What is wrong with this dog (structurally)?

[tofu pup]

I have to ask though , what does "AOAC head" stand for? Yes, I have noticed that his head is a different shape than Sadie's or Ginny's. Its also much harder, as he tends to wack it into things like my legs and face and bounce it off of walls and tables all the time. Maybe its because he has trouble holding up that long nose of his. We really do love him and all of his flaws though.

Oh! AOAC stands for Any other Allowed Color, ie. tricolor/bicolor/blue merle/bi-blue. People tend to breed AOACs to AOACs and sables to sables, so the average sable Sheltie is more closely-related to another sable sheltie than to an AOAC. Make sense? That's why the AOACs tend to have certain faults (like that heavy head) and sables tend to have others (like a snipey, Pomeranian-type head). It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but it's a definite trend.

 

[OntarioSheltie]

Oh! AOAC stands for Any other Allowed Color, ie. tricolor/bicolor/blue merle/bi-blue. People tend to breed AOACs to AOACs and sables to sables, so the average sable Sheltie is more closely-related to another sable sheltie than to an AOAC. Make sense? That's why the AOACs tend to have certain faults (like that heavy head) and sables tend to have others (like a snipey, Pomeranian-type head). It's not a hard-and-fast rule, but it's a definite trend.

That's right, I always forget what that means. I think I've asked a few times before.

Thanks for the explanation, it all makes sense to me now.

 

[Elis]

First, the good: he's pretty well-balanced through the body. He's at a gawky stage right now, but he's put together. He has a nice long tail.

and the bad: He has a classic AOAC head. When AOACs go "off" in the skull, it's usually in a very predictable way: they get very, very deep, and often also wide, in the backskull, with a round eye. He has a heavy skull with nonparallel planes and a rounded topskull - though he's certainly not the only AOAC with a head like that. I will tell you that his head will get heavier and more coarse with age. You can see the differences in the shot of the three of them in the bathtub - they have very different expressions. A "pet" AOAC tends to have a rather different look from a "pet" Sable. (Sorry, that head just stands out to me!)

In his body, I do see that his pasterns are very upright and he's a bit calf-kneed in the front (though that could change as he matures). His hocks are rather long and he lacks angulation in the rear. I can't tell what his tail is doing, but I'll take your word that the tailset is poor. I'd like his neck a little longer and his back a little shorter, but that's just going by the pictures. The pasterns are the part that I would watch, if you plan on doing sports with him.

whew, I feel kind of bad writing all that out... but you did ask! I hope this is OK. He's certainly lucky he ended up with you, and I know he's going to have a great life!

This is very informative - especially since I've been looking for a female AOAC to do some sports with - tyvm

 

[ClantyreSheltie]

And then you have those of us with mixed breed shelties, where we mix it all up. My blue dog is from a sable to blue breeding, so he has faults and virtues of both.

You can use this dog for learning too:
http://www.clantyre.net/clip/Marque.html

I got a nice side shot of him (with his tongue sticking out of course). You can see that his front isn't awesome, but his legs are still under his body, and his ears are in front of his legs. His neck is decent, his rear is strong. He does have a short tail (thanks to his sable side). If his front were better, he would probably measure insize.

It's good to see both good and bad structure. Too many times, when you go to a structure seminar they don't have bad examples of structure only different levels of good, or someone is afraid the dog will be offended if they point out the bad. We keep threatening to take our straight shouldered, straight rear-ended rescue dog to a seminar. He still moves well, even at 14 years old. And if you are petting him while explaining his horrid structure, he won't care.

 

[corbinam]

and the bad: He has a classic AOAC head. When AOACs go "off" in the skull, it's usually in a very predictable way: they get very, very deep, and often also wide, in the backskull, with a round eye. He has a heavy skull with nonparallel planes and a rounded topskull - though he's certainly not the only AOAC with a head like that. I will tell you that his head will get heavier and more coarse with age. You can see the differences in the shot of the three of them in the bathtub - they have very different expressions. A "pet" AOAC tends to have a rather different look from a "pet" Sable. (Sorry, that head just stands out to me!)

I have often felt this way (when looking at pet AOACs) but could never put my finger on it. Thank you so much for explaining it the way you did!

 

[Sumac3890]

This has really been an interesting thread and most informative.

 

[Hurtseverywhere]

To me it looks like Smaller head With a short neck , but I think in combination with the short body length it just make him look out of wack, I think if his body was longer he would just appear a bit small. But then I am no judge Thank god.

 

[corbinam]

Additional picture

I scoured my discarded pictures to see if there were any others of this particular dog. I found one!

However, you'll see why it was discarded...it's very grainy/blurry. But, it might give more clues as to what (if anything) is going on with the dog's structure.

Sorry for the poor edit job--I wanted to preserve the handler's anonymity.

 

[Lovely]

I haven't had much to contribute, being an owner of non-show quality dogs and fairly new to the breed, but I have really enjoyed this thread!

Now I understand Abbie's AOAC head (though hers isn't so bad by my amateur judgement) and Duncan's short tail! Thank goodness he doesn't have the pom-looking face. I do not like that one.

 

[ClantyreSheltie]

I scoured my discarded pictures to see if there were any others of this particular dog. I found one!

However, you'll see why it was discarded...it's very grainy/blurry. But, it might give more clues as to what (if anything) is going on with the dog's structure.

Sorry for the poor edit job--I wanted to preserve the handler's anonymity.

Yeah, that's pretty bad. By the time the front leg is that extended, the rear leg should be also.