"MOVEMENT IN THE SHOW RING"
Anne Mathers. Metewand Afghan Hounds
Northern Ireland 1994
Page 4
And now to the forehand, which is again complicated, and I think the most difficult part
of the dog to get right. In man there is a collar bone which attaches our forehands to our
chests. This bone is absent in dogs, which means that the whole forelimb is only
attached to the body by muscles. This means several things, there is no fixed point of
reference and there is a great deal of flexibility in both placement and movement. I think
here I need to digress to talk about the chest and topline, which, I hope, will help explain
the placement of the forehand, the chest should be capacious though never barrel
ribbed. It should be long (well ribbed back) and have good depth. NOT the deeper the
better. A rib cage so deep as to impair the ability of the elbows to pass under it when
the dog is turning, seriously restricts it's movement. Looked at from above the chest is
sort of pear shaped. The narrow bit is where the forehand rests closely. Behind the
forehand the rib cage widens. The ribs should be well curved from front to back as
they expand by being pulled forward and out. If the front assembly is correctly positioned,
and correctly angulated the elbow will be at the lowest part of the chest, and
the sternum or breast bone will be clearly felt in front of the point of shoulder looking from
the side. If you run your hand down the front of the neck your hand should feel the
sternum before the point of shoulder, Two front legs 'coming out of one hole' does not
necessarily mean a poor chest but can be because the whole forehand is too far forward
on the body.
The back should be of 'moderate length' but remember the loin is short, so the rib cage
must be long to even this out. If the dog is too short, however well it is made fore and
aft, it will not be able to move properly, as it will not have enough space between front
and back for it's legs to function as they should, the neck is the neck and does not include
the withers, the portion of the dog where the neck blends into the back. It is the highest
point of the back. Our standard calls for 'back level' which I think means withers and hip
bones as nearly on the same level as possible, the Afghan's topline should not go down
in steps, nor should it have an abrupt join where neck meets back, but gradual blending.
The shoulder blade should be 'Long and sloping and well set back.' This means that the
blades must incline inwards towards the centre line of the spine as well as backwards
from the point of shoulder, lying close at all times to the rib cage.
Now we come to the upper arm, which is a real trouble spot and probably causes more
discussion than anything else. Our standard is elusive on this point. 'Forelegs straight-
-straight with shoulder, elbows close to rib cage.' Nothing really definite here. BUT our
Afghans are agile and move both smoothly and with a spring. So we must have a
structure that allows for this. The humerus or upper arm should also be as long as the
shoulder blade, and should have a good return, i.e. come back under the dog so the
elbows can be close to the ribs and be straight with shoulder. A 90° angle is what is
called for in a Dachshund. In an Afghan this is probably setting our sights a little high,
but as close to that as possible. There are two reasons for this, the good length of bones
give good reach and the close angle means that there is plenty of shock absorbency
when the weight of the dog comes over the leg. A steep upper arm does not necessarily
mean lack of reach. However, what it does do is restrict agility and spring. A short steep
upper arm usually means shortness throughout the front assembly. Not right. Try
making yourself a little model of paper strips,. Pin the strip denoting the shoulder blade
down with a pin near the centre. Then fasten the 'upper arm' at the point of shoulder so
it can move freely, and the same for the 'foreleg' to the upper arm at elbow. You can have
hours of fun playing with these, trying different angles and lengths and it helps
understand the complexities. Remember though, the shoulder blade does not have
restricted movement, about 15°, so you will find a well laid back shoulder much the most
efficient regardless of what happens below it. (Continued on next page..)
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