# Understanding movement



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I'll give you a bump - hopefully those with more experience and knowledge than I will chip in when they are on later.  

I plopped in the example pic of correct movement (from GRCC) to compare to and forgive the doodles on your dog's picture (they are aprox and just there for visual guides for what I'm looking at). 

I think he has very nice movement. 

Nice reach (see front foot forward extending to below the dog's nose). 

And correct gait as far as "covering" the ground. See bottom straight line showing how close the feet are to the ground as he moves. 

Some people out there want dogs reaching past the nose + they don't mind if the dog is kicking up his heels a little - but that's not correct movement for the breed. 


Now, the judges are not just looking at gait when you are moving your dog. They are looking at what's going on with structure as the dog is moving. They are looking to see what's happening to the dog's front/shoulder, they are looking at the topline, tailset, etc.

With your dog - a couple things that I'm seeing (I think) is he was not moving on even ground + I can't tell if he was completely moving in a straight line (the angle is off) + there's a couple young dog things like a possible roll (not bad though) over the back end. You see them more because I was comparing him to a drawn pic of a mature dog.

And I "think" he might have a low tail set - but his tail carriage is good. There's a curve in his tail which is a little distracting, but a lot of goldens have that to one extent or another.


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## Rion05 (Jan 4, 2016)

Thanks, Megora! Trying to learn! The side-by-side drawing and photo really helps!

Definitely some upward curve and merry action in that tail when he's happy or enthused! The ground is a bit uneven.

He appears to me to move smoothly and effortlessly while trotting, covering much ground quickly, but you are helping me understand the "why" and "how" of what I'm seeing when watching dogs move. I'm learning. The angles are wonky, because he's my obedience dog, too, and if *I* move him he often moves his head to keep tabs on where I'm at instead of focusing forward. I tried to catch a photo of him moving on his own.


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