Would you like to understand why many dogs run away when they see a harness or become difficult to groom and possibly hysterical at the sight of nail clippers?
This picture clearly outlines the dog's shoulder, a mechanism poorly understood and therefore often mishandled by many people.
In this first video, Caroline points out on Margo how the above diagram translates and looks on a real-life dog...
When we touch a dogs paw we are also affecting the knee joint, and in turn, the elbow, because we are now so far away from the paw most people will be oblivious to the impact on the humerus that connects to the point of the shoulder which leads to the thoracic vertebrae or the top of the shoulder blades (in layman’s terms). Anytime the paw or leg is handled the shoulder will be affected. The elbow and shoulder do not move how our human ones do, any attempt to pull the elbow forward will result in pain in the dog's shoulder.
Without this awareness of this complicated mechanism, mishandling of dogs can quickly lead to issues with front paws being touched, grooming, in general, can become problematic, nails being clipped, hiding when shown a harness and fear of having the harness put on!
What is not understood is that the elbow of the dog is not meant to move out in front of the point (★ ) of the shoulder. If the dog's paw needs to be inspected or lifted imagine how you might lift the foot of a horse? Bending or turning the leg in any other direction will lead to pain in the shoulder of the dog, the older they get the more pain is inflicted.
Here's another example of the dog's motion to help you understand why we believe you should take extra care fitting a harness and handling the dog's body...
We hope you enjoyed this blog, thedogcalmer offers education to dog's (and their owners) all year round, here's a link to our upcoming courses https://www.thedogcalmer.com/book-dog-training-essex. We'd love to meet you and your four-legged friend...