.
Bloat/Torsion/Volvulus: Is there a connection between PI and GDV (gastric dilation and volvulus)? There have been reports from dog owners indicating that many episodes of EPI begin with a bloating incident, or with a gastroenteritis, marked by vomiting and blood tinged diarrhea. One observer said, “From the general info collected, the dog first bloats, which often leads to torsion of the gut, which of course requires surgery for a tacking of the stomach, and this is usually followed by a full blown episode of EPI within a few months of the surgery.” I suspect that there is, at least sometimes, a common root cause if these two problems. Dogs with a history of bloating/torsion and/or bouts of unexplained diarrhea are reported by several of my correspondents to be quite likely to be EPI-carrier suspects, although this observation is admittedly anecdotal.
Megaesophagus: German Shepherds have over thirteen times the incidence of esophageal disorders of all other breeds combined, although PRAA, an unrelated heart defect that causes similar symptoms as caused may be part of this statistic. Dr. Labato at Tufts U. School of Veterinary Medicine says, “It [sometimes] may be secondary to … myasthenia gravis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE is an immune?mediated disease), …[and possibly others].” Breeds susceptible to the juvenile-onset, inherited type of megaesophagus include Irish Setters, German Shepherd Dogs, and a few others. Frequently, large dogs are diagnosed with the idiopathic form, which means the cause is unknown. “In most cases we don’t know the causes”, said Dr. Twedt in the vet school at Colorado State University.
The characteristic loss of peristaltic action is probably due to a disorder of the afferent nerves, which is why there is no successful medical, pharmaceutical, or surgical treatment. There may be a connection with other nerve disorders, even giant axonal neuropathy, which mimics HD and GSD myelopathy. Because of these similarities, some have hinted that a general immune system deficiency is at the root of this problem, as it appears to be in so many disorders.
Diagnosis of megaesophagus is confirmed by means of various tests, some of which are intended to discover the underlying cause, and may include the acetylcholine receptor antibody titer that is used to diagnose myasthenia gravis. An antibody titer is a blood test that looks for immune-mediated disease — one in which the body attacks itself. One source I detail in my GSD book states that the incidence of symptomatic mega-esophagus in the GSD population in the US is at least 1%, but about 18% of U.S. (AKC-lines) GSDs are carriers of the altered gene (assuming autosomal-recessive inheritance). With 18%, the [risk], even if you avoid linebreeding and stay completely away from all the [known] lines, is extremely high. The pedigree study in “The Total German Shepherd Dog” (www.Hoflin.com) indicates that both Bernd Kallengarten and Lance of Fran-Jo were suspects in carrying the recessive for megaesophagus, and the latter was known to produce a considerable number of descendants with various other manifestations of immune defects.
Intussusception: In very young pups (and other animals including humans) the intestine can invaginate (one part slips inside another). The condition, also referred to as “telescoping intestines”, also occurs in adults, but not as frequently. Most common immediate causes include worms, obstruction by indigestible materials, garbage, or toxic substances. However, since the German Shepherd Dog seems to experience a relatively high incidence of this disorder, I have to suspect the possibility that (other than those above causes) there is a genetic propensity in certain bloodlines, and perhaps interrelated to other “GSD disorders” — those more common to this breed than most others.
Pannus: The GSD has more than its “fair share” of immune-related problems, and they appear in the intestines, eyes, skin, and other places. The breed has many individuals with a deficiency of a particular immunoglobulin called IgA, and this genetic defect may be very close on the chromosome to genes controlling general immune problems. The GSD, after the West Highland White Terrier, probably also presents most of the cases of pannus, an eye disorder caused by lymphocytes migrating into the cornea and causing blindness unless treated. More and more vets are referring to it as chronic superficial keratitis; CSK for those addicted to abbreviations. I have watched quite a few eyeballs “peeled” in the surgical part of the therapy, in the days when steroid drops in the eye on a frequent basis (several times a day) for the rest of the dog’s life was the post-surgical treatment of choice. Peeling was the more heroic procedure, when injection of cortisone under the conjunctiva as a first step is not effective. Today the drug cyclosporine is used to best advantage in pannus, although a steroid such as dexamethasone is still effective. This cyclosporine is the same drug, originally found as a component of a Norwegian soil fungus, that is given to counteract the body’s tendency to reject other people’s organ transplants. The drug is given as an ointment or in food twice a day until the cornea is free of the lymphocytes, then there is a once-daily administration; it seems to work partly by causing the tear ducts to operate almost full time. Enough is absorbed by the tissues of the eye to get into the far reaches of the circulatory system where it does the other part of its job, fighting those wayward lymphocytes.
No cure is in sight, since it is highly likely that pannus is an inherited autoimmune disorder, and people who have dogs with pannus will have to deal with the frustration and regimentation of daily treatment for the dog’s lifetime. The same situation has been nagging sufferers from human autoimmune disorders for a long time. MS, multiple sclerosis, is considered by most to be such a disease, in which T-cells attack components of the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord and some major nerves). One of those components, myelin basic protein (MBP) has been experimentally fed to lab animals, and later to human MS patients, and it was discovered that the severity of symptoms was considerably reduced. Rheumatoid arthritis, dealt with more in my book on orthopedic disorders, is another supposed autoimmune pathology in which the T-cells act against parts of the joints, especially Type-II collagen. Again, oral-dietary administration of this type of collagen was fed to RA patients with significant improvement in managing the disease symptoms such as number and severity of swollen joints, gripping strength in the hands, and subjective descriptions of pain or stiffness after rest or sleep. Experimental treatments involving feeding normal cornea extracts to dogs with pannus may have similar results.
Pannus was previously called “keratitis superficialis vasculosa pannosa pigmentosa chronica”, “German Shepherd Dog Keratitis”, and “Keratitis Überreiter” after its Austrian discoverer, is an inflammation and pigmentation of the cornea and sometimes involves the conjunctiva. It is rare in almost every other breed, and in the GSD it usually appears around 3-5 years of age and in both eyes. By that time, many affected dogs will have already been bred. Besides the hereditary, breed-dependent predisposition there is an environmental component that brings it on earlier and more certainly: ultraviolet radiation. UV rays in sunlight trigger the onset of symptoms, explaining why an increased incidence is observed anywhere during the sunnier months of the year, and more cases are presented in higher elevations such as Denver. This means that to avoid outbreaks of the acute phase, the owner should not only keep up with the medication schedule, but also make sure his dog is protected from exposure to strong sunlight, even if reflected off snow or water, and especially at high altitudes. Some dogs are kept indoors (glass windows filter out most UV rays) and are walked in darker hours; some wear fitted sunglasses.
Corneal dystrophy: While I do not draw any definite connecting lines between pannus and this disorder, I mention it because I think there may be an immune system relationship. Small opacities may appear on the cornea over the pupil or slightly off-center, and the novice might think the dog has cataracts. It may be triggered by an allergic reaction or some other cause, and show up as a small spot, varying from slightly translucent to cloudy-white. The size is usually less than 5mm across, round, oval, or horseshoe-shaped. Most eye specialists refer to this type of opacity as “corneal dystrophy”; the spots do not interfere with vision. In my experience the spots have faded away in a few years after reaching maximum size. Corneal dystrophy appears to be genetic, but is not serious. Probably less than one percent of the breed is affected. I once had a bitch who developed very small oval opacities, one on each cornea, after she was about four or five years old. They finally and gradually disappeared (shrunk to nothingness) by the time she was about ten years or more. This bitch also developed atopic (allergic-type) problems marked by itching feet and sometimes parts of the skin, but most noticeably by an assumed feeling of excess phlegm in the throat. One of her many sons developed the same transient and minor corneal defects, appearing in maturity and going away without treatment by old age. While it is possible that some of these opacities may be immune system related, I think most are largely if not fully environmental.
Pemphigus: Uncommonly seen in dogs and more found in humans, this group of related autoimmune disorders involves mostly the mucous membranes and skin. You may never notice the spider-web mucosal condition in the mouth or purplish, fragile splotches of skin in some forms. In some forms it can produce ulcers in mucous membranes. Very high doses of corticosteroids for life may control the disease, but this is a controversial approach because steroids are generally contraindicated in autoimmune diseases, and usually cause a great deal of capillary rupture and bleeding. It may be best to just leave these alone and see if they will “go away” on their own.
Primary Seborrhea: I have no hard evidence, but I suspect seborrhea may sometimes be a sign of an acquired autoimmune disorder. This disorder is a condition in which there are scaly patches and a greasy feel to parts of the dog’s skin. You will probably notice great difficulty in keeping the ears clean and free of dark wax and yeast or fungus. Often, the older, long-affected dog will have an over-all rancid odor. Many of these cases are related to thyroid hormone imbalance, and such an immune- and general endocrine-related disturbance may become chronic and in need of very frequent bathing and/or ear cleaning with little or no hope of remission.
I have seen many cases that have been brought on after extended or repeated exposure to fleas and other factors. The flea allergy or exposure may be the prime cause of the skin condition, with the flea antigens weakening the dog’s immune response and thyroid function, resulting in severe seborrhea. Or, the immune defense weakness may be the prime cause of the dog not being able to withstand fleas. Ask a veterinary dermatologist to try to find the underlying cause as well as give you ideas on how to treat for the symptoms. If the dog shows evidence of much itching, it is usually called secondary seborrhea, which refers to a primary cause being mange, fleabite allergy, or other trigger influences, involves relatively large reddish-skin patches with hair loss, and is often more scaly and less greasy than is the primary form. Primary seborrhea is something GSDs seem to be more predisposed to than are most other breeds, and it is this type that more affects the ear with fungus growth, and sometimes an increase in bacterial colonies on the skin. It is a chronic condition that requires constant or renewed treatment regimens with no hope of eventual cure, just some control.
Most owners of dogs so affected report considerable success in managing or partially suppressing the symptoms by attacking them on several fronts: get rid of fleas (and the cats and carpets they rode in on!), clean the ears daily or several times a week with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water, and temporary regimens of Soloxine (thyroxine) for perhaps two weeks at a time. Your vet can suggest a dosage level to try, of this quite safe internal medication.
Degenerative Myelopathy: DM was once as “GSD myelopathy” because most cases in the early days of investigation involved this breed. It is the first disorder that comes to mind when German Shepherd Dogs and spinal lesions are spoken of together. “Degenerative” means that it is chronic and progressive, and “Myelopathy” means spinal cord disease. The first symptoms are usually seen at about six to eight years of age and have a duration of five to twenty-four months, perhaps a bit longer if aggressive measures are taken, but who knows if they are really effective? Initially, the dog does not seem to realize what position his rear legs are in; soon he will begin to drag his toenails and the top part of his paws, and later may tremble as if palsied. Eventually, he will be unable to get up on all four legs, and by this time most owners will have decided upon euthanasia. Symptoms and histological changes are very similar to those in multiple sclerosis (MS).
It is also seen (though rarely) in the Belgian Shepherd and the Old English Sheepdog, and some authorities feel that other breeds’ degenerative myelopathies are probably not caused by the same immune-system deficiency as we have in the GSD. Autopsy shows demyelination (loss of the insulating sheath) of the spinal cord, destruction of some large axons (nerve cells leading from the cord to smaller branch nerves), and abnormal cells (or certain cells in abnormal locations). Similar signs may be seen in the brain, kidneys, and intestines, giving further hints of the immune system failure being at the root of this disease.
It may be that relatively high vitamin E dosages may be helpful, but it is difficult to compare a particular dog’s disease progression with a “what-if” situation. We have a good idea that this vitamin is very helpful in immune response improvement, so it is natural to assume a probable direct benefit in this immune-related disease. 800 units (IU) a day may be enough, although some years ago one researcher claimed that 2000 IU of vitamin E daily, 500 mg of vitamin C twice a day, and a high-strength vitamin B complex twice a day was the best dosage. In DM dogs, low serum and tissue concentrations of vitamin E have been observed. I recommend that vitamin E be given to all older German Shepherd Dogs for general resistance and health. It can’t hurt — they will excrete anything they don’t need, within reason. Chemical-pharmacological treatment has largely been via the use of aminocaproic acid, and more recently, acetylcysteine three times a day found acceptance, although conventional drug therapy (medicines) has been of little lasting help to patients with DM. The combination of exercise, vitamins and certain drugs seem to have delayed the progression of DM in many dogs. Treatment has been directed at suppression of symptoms and the multi-pronged approach may prolong the day you have to face euthanasia because of debilitation and inability to stand to defecate or to walk.
Lick Granulomas: Dogs with GSD myelopathy often develop lick granulomas on hind feet, which are non-healing ulcerations or (if you are lucky) callous-like reactions of the skin to extremely frequent licking, sometimes chewing, at the location of a supposed itch. It is probably a case of the limb feeling as if it has “fallen asleep”, to put it into terms familiar to human experience. The tingling sensation caused by incomplete and erroneous signals by the nerves serving that place is much like the irritation caused by an ant bite, or hairs out of place, or anything in between. In trying to lick it away, the dog actually softens and wears away the hair and skin. Lick granulomas are not restricted to dogs with DM, but often occur on the pasterns or toes in dogs that have atopic allergies, another clue to the presence of a general immune system deficiency.
Other problems: Keep in mind that the various parts and systems of the body are all inter-related, that a disruption in the process of one may have an origin or an effect in another. The endocrine system is a prime example, with hormones being produced in more than one gland and greatly influencing some or all of the other glands. Something that has not yet been thoroughly explored in veterinary schools or with research grants is the collection and inter-relation of problems very common to GSDs, with yeast/fungal infections, flea saliva allergens, and general autoimmune system weakness. I have observed countless cases of dogs in this breed with a combination of seborrhea, low resistance to fleas, thyroid insufficiency, nagging ear infections, interdigital pyoderma, and other “complaints”. The lines between these dots, I hope, will someday be drawn with more clarity.
[Author Fred Lanting <mr.gsd@netscape.com> is an international show judge for many registries, presents seminars and consults worldwide on such topics as Structure, Orthopedic Disorders, Training Techniques, and the GSD. Fred invites all to join his annual non-profit Sieger Show and sightseeing tour. He actively trains in Schutzhund, and breeds occasional litters of GSDs (see his dogs on http://www.angelfire.com/de3/jagenstadt/vonsalixHome.html ). Most articles can also be found on http://www.fredlanting.org or others by a Google search for his name. Reprint permission of these copyright pieces can be requested and should carry this or a similar notice at the end.]
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Common Sense Grooming Part 3 – Teeth and Nails
Teeth
It always disappoints and dismays me as a dog-show judge to examine dogs in the ring and find some of them filthy (which very seldom happens) or many with neglected teeth (which happens regularly — even in the majority of cases, in some breeds such as the GSD). Without good, home dental care, they teeth may recede into swollen gums with gingivitis, or they may even fall out by the time the dog is nine or ten years old. It’s as if the owners think, “Well, the dog will only last that long or a little longer, so why bother?” While it is true that dogs wear down or break off their teeth by about the time they will soon no longer need them, there is no excuse for ignoring the dog’s need for regular cleaning to the point that we cause him to reach that stage years before the natural consummation of his life. To rely on dry dog food to scrape tartar off the teeth is no different than to rely on exercising your jaw muscles by eating only corn flakes with milk.
The dog should be given the proper occasional bone and rawhide or other chewy, and the best method is to give him a frozen (raw) chicken quarter once a week. Just as you might nibble little bits at a time of a popsicle, the dog will gnaw through meat and bone together, little by little and work it down to a tiny nubbin. No separation of bone from meat, as happens when cooking, and no splintering as you could get in a thawed piece. The gnawing chewing action that utilizes almost every tooth really cleans them as no other method or chewy or toy could. Just as good as scaling the teeth with a dental pick, but less work for you and more enjoyment for him.
Unless you use this method, you should scale the teeth once a month and (depending on what food you give your dog and how fast he builds up a coating on them, you might want to also brush them a couple times a month as well, to keep them in good condition. The “brush” can be one of your used toothbrushes, or a rough cloth wrapped around your finger, with toothpaste applied. When the judge, vet, or friend looks at your dog’s teeth, the color brown should be as embarrassing to you as it would be on your child’s exposed underwear.
If you don’t have a dental pick, you can use a short-handled, short-bladed screwdriver on a dog that hasn’t had his teeth cleaned in a while. Sit on the floor with the dog lying on his back and snugly supported by, and locked in place between, your legs. Start with the easiest tooth, the big canine. With almost all the tool hidden in your hand and just the smallest part of the blade showing, push the gum back a little and firmly push the hard tartar toward the tip of the tooth. If the finger of your other hand is there, when the tartar breaks loose, you’ll be able to prevent the blade from gouging into the tongue or gum of the opposite jaw. After you get practiced and the dog learns not to wiggle, use the sharp-pointed dental pick. Always, with each tooth, start underneath the normal edge of the gum and chip the plaque away. With just a minimum of practice, you can save bill vet bills and use the vet only for things you cannot do.
Nails
Another, but less frequent or serious an example of neglect is in the care of the dog’s claws or, as we non-veterinarians usually call them, the nails. Every dog should become used to getting his nails trimmed every couple of months. Put it on your calendar. Make it a habit, along with heartworm preventative, teeth cleaning, combing, inspection of the coat and skin, etc., though many of these are monthly or weekly activities (I don’t want to use the word “chores” because these should be times of strengthening bonds, not just performing duties). A whetstone, a short-bladed, short-handled, and very sharp knife, plus a good nail clipper made for dogs are all you need. Find a shady spot outdoors with good indirect light, or a well-lighted area in the house where it will be easy to sweep up the trimmings.
Use the same dog-between-legs, escape-proof posture of sitting on the ground that you used when scaling the teeth. Dogs tend to wiggle and complain at first, but eventually they’ll be willing to get the nails done if you keep your patience and use lots of praise whenever they lie still.
The first digit on the front paw (erroneously called a “dewclaw”) doesn’t touch the ground except during full gallop, so it doesn’t wear down by itself the way the others can; you’ll have to cut that one deeper or more often. All of them contain a cushion-soft core called the “quick” (meaning “alive, having blood”) that is covered on top and sides by the hard chitin or keratin type material that enables the animal to scratch, dig, fight, or aid in traction. This hard shell grows in a downward curve resembling a parrot beak, and where it obviously hooks past the flat or “level” portion of the quick underneath, is where you want to cut with the clipper. However, the horny part which is thickest on the dorsal surface, continues to wrap around on the sides (although thinner there) and, if not properly maintained, tends to grow together and enclose the softer sole. And with it, dirt and other junk you don’t want to be there.
The best way to handle the nail that has been neglected this long is to snip off the “beak”, then with your frequently-sharpened little knife, pare the thinner horn from the plantar area (bottom) and sides, a little sliver at a time, taking care not to slice into the corium (core, or quick). Use a sawing motion, but toward the centerline of the nail, otherwise it will be much more uncomfortable if you cut and peel away from the center. Then you can better see the remainder of the beak, and cut another section of that off. The first digit should be especially well manicured, and even smoothed with a sapphire file or emery board, because the dog uses this claw to scratch his muzzle, clean his teeth or muzzle, and even get foreign material away from his eye, and you don’t want a sharp or ragged edge on that one.
The quick is rich in blood vessels and nerve endings, so if you cut it, the dog will probably protest and bleed for a while. That is another good reason for doing this job outdoors. You can go to the bother of using styptic powder or flour to help stanch the flow, but it’s easier to just wrap that nail in a piece of paper towel and go on to the other nails. If it’s still bleeding when you release the dog, let him run around normally until it stops. The other potentially uncomfortable part of the operation is the pull you exert on the nail, so make sure the knife is kept sharp to cut easily in a twisting, carving motion.
After having used the paring knife, you will find that you did not cut as much of the surplus nail off as you had thought, so carefully use the clipper again and trim it off closer to the quick, especially on the front and on the side edge right next to it.
Of course, you can use an electric tool to trim nails, but my approach requires merely tools you can carry in a pocket or purse (unless you are boarding an aircraft). As in Parts One and Two of this series, I offer the simple, common-sense, economical, and convenient way to groom dogs for health and livability.
© Fred Lanting, Willow Wood Consulting: For reprint permission or info on books & articles, see:
http://siriusdog.com/sphider/search.php?query=lanting&search=1 (or) www.FredLanting.org
Common Sense Grooming Part 2 – The Clean Dog
Bathing
During or following the semi-annual major hair loss, you can bathe the dog, if he still needs washing, with a good pH-balanced shampoo especially formulated for dogs. Baby shampoo will do as well, and as long as you don’t wash him too frequently, plain old hand soap is good enough. Bathing will help loosen and remove much of the rest of the dead hair. This is especially helpful if you don’t take time for daily prolonged combing during these shedding periods. Have the dog lie on the concrete run or wooden porch, soak him with water from the hose, then work in shampoo or bar soap until you get a good lather, rolling him over to get the belly and other side, then the head and neck. Hold the head almost all the while, or the dog will struggle to get up and shake. After he is soaped from ears to tail tip, let him up to run around for about five minutes while the dirt is emulsified and any ectoparasites are drowned (fleas and ticks will survive under plain water, but cannot breathe in soapy water). By the way, I don’t believe the flea shampoos are any more effective than just letting the dog’s coat stay soapy for several minutes.
Then repeat the process with clear water from the hose, making sure you rinse every last residue of soap, or you will encourage itching and allow dried soap flakes to show later. Soap remaining in the coat will often look like dandruff when it dries, and may even promote moisture retention and hot spots, as will clumps of dead hair that remain wet. The dog can “drip-dry” if the weather permits and the yard is grassy, otherwise he’ll want to roll on the ground and may get muddy. If that is possible, towel him off thoroughly before allowing him to run and roll. Use the damp towel over your finger to “ream” out his ears. If you live in the north and must wash him in the winter, you might consider doing this whole operation (minus the running around wet) in your shower. A proper rinse will also remove any insecticide that was in the “medicated” soap, anyway.
Ears
Unless your dog has mites or gets seeds or dirt into his outer ear, the natural production and outward flow of wax will keep the ear lined with a light protective layer, and all you need do is put some tissue paper on your little finger and ream out his ears during your weekly “combing and quality time” sessions. If you notice more than the normal amount of wax, get out the ear cleaning kit. This includes rubbing alcohol, cotton, paper towel, and Q-tips™ or generic equivalent. If you find an infection and/or infestation, you’ll also want to have on hand the combination antibiotic/fungicide and perhaps the miticide. Using the cotton swab-on-a-stick, twirl it in one direction only, on the way into the ear canal as well as on the way out. If you pull off the dirty cotton and twist fresh onto the stick, do so with that same directional motion, or it may come off in the ear. With the dog lying on his side, use the heel of your hand to keep his head down while pulling up on the pinna with the thumb and first two fingers. In this manner, you can partly straighten out the sharp bend of the canal so you can get the swab all the way in. Despite warnings in the popular dog press and elsewhere about touching the eardrum, I have done this for well over thirty years with no problem. With a gentle touch, you can feel the swab bottom-out, and with a firm hand and soft voice you can keep the dog still while you clean the entire outer ear canal.
Some dogs often lack natural and sufficient hormonal activity to prevent flea-bite allergy and other signs that the thyroid and other glands are not working optimally. It may be fighting merely a holding-action battle instead of winning the war, but there are things you can do to alleviate most of the discomfort. The skin, especially in certain areas such as belly, underarms, and pelvis/croup regions, may be affected. But it is the ear that usually is the most obvious place of irritation and symptoms. If the ear canal has an abnormal amount of wax, and if the accumulation is dark and smells unpleasant, it needs cleaning, but you should also attack the cause, not only the symptoms. I mean the immediate cause, as the underlying original cause may be that the immune system has been damaged from too-frequent and unnecessary 5-in-1-type vaccines and inoculations. There’s always a chance that the dog may have ear mites, but this is infrequent enough that until you get some miticide or schedule a possible vet visit if you can’t handle it yourself, you’d be wise to treat the symptoms.
Some people claim some success with hydrogen peroxide, but I have found over the years that cleaning with a 50/50 dilution of cheap white vinegar does as good a job as anything, and at minimal cost. It would mean doing it daily or a few times a week, but that should be preferable to making payments on your vet’s Lexus SUV. Wet a thin cloth or a strong paper towel with the solution, and with your little finger ream out the ear as much as you can. Then, while it is still wet, use the Q-Tip I mentioned, and clean out all the channels, then all the way to the ear drum. If you waited too long, and the ear is sore, you will have to persuade the dog that the pain is for his own good, and it will be better in a day or two as the open sores heal. Vinegar has a low (acidic) pH, and that’s what you need because the opportunistic fungus (which is always in the air) does not do well in acidic environments. Do it every day until you can try every other day with success in controlling it. Meanwhile, try to mitigate some of the damage to the immune system by giving vitamin-E supplements.
If you do find that the dog actually has a rare case of mites, put some of the medicine on the tip of the tail as well, as experienced breeders have long said that the same mites are usually found there, too. In fact, that may be one of the only excuses for frequent bathing until the critters have been killed or banished.
Geriatric dogs that have been damaged by overvaccination frequently have the same foul, rancid smell emanating from the entire external integument (the skin) that you had earlier noticed only in the ears. Again, it is probably too late to cure or to erase the damage, but you might be able to control the smell by frequent bathing, a weak vinegar solution rinse, immune-system dietary boosters, and you might have to let the dog sleep outdoors or in a ventilated room of his own.
© Fred Lanting, Willow Wood Consulting: For reprint permission or info on books & articles, see:
http://siriusdog.com/sphider/search.php?query=lanting&search=1 (or) www.FredLanting.org
Common Sense Grooming Part 1 – The Haircoat
Fred Lanting
“Show me your dog, and I will tell you what sort of man you are.” …von Stephanitz, 1932
Although it is a characteristic of the German Shepherd Dog (which I have bred and judged almost since they walked off the Ark), the double coat is not unique to this breed, and the grooming techniques I have found to be best (and which I describe here) are applicable to many breeds. For readers who have terriers, sighthounds, poodles, and some others, you’ll have to modify these tips. The soft, fluffy undercoat of many scores of breeds is very light and somewhat flyaway, while the topcoat is coarse, heavier, usually straight, and imbeds itself like a whipworm into woven fabric, snaking in and out of the warp to defy your best efforts in brushing. Your Whippet’s coat may be a lot shorter than your Saint Bernard’s, but there are more similarities than differences once you realize that, at the same cut-short length, the hairs are of almost all dogs are of the same types. Tightness of curl just throws another characteristic into the recommendations for coat care. Classifying haircoat types on the basis of length, the German Shepherd Dog’s is considered to be “normal” or intermediate, compared to the short hair of the Boxer and the long hair of the Newfoundland.
There are a number of reasons for hair loss, but it is an ongoing process that annually has two major peaks, when people are most likely to complain about shedding. At those times, the undercoat is most noticeably affected first, and then the topcoat is lost one or two weeks later, as a rule. It is most obvious in the breeds that are commonly called “double-coated”, although in reality all dogs except the hairless breeds have both types, and even the Xolo, Crested, Hairless Rat Terrier, etc. have a little hair someplace, and those few follicle sites have both types, if you look hard enough. In bitches about two months away from an estrus cycle, the undercoat often is released in great hunks, especially if the bitch is not regularly combed during these months, and is very easily drawn out with the comb if she is groomed more regularly (which, semiannually, may mean at least once a day).
Breeders who have paid attention to something other than their TV sets have long ago learned that the changing length of days (amounts of daylight) is the trigger for these estrus changes in the domesticated dog. There are some primitive breeds and wild canines in which only one estrus a year (or even none until the dominant female in the pack moves on or dies) is the rule, but let’s leave those few out of the discussion for now. You will notice that in the temperate zones, which is where most dog ownership occurs, more estrus events are clustered close to the months of September and March than in late June and the New Year. I believe that is due to the time lag as the dog’s body (specifically its hormone production) adjusts, catching up to the change in length-of-day that happens around June 21 and December 21.
It takes approximately those two months for the dog to go through its photon-induced hair-loss cycle in preparation for its heat cycle. Now, before you excitedly remind me that males go through their own coat-loss cycles, let me say that males also have hormones and also are affected by length of daylight changes, but their hair loss (at least in winter, in my considerable experience, anyway) is not as dramatic as in females. The high summer temperature that many people want to blame is not the cause; otherwise, they’d only lose the insulating undercoat, and not in winter.
The loss of copious quantities of the crinkly-soft undercoat is followed by the considerable loss of harsher straighter topcoat a month later. If you see undercoat loss one month, then topcoat loss the next month while the undercoat is beginning to grow back, and you have kept the dog worm-free, it’s almost certainly the semiannual molting process. Good grooming begins with good nutrition, and worms inhibit the assimilation of nutrients in the inflamed intestines. But all you need for most breeds are three simple, economical tools, so forget all those made-in-China multitudinous gadgets or expensive visits to a grooming shop. Do it yourself.
Undercoat
These hairs of the undercoat vary from short, fine, and wavy (described by some as fuzz or down), to thick, slightly longer, fine and wavy with a small bristle on the tip, to even longer, soft with a slightly more visible bristle and waves in the bottom two-thirds. All three types are best groomed with a good undercoat comb. These combs are usually chrome-plated or stainless steel, but all should have rounded points so as not to scratch the skin, and smooth teeth for low friction, as the wavy nature of the hair is sufficient for the comb to remove the dead strands and not pull too hard on the healthy live shafts. The label may recommend the comb for toy breeds, but as long as it’s sturdy and comfortable to hold, it can be used even on your German Shepherd Dog. Look for a good welding job where the teeth are held in the spine of the comb.
Hold the comb so the teeth are perpendicular to the dog’s skin, or, if the coat is a real mess, slanted a little so the teeth may be dragged like a lawn rake over the coat, but not stuck into it like a shovel. Comb one small section at a time, in the direction of hair growth, using very short stokes — six inches or less. You will usually build up a “bank” of fuzz, fur, and some guard hairs at the end of that section. Pick up the mass of soft hairs with the comb and put that in a bag or pile. When there is not much more fuzz coming up and no drag at all on the comb, even if slightly slanted, move on to the next section and repeat the procedure. I find it best to start near the tail and work toward the head, so you won’t comb into the thick, uncombed areas. It’s more comfortable for the dog that way.
After the entire coat has been combed and you have a hefty pile of wool, go over the dog again, combing backwards against the direction of hair growth, being sure the comb is perpendicular to the skin. Back combing catches undercoat hairs you will miss even with the most fastidious first combing. As long as the combing is not too vigorous, only the dead undercoat will come out. By removing the dead undercoat, you are also cleaning your dog, because a lot of dirt and debris is loosened and removed in the grooming process. Frequent combing will generally prevent this dirt from accumulating, and a regularly groomed dog may never have to be bathed in his lifetime, barring a run through a sewer, skunk’s nest, or herd of goats.
Topcoat
Whether you have to remove topcoat because of internal worms or normal seasonal changes, you will need different equipment than you used on the undercoat. The hard, straight guard hairs (though some are slightly wavy toward the roots) which are long enough to extend through the crinkly undercoat, usually defy combing. The teeth of the comb slide between these hairs, which are held in place not only by the skin, but also by friction or static electricity with the adjacent hairs, so the comb catches only the wavy undercoat.
The dead topcoat hairs lie side by side with the live coat, but because they are not receiving oil from the follicles, are microscopically ragged, and have different resistance to friction. During my employment in the elastomer/polymer industry, I discovered that certain blends of natural and synthetic rubbers have the proper hardness, resilience, and frictional properties to draw out those dead hairs with no pull at all on the live hairs. This rubbing of the live hairs stimulates oil flow, as does bristle brushing. At that time I started marketing a molded rubber item shaped like a thick doughnut, having the exact properties of friction and toughness, and which was ideal as a nearly indestructible toy as well as useful for grooming. I call this “groomer” The Groommaster and still have a supply, but don’t advertise anymore. But you possibly can do as well with the toe of a sneaker, or a piece of shoe sole, if you can find these made from natural rubber. Substitutes made of vinyl and other polymers are not satisfactory.
Holding this groomer or a suitable substitute, stroke the dog firmly in the direction the hair lies. Working from the head toward the tail, once again, work one section at a time, moving on to the next patch only when no more straight topcoat comes out. Unlike combing, use of the groomer does not build up a bank of fuzz unless the dog has not been combed at all and is losing his undercoat. Rather, the stiff, straight hairs of dead topcoat collect in a pile at the end of each stroke. The groomer is also very effective on the throat and other areas where the soft intermediate type hair grows (neither especially hard and long, nor only wavy and long). Use gentle, upward strokes so you don’t make the dog uncomfortable with too much pressure over the trachea.
The third tool is a fine-tooth hacksaw blade. You’ve seen those ankh-shaped curry-comb tools with the ends of the looped blade held in the handle. The main reason I don’t like those, besides the fact it requires something from a store instead of your basement tool cabinet, is that part of the commercial blade is drawn across the coat in the same way a knife is used to cut a rope or a piece of food. However, if you hold the straight hacksaw blade perpendicular to the direction of the lay of the hairs, and drag it (again, like a rake) toward the hair tips (generally, this is from head toward tail or torso toward toes). The fine teeth of the blade grab the split ends of dead topcoat as effectively or even better than the rubber groomer does, and you drag the hairs out from between the live non-split hairs. If you haven’t used the comb first, it’s a bigger job, so comb and get rid of what undercoat you can before tackling the topcoat.
After combing out the undercoat and grooming off the topcoat, clean the dog by wiping him off with a damp towel to remove any remaining static dust and dandruff. If you have a show coming up right away, a lanolin spray might help, but wipe it all off before entering the ring.
© Fred Lanting
The illustrations above are from the author’s book, The Total German Shepherd Dog, but 16 of its 20 chapters are applicable to nearly all breeds: genetics, training, health care, and much more. Another book that you should have in your library is the comprehensive Canine Orthopedic Disorders. Order both at one time, and save on postage: Mr.GSD@netscape.com
Front and Rear Angulation in the Working Dog
Dog breeds are grouped – often arbitrarily or erroneously – into from five to ten categories based on function, superficial appearance, or geographical origin, depending on the registry organization. Just because it may make more sense to assign them to groups based primarily on ancestry and then on historical function, does not mean that such will be the case. In most dog circles, the “working” breeds have always been considered as those that originally did such work as herding or guarding livestock, pulling loads, and protecting property. Even though other breeds had specific occupations in the service of man, they are not known as working breeds: sighthounds running down prey or predators, gundogs flushing food for the table, terriers and toys terrorizing vermin – these were more or less doing what they would do without human ownership, anyway, so their jobs were considered less like “work”.
Many dog organizations split the huge Working Group into two, with the ones that had historical development for tending, driving, or bunching flocks and herds being called “Herding breeds”. Never mind the confusion about whether the reindeer-herding Samoyed is hardly much different from the sled-pulling Husky – that’s a puzzle for another time. Most of the Group that did not resemble the mastino-type wagon puller or the bear-fighting wooly flock guardian type were once employed to trot around the animals raised by man for his food, and assigned to the herding subcategory. These latter were specialists in trotting, in covering much ground with the most efficiency (least effort). This meant that success favored those with the most shoulder angulation over those with the stiffer, more vertical front ends.
When we speak of a shoulder in a dog, we usually include a lot more than just the scapula (shoulder blade) – although the flat, broad bone is often the center of attention. No part of a dog exists alone, not even those “floating” bones such as the hyoid, sesamoid, clavicle, patella and penile bones, all of which are connected to muscles and other bones by ligaments and tendons. The shoulder is intimately related to most other portions of the foreassembly or “forequarters”, from the skull to the ribs, from vertebrae to arm and breastbone.
The scapula does not articulate with any bones at its top, but is attached by four muscles to the spinal column at a number of places from the first cervical to the ninth thoracic vertebra and to the first seven or eight ribs. This is the case whether the dog is steep-shouldered or well-laid back, so differences between the two types must be due to minor differences in scapula and humerus lengths and ratios; perhaps the lengths of the vertebrae; and the tightness and condition of the ligaments and muscles that hold the bones in their positions.
At the most forward and lowest portion of the scapula is a shallow socket in which articulates the head of the upper arm (humerus). This area, especially the humeral greater tubercle that protrudes in front of the articulation, is called the “point of the shoulder”. Running roughly up the center of the blade from that point nearly to the top is a ridge of bone known as the spine of the scapula. The lowest and thickest section of that spine close to the socket is the acromion. See Figure 2. There are several muscle groups attached to the scapula. Don’t be frightened by their names; use abbreviated nicknames if you stumble over pronunciation. What matters is that you know what action each gives to the blade and the entire limb, and where the muscles are attached.
The first of these is the triangular trapezius muscle originating on the bones and ligaments of the vertebral column from the third cervical (neck) vertebra to the ninth thoracic vertebrae. Its insertion is on the spine of the scapula. Since part of this thin broad muscle lies forward of the ridge it is attached to, and part extends to the rear, it can easily be seen that its function is primarily to elevate the limb. It also brings the arm forward and helps in changing the angle of layback during movement. The omotransversarius starts from the first cervical vertebra (the atlas) next to the back of the skull, dips beneath the other muscles of the neck, which extend to the sternum and arm, then attaches to the scapular spine near the acromion. Its obvious action is to draw the limb forward and rotate the bottom of the scapula forward while other muscles are trying to hold the rest of it in place. Knowing that, you can easily understand why a dog trotting in the show ring isn’t going to extend its forelimbs in ideal or equal reach if it has its head turned toward its handler. Nor will it cover as much ground if it trots with its head held high instead of forward and slightly above back level. Yet terrier and cocker dog-show handlers are notorious for the silly spectacle in which their dogs often barely touch the floor with their front paws!
Beneath the trapezius lies the rhomboideus muscle, which originates on the vertebrae from near the head to about the sixth or seventh thoracic vertebra. Its insertion is along the edge of the scapula, farthest from the acromion. Because of its wide origin, it can lift the limb upward, pull the limb and shoulder forward or backward and draw the scapula against the rib cage, depending on which portions are ennervated (stimulated by nerve impulses.)
The muscle filling the space in front of the scapular spine is called the supraspinatus, and it is attached to the top of the humerus. Thus, you can envision it straightening out the shoulder-arm angle and bringing the limb forward. The (behind the spine) will either flex or extend the shoulder joint, depending on the position when the muscle contracts. It also is inserted on the humerus. Other muscles include the infraspinatus, serratus, teres, deltoideus, and sub-scapularis; all play some parts in moving the scapula in relation to the ribs, vertebrae or upper arm.
Now that you have a little more understanding of the muscles and their actions on the bones, let’s get back to the subject of angulation. Some of what follows is similar to an excerpt from my book, The Total German Shepherd Dog.
The Front
Variously called the front assembly, forequarters, or shoulder, the whole combination made by the shoulder blade (scapula), upper arm (humerus), breastbone (sternum), and their related soft tissues is at the heart of much poor movement in dogs the world over.
Shoulder assembly – The least understood and most controversial portions of the AKC and most other Breed Standards relate to the angles proscribed for the forequarters and hindquarters. I disagree with the angles commonly reported to be ideal in the shoulder area, though much of the discrepancy may be a matter of how that angle is usually measured. To specify angles is useless unless exact points of reference are not only agreed upon but also easily determined. Since the bones forming these angles are curved, such “landmarks” as (1) the highest point of the scapula, (2) the foremost point of the upper arm where it meets the shoulder, and (3) the topmost point of the elbow should be used as well as a detailed illustration decided upon. Without X-ray vision, we need to rely on our fingers.
None of the editions or versions of the AKC Standard for the German Shepherd Dog has been sufficiently explanatory, nor have they been so in other breeds. Many years ago I radiographed standing dogs and found that what I had been reading in books and seeing in artists’ drawings was not true, even though I had already discovered that by digital palpation of bones and joints.
Many people hear and even use terms without a good understanding of their meanings. See my article on “topline” for another example of this. What is “shoulder layback?” Many dog fanciers are not sure. See Figure 1. It is the front-to-back inclination of the shoulder blade, seen and felt when one touches both the point of the shoulder and the top of the scapula or the withers at the same time. The withers is the area atop the shoulder from where the neck ends to where the “true back” begins. In most dogs, the last cervical vertebrae and the first thoracic vertebrae are down between the shoulder blades, so you might not be able to feel them, especially in well-muscled dogs. The withers is thus a transition stage between the neck’s relatively upright carriage and the nearly level back called for in most working breeds. (I use the term “working” in the utilitarian sense, and especially refer to the herding breeds.) The beginning judge (or the one evaluating heavily-coated breeds) often checks and compares layback by running his thumbs down the spine of the scapula. That line is almost parallel to, and only an inch or so behind, the envisioned line from the highest point of scapula to point of shoulder. Even so, among novices there is usually great disparity between what the fingers feel and what the mouth spouts!
In examining the standing dog, the good layback of 35 or 30 degrees can be determined either by feeling that line of the slope of the scapular spine, or by palpating those points mentioned above, and imagining a line between these points. These two sloping lines will be essentially parallel, so take your choice; in either case, you will have approached the question more scientifically. By observing the facts for yourself you will be able to arrive at a conclusion or hypothesis. The sooner we understand what is as opposed to what we imagine, the sooner we’ll understand how to get the most out of our dogs. Feeling that scapular spine is more difficult in a heavily muscled breed such as the Rottweiler.
The often-heard call for a 45-degree shoulder layback plus another supposed 45-degree angle to the “line” of the upper arm, equaling a 90-degree shoulder angle, is inaccurate and misleading. If lines are drawn on a radiograph or a sketch, along the scapular spine and down the center of the humerus as they usually are, a 90-degree angle in the real, live dog standing there before you will never be realized. Since the time I started challenging this notion, there have been noted authorities who have corroborated my claims with independent research, but it will be a long time before the old books are all revised and longer still before writers do their own investigative work instead of copying sketches from each other. One of the better drawings of the “ideal” (according to American tastes) German Shepherd Dog ever made in this country is Lloyd Fanning’s which appeared in the Review and in an early, small booklet on the breed published by the German Shepherd Dog Club of America. Strange, that so many have used incorrect representations instead of this fairly accurate sketch. An even better sketch is available from the SV and appears in many posters and magazines owned by those who appreciate the international (German) type.
If you draw your line (on a radiograph or in your mind) from point of shoulder to the highest part of the ulna that we call the point of the elbow (leaving the humerus to do so), you get points of reference you can see and feel. Now draw your second imaginary line from point of shoulder to top of shoulder blade. The angle between is closer to 90 degrees than if you tried to imagine and use a line going through the shaft of the humerus, but you still don’t get a right angle, even with the best laid-back shoulder blades. That touted right angle cannot be attained by drawing your lines down the middle of the upper arm on a radiograph. Whether or not you have x-ray vision, you will not be able to agree where a “center” line of this slightly curved, well-padded bone is!). In my live-dog illustrated lecture, “Analytical Approach to Evaluating Dogs”, I show where the lines can connect palpable points by drawing chalk lines on dark, short-coated canine volunteers. Even without using a protractor, my audiences can see the fallacies of those printed standard specifications. See Figures 1 and 4.
Sketches in my book on the breed represent the typical German Shepherd with a good shoulder. Dogs with better reach and a floating gait have close to the same angles and layback. I suspect much more credit for such gait lies in the muscles and ligaments than has been imagined, measured, or hinted at in the past. And of course, desire and drive make a big difference, too. In actuality, the ideal shoulder with an angle approaching that much-vaunted “90-degree” number (from point of elbow to point of shoulder to highest point on scapula) has about a 30 to 35-degree shoulder blade layback, not 45 degrees. Factors such as the relative lengths of scapula and humerus, the angle at which the humerus inclines, plus the dog’s attitude, play parts in both the standing appearance and in the reach in motion. While they didn’t have all the answers, Humphrey and Warner had most of them, and they determined that a scapula-humerus angle of 102° was ideal for the working German Shepherd Dog.
Another problem in reports of that fictitious 45° or greater layback is that it just doesn’t occur in the standing dog. Possibly you might exclude achondroplastic dwarf breeds such as the Corgi, although a noted Dachshund breeder once told me that my statement about “no such shoulder angle as 45 degrees” was true for his breed as well. It does happen when the dog is trotting, running, deeply crouching, or lying on its chest and belly in the manner of the Great Sphinx. The reason for this is that the scapula is not fixed or stationary; its lower end is pulled back by the trapezius and forward by the omotransversarius and serratus, with many other muscles being involved to a lesser extent. These angles can be visualized by watching slow-motion movies or the frames taken from those, and superimposing (technically, infra-imposing) the skeleton or lines representing the bones. Examining many dogs of varying qualities, hopefully with the guidance of a knowledgeable veteran, will enable you to see these proper angles in motion and in standing.
A very unfortunate situation has arisen out of ignorance and laziness: many AKC breed standards were written by people who copied the wording from other erroneous standards without checking accuracy first. The same problem is seen in the multitude of breed books in which artists’ drawings of canine skeletons could almost have been traced from other books, judging from the mistakes they have repeated.
I had been preaching scientific honesty and artistic accuracy for years, thinking I was, like Elijah, “the only prophet in the land of Baal” – until Rachel Page Elliot’s book Dogsteps came out. As I had done on a smaller scale, she x-rayed many standing and running dogs to prove the nonsense about 90 degree angles between humerus (upper arm) and scapula, and the impossibility of a 45-degree layback of the shoulder. That so-called right angle cannot even be approached if you draw your lines down the middle of the upper arm (if you have x-ray vision, maybe you can tell me where the “center” line of this slightly curved, well-padded bone is!).
The Bouvier’s AKC standard has quite good wording on this subject, as does the Collie’s. The “about a right angle” in the AKC German Shepherd Standard is misleading. Is slightly less as good as slightly more? Is it even possible? Their Doberman Pinscher standard is a travesty, what with the 45° layback and 90° shoulder/arm angles being specified. Might as well specify cubical tires for cars! And Dobes have a terrier-schnauzer-sighthound type of structure, with more “open” front angulation than in the herding breeds.
Why, within a particular breed, are some shoulder angles better than others? In a few cases this is the same as asking why some scapulas are laid back at a greater angle than others, though most deficiencies in front angulation lie in the upper arm rather than the scapula layback. If the angle of the spine of the scapula does indeed differ between dogs, it is possibly because some dogs have proportionately shorter vertebrae in the neck or sacrum, and some may have longer bones in the true back and loin (the true back being between the scapula and the croup). If the dog has shorter vertebrae and disks, the shoulder may more upright.
Use Your Fingers
If you draw your line from point of shoulder to the highest part of the ulna that we call the point of the elbow (leaving the humerus to do so), you get points of reference you can see and feel. Now draw your second imaginary line from point of shoulder to top of shoulder blade. The angle between is closer to 90 degrees than if you tried to use the line going through the shaft of the humerus, but you still don’t get a right angle, even with the best laid-back shoulder blades. In my live-dog illustrated lecture, “Analytical Approach to Evaluating Dogs”, I show where these lines are by drawing chalk lines on dark, short-coated canine volunteers. Even when I don’t use a protractor, my audiences can see the fallacies of those printed standard specifications. Again, see Figures 1 and 4.
Action and Motion
Remember that those trapezius and rhomboideus muscles extend to the ninth and sixth thoracic vertebrae with only a small portion of their fibers, and if the vertebrae are relatively short or the scapula is slightly more upright in that dog for another reason, the muscle attachment will be relatively forward and less broad. The same may be true to a lesser degree with the serratus ventralis, which runs from the scapula to the last five cervical vertebrae and the first seven ribs. The more forward all these attachments are, the less the blade will be inclined when a pup begins to move and muscle forces help shape its semi-cartilaginous bones and joints. In such a dog, there would be less muscle mass present to rotate the top of the scapula back and forth, thus a restriction of motion here contributes to a lack of reach in front and even follow-through beneath.
There is a far greater cause for poor reach, or less smoothness of front action. Some dogs have an upper arm (humerus) that is not laid back at a good angle from point of shoulder to elbow joint. This is sometimes accompanied by a proportionately shorter arm compared to the scapular length. Such dogs are in the minority, but it’s wise to keep an eye on the problem. Because of cyclic neglect, German Shepherd Dogs, have periodically become alternately better and worse in this respect. At the time of this revision, the AKC-GSDCA type has lacked good upper arm layback for many years while the international type has improved since the 1970s. See Figure 3 for one artist’s conception of ideal structure.
Whether herding livestock, doing police work, performing obedience exercises, or pulling loads, the working dog needs a well-angled shoulder/upper arm assembly. Let’s consider this synonymous with good layback of both bones, for convenience’s sake. A “straight” (more vertical) foreassembly is somewhat like a car without springs. Imagine a dog with poor front angulation hitting the ground with its forelimbs after climbing over a wall in pursuit of an errant lamb or thief. The hard shock will have a detrimental effect before long.
A dog with better angles (yet strong ligaments in pasterns, elbows, and shoulders) can spread that shock over an imperceptibly longer period of time, during which the muscles slow the impact while the bones go through their “folding up” action relative to each other, then release that stored energy by straightening out again (bouncing back). Trotting creates very nearly the same sort of shock that jumping does, only far less violent.
A successful parachutist survives because he takes only a tiny fraction of a second longer to hit the ground than someone whose chute didn’t open. A good boxer “rolls with the punches”, while the guy who holds his head still when the other guy’s fist approaches finds himself waking up some time later. The baseball player relies on padding and moving his hand back to slow the speed of the ball as it makes contact with his glove. The differences in time intervals in each illustration are truly minute, but they can mean the difference between ease and pain, or life and death. Likewise the differences in layback from dog to dog may be small, but a tiny difference can mean smoother action, greater ability to hit the ground effortlessly whether jumping or trotting, and a longer useful working life. The galloping breeds minimize that shock by increasing the horizontal-to-vertical motion ratio. My show champion, lure-coursing Whippet was undefeated after he learned to run “flat” instead of “up and down”. The trotter breeds have a little more need for more acute angles in the foreassembly.
Not many dogs are used for pulling loads anymore, but the dog with a smaller angle between scapula and upper arm is better suited for this type of work, too. Even if only for historical interest, the ability to pull carts or sleds should be preserved in those breeds that are developed for such purposes, for breed type is inextricably bound to that utility. Form follows function, and if we get too far in the evolution of breeds from their original purposes, we will have created (though gradually) a distinctly different breed. What time traveler from centuries past would recognize today’s utterly non-functional English Bulldog from those he had seen chase and tame wild bulls in the days when the breed had a useful purpose? Do not let our working, utilitarian breeds slip away into uselessness as some other breeds have. There is a good reason why I put so much emphasis on shoulder and upper arm angles, and reward good examples in the show ring. It’s the same reason why it is so difficult to improve in breeding.
Why is good front angulation harder to achieve and possibly more important?
In the case of angulation at the knee (“bend of stifle”), ignorance and fad-following have resulted in GSDs with lower-thighs that are too long, with hocks too far behind the torso to be adequately controlled by ligaments and muscles. This rear angulation at the stifle can go either direction from the middle (moderate) ideal for most breeds, with the American-fashion GSD at one extreme and Chows at the other. However, in the case of the shoulder, the ideal is not in the middle of a normal range, but on one end; namely, closer to the fictional 45-degree layback and 90-degree shoulder/arm angles. Actually, depending upon breed and whether you draw the bottom line to the point of the elbow, a layback of 35 degrees in either scapula or upper arm is very good, and an angle of 95 degrees from withers to point of shoulder to point of elbow is excellent for a herding breed. Drawing that line through the upper arm, you would get about 115 degrees in most of the efficient trotters. If it were possible to create a 45-degree layback in both bones, some say that such a dog might fall on its face.
But back to those palpable points of reference, those being the indentation at the point of shoulder, the highest point of the scapula, and the top of the ulna. If a number of genes affect the angle between these bones, some would be “ideal genes” (let’s say they’d call for a 35° angle from vertical, for each bone, for purpose of illustration), and others would be “less than ideal genes” calling for some lesser angle. Of all the possible genes that could be transmitted, the vast majority would be calling for an angle of somewhere in the 20 degree to 30 degree range, with a miniscule number calling for the coveted approximately 120 degrees remaining between the scapula and humerus. Genes are inherited randomly, and statistically would show a bell curve with the smallest amplitude in the two extremes (say, 15 degrees and 35 degrees, for example) and the greatest in the middle of the curve.
Despite all the talk about angles, it boils down to this advice: forget the numbers, examine as many dogs as you can get your hands and eyes on, compare one dog to the next, and reward or admire those with the smallest apparent angle between shoulder and upper arm, while proving what appears in stance by watching the dog perform in the trot. See Figures 4 and 5.
Since he cannot do “better” than the ideal shoulder angle, which is at one end of a range of possibilities, the breeder must be more diligent in such an instance to cull from breeding programs all dogs which drift an undesirable distance from that good end of that spectrum. More so than is necessary in any trait in which the ideal is at some intermediate point between the worst on one end and the worst in the opposite direction. In the case of good forequarter function in a herding breed, and in most other working breeds, there is only one direction from the ideal, when we speak of breeds developed for trotting. To paraphrase Sir Edmund Burke, eternal diligence is the price of freedom from poor forequarters.
The Hindquarters
The thigh – What is meant by “the whole assembly of the thigh” in the wording of the AKC Standard for the GSD? Viewed from the side, it includes the croup, upper thigh (femur and associated soft tissues), and lower thigh (tibia and fibula). If these three skeletal sections are too “vertical” or steep, the hindquarters will not present the broad picture called for by the Standard. Obviously, if the croup and lower thigh are slanted downward toward the rear, the femur will not also be so. Nor is it angled forward when the GSD stands in a normal pose, in spite of the AKC Standard’s inaccurate statement about it paralleling the scapula. Many books on many other breeds have made the same error; even some written by well-known judges who should have known better than to report on something they did not experience in real life.
From experience both in radiographing live, standing dogs and in feeling for the bones in the hindquarters, and getting my seminar attendees to do the same, I have repeatedly shown that the femur is vertical when the metatarsus (hock) is vertical. The natural stance for German Shepherd Dogs is with one rear leg placed a little (and only a little) under the torso for added support of a long, substantial body. In this leg, the femur is not vertical, but neither is the hock. Stand your dog with metatarsi vertical and parallel. Lift the dog’s rear leg while you feel with your fingers for the acetabular (hip) joint capsule, and make a chalk mark there. Then feel the depression between the upper and lower leg bones. This is some distance below the patella, which is too hidden in cartilage to be accurately palpated. Make another chalk mark there. You can now see that the femur is quite vertical between these two easily-located points.
The slant of the lower thigh in the GSD can roughly approximate that of both the croup and the humerus, although there is considerable variation, and it probably comes closest when the metatarsus is vertical, but even then not in all dogs – too much has been made of this similarity and the concept should be dropped. The angle that the lower thighbones make with the femur in a natural stance is not a right angle. Here again I am forced to contradict a poorly worded line in the AKC Standard which is more fancy than fact, and probably harks back to the days before radiography was used much.
Even von Stephanitz may have understated conditions a little when he said this angle should be “90 to 100 degrees, sometimes even a bit more.” He was talking about the angle made between the pelvis (croup) and femur, which right angle we have shown is not possible. But one of the axioms of geometry indicates that if the croup is parallel with the tibia, the angle between the femur and tibia equals that between the femur and croup. Remember that this premise of parallel lines is approximate at best. The angle between pelvis and femur is not a 90° angle, as you now know. With a slope of (typically) 35° to the croup, and a nearly vertical femur, that angle between lower thigh and femur in most excellent moderately- or even very-angulated dogs will be around 125° (90 + 35) from the horizontal, however one measures it. To have a right angle would necessitate a horizontal croup or a forward-slanting femur, neither of which are found. The angle between a vertical line from hip socket through the stifle indicating the femur, and the line from stifle joint to point of hock varies from 95° in an “extreme” dog to about 130° or 140° in a less-angulated, straighter-stifled dog. This means the angle of the lower thigh from the horizontal varies from 5 to 50 degrees in various breeds. The relative length of the lower thigh is the biggest anatomical factor in determining this angle. See Figure 6.
For a good understanding of the anatomy of the dog, additional pictures and discussion would be helpful. Toward that end, I urge you to get your own copy of “The Total German Shepherd Dog”, regardless of what breed you have, and study the illustrations and information.
Fig.1 Shoulder Angles – It is almost impossible to duplicate, by eye or hand, the typical illustration in most books that shows a 90-degree angle between limbs, with lines going through the middle of the humerus and from either the most-forward point of the shoulder or the imagined location of the center of articulation to the highest point of the scapula or along the scapular spine. Only in the “best” fore-assemblies will an angle of 90 degrees even be approached, and then only if lines are drawn on radiographs from top of ulna to front of upper arm to a point behind the highest point of the scapula.
Figure 3 Various Bone-Joint Angles in a Well-built Herding/Working Breed
(Actually, few GSDs have this good a shoulder, and very few from American lines since the 1970s)
Figure 6 Rear Angulation. This is defined as the angular relationships between croup (pelvis), femur, lower thigh, and metatarsus. The term is erroneously used by rank novices to describe slope of topline.
Copyright 2005 – This article is a revision of the earlier article “Angulation Front and Rear” by the same author. See separate article on hindquarter angulation elsewhere.
(About the author – Fred Lanting is an SV breed judge, is approved by UKC and many international registries as an all-breed judge, and has judged numerous countries’ GSD Sieger Shows and Landesgruppen events, and other shows in about 30 countries. He presents seminars and consults worldwide on such topics as Gait & Structure, HD and Other Orthopedic Disorders, Anatomy, Training Techniques, and The GSD. Fred lives part of the year in Alabama, actively trains in schutzhund, and breeds for occasional litters. He invites all to join his annual non-profit Sieger Show and sightseeing tour. He can be reached at mr.gsd@netscape.com and his dogs can also be seen on Jagenstadt, www.SiriusDog.com, and www.fredlanting.org; the latter being where you can also find most of his articles. Some of the illustrations in this article are from the book, The Total German Shepherd Dog. That book and the new Orthopedic Disorders book are available directly from the author or some distributors. Reprint permission of these copyrighted pieces can be requested and must carry this or a similar notice at the end.)