Is a full-speed sprint good for the hips?

[carmspack]

out of condition - breathing hard -

"Kira is doing where the hind legs are pretty much moving together, and other times they gait more. If they were to rely more on the hop move is that a concern"

no problem here -- look at the other dog , doing the same thing

[Anthony8858]

Originally Posted by JeanKBBMMMAAN

Okay, I am going to ask - because I watch my dogs run/play a lot and sometimes they do the run like Kira is doing where the hind legs are pretty much moving together, and other times they gait more. If they were to rely more on the hop move is that a concern? I am always watching...neurotic - sometimes I won't even look at other peoples' dogs or fosters because I fear I will see something that will set me off.

And NOT picking on Kira, but always looking and wanting to learn structure - is she considered cow hocked?

She's a beautiful girl. I personally think straight out sprints are okay - I would x-ray anyway when you get a chance (hips/elbows/spine) to have a nice baseline of info. I do have dogs with varying degrees of HD and in every case my vets have encouraged me to keep them lean and keep them active. The more of each the better (within reason of course) but keeping those glutes and other muscles tight helps to keep the hip in place.

Kira does seem to be a little cow hocked. However, I must have looked at loads of other videos, and it appears that many (too many) WGSL dogs are cow hocked or roach backed. Now I get it. Now I see what all the fuss is all about.

Kira has a straight back (thankfully), and will only run with both legs at a slower pace, and seems to do it more when she's playing a fun game, and controlling her own pace.
When she goes all out, her stride is much different, and if I run with her, she goes into a gait or trot.

There was a early xray question mark about a possible fair hip. I sent the xrays to OFA, and the report came back as inconclusive because of bad positioning. I chose to wait until about now to do it again. It's on my agenda.

Here ya go, draw your own conclusions

Kira running - YouTube

Kira running - YouTube