All Creatures Have Amazing Unity of Action – John H. Cook
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John H. Cook
All Creatures Have Amazing Unity of Action
by John H. Cook
(excerpts from the THE AMERICAN DACHSHUND, August 1969)
Note: This article is from The Dachshund Club of California’s recorded educational symposium and notes Mr. Cook prepared before the symposium as well as from listeners’ notes. John Hutchinson Cook was President of the Dachshund Club of America for 11 years and served on its Board of Directors for four years prior to that. He was regarded as one of the foremost authorities on Dachshunds. He had Standard and Miniature Dachshunds and was interested in color breeding as well. He was an AKC All-Breed Judge.
~Submitted by Elaine Hanson
It is my feeling that we all become too breed-bound and do not look at our favorite subject – the Dachshund – with an objective enough eye.
We should know other breeds as well as Dachshunds, not just the related ones but those intended for purposes entirely different from those of Dachshunds. We must be aware of other species of animals, too, and study the action of horse, cats, men, and other mobile creatures. It will amaze one to recognize the unity of action that all creatures have.
In judging our animals, we have a standard of perfection which is much the same as a set of specifications. However, too often we do not fully understand how these specifications are to work. We will discuss perfection as we see it from the specifications, but will go on and try to understand how this is to be carried out in action.
No matter how much we discuss, argue, and try to set down immutable rules over both these areas, we must constantly remind ourselves that no two examples are exactly alike, and each has to be judged on its individual merits, and I have become increasingly reluctant to make large statements.
The Dachshund is ‘largish’
The Dachshund was developed for a special purpose. Therefore, there is a special feature to his form. He is a largish dog who has had his legs shortened. His bone is of a large nature. His chest and rib carriage permit large lung capacity. He is bred not only to be a good hunter but, further, to go to ground, after prey. His paws are designed for digging as well as to cover the ground. However, remembering these special features, he is also bound by universal laws that govern all well-made creatures – and he measures up to them well.
The standard of perfection isn’t perfect. It is very long, and in some cases seems to contradict itself. But it is the set of specifications we have. [ See the current AKC Breed Standard here.]
The sources of information for this discussion are the Standard of Perfection, “The Illustrated Standard of Points of the Dachshund of All Varieties,” by John F. Sayer, published 1939 by the (British) Dachshund Club [the 2009 version of the UK Breed Standard may be seen here: Dachshund Breed Standard] ; and “The Dog In Action” by McDowell Lyon.
Mr. Cook spoke about balance, kinetic balance, center of gravity, arc of action and lateral displacement. The substance of what he said may be read in “The Dog In Action.”
Our dogs get little exercise. You can’t expect the muscle tone to be at its maximum if they don’t get exercise. It is fine to put a dog out and let it race, but there the exercise is spasmodic; it is not controlled. You have no assurance that you will get even development. The only way to do it is to walk your dog at a controlled speed. That is what horse people do with their animals.
Q. How long would you start walking a dog?
A. Six months, or when the dog is near maturity. At that time the dog should have at least two miles per day of controlled exercise. And that is not dawdling; that’s walking right along. People have devised mechanical exercisers, but I have yet to see a finished product resulting from such exercise.
Barbara Reidy: Bicycles. Dogs that I am showing get three to five miles a day behind a bicycle. But we start them at a half a mile a day.
George Spradling: If you have long runs, put two dogs in opposite (adjoining) runs so that they see each other, and let them pace back and forth. My dogs were always in good condition.
John H. Cook: Ben Klimkiewicz used to gait his dogs while he sat in the rear end of a station wagon. Years ago, at my mother’s place in the Carolinas, we used to run the dogs behind a horse-drawn runabout. That was not too fast. You can do it with a car, but you must be careful not to go too fast.
George Spradling: If your dog is structurally bad, don’t overdevelop his muscles. Better not to exercise him at all.
John H. Cook: A woman I knew had her runs built so that the dogs had to run uphill, but I think too much uphill action would destroy balance.
Barbara Reidy: I should think it would make them hammy.
Sanford Roberts: I disagree. I seek out hills to exercise my dogs on. It builds shoulders and rears.
Ruth Batholomew: Some Afghan breeders gait their dogs uphill, and they have fabulous rears.
George Spradling: I agree with Mr. Roberts that if a dog is correctly constructed, no amount of exercise will hurt him, but if the dog is built wrong, then it will hurt him. Remember, we have a breed that is supposed to be able to trot at a slow gait all day long, and to climb hills if necessary.
Q. Has there been any marked change in the front structure of Dachshunds during the period you have been judging?
A. No marked change, but I have become increasingly critical. At one time certain animals seemed to epitomize the best qualities. I see very few such animals now. Now my critical sense is much more highly developed – perhaps overdeveloped.
Flat feet, springless gait
Q. When a dog is down in the pasterns, what does it look like?
A. Well, there is no arch in the front foot, so that the foot does not have cushion action. It is broken down. The leg would sort of fall flat. The dog would not have a springy gait.
I want to leave you with a couple of ideas. I have heard that many people, in thinking of the dog standing, think of a rectangle with four supports under it. That may be the way it appears. But this rectangle moves, and not all of the supports are on the ground at one time. So to get more support from the overall thing, you have to move these supports underneath, instead of one the four corners.
A further idea that is much to the point, a quotation for “The Dog In Action,” which has particularly to do with Dachshunds:
“There is no reason for not changing standards when conditions call for a deviation from the old. New standards and changes will always be in the offing. But whatever changes do take place should not impose a locomotive hardship on the dog.”
“if breeders make fronts appear straight…”
To illustrate this we might glance at the Dachshund Standard, which says of the front: Joint between the forearm and foot (wrists): these are closer together than the shoulder joints, so that the front does not appear absolutely straight. The originators of this breed did not write that in because they liked a bent leg but because it served a mechanical purpose, so if modern breeders should choose to make the Dachs’ front appear straight they would have to do something about the transverse placement of the shoulder blade or throw the assembly out of dynamic balance.
Now we are trying to bring together ideas of our specifications in the standard and the actual mechanics of the action of our dog. We must constantly have both in mind, and they must jibe. If there is a divergence, this must be removed. Dachshunds are, in some respects, a special case, but except in special areas – Dachshunds should conform to the universal laws of motion.