Front legs and toes.

by Himanshu Mehta
(Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.)

Hi Susan,

Thank you for your response. Someone told me that the pastrens (?) of Chippy are not the desirable shape. Am uploading a photograph. Can you please clarify if this is indeed the case.

Warmest regards,

Himanshu.




Hi Himanshu
It's difficult to see from this angle exactly how Chippys' pasterns are angled, but from what I can see he certainly looks like a very well put-together dog.

Great head and coloring. It's difficult with photos because they often distort the actual body shape and I'm wondering if he's still an adolescent as he looks a little long in the legs and his chest could be deeper - but I think that may just be because of the angle of the camera.

While still growing and maturing, bones and ligments tend to 'shift' and be a little looser than when adult. Feeding a premium large breed puppy food during this period helps the bones and joints to develop properly. Also avoid excessive exercise or jumping/jogging and so on which can cause injury.

This is how the AKC (American) and the ADRK (German) Breed Standards describe the perfect pasterns......

AKC

Pasterns: are strong, springy and almost perpendicular to the ground.

Feet: are round, compact with well arched toes, turning neither in nor out. Pads are thick and hard. Nails short, strong and black. Dewclaws may be removed.

ADRK

Pasterns: Slightly springy, strong, not steep.

Front feet: Round, tight and well arched; pads hard; nails short, black and strong.

Basically it means that the pasterns (front 'ankle' joints for those who aren't familiar with the correct term) shouldn't be completely straight, or vertical, but should have a slight angle with a little 'spring'. Weak pasterns tend to be too angulated - they can look 'bowed' on the front of the lower leg, and cause the feet to look 'flat' and the toes to splay outwards. It's also a fault for them to be too straight. Both these variations cause a loss of that important 'spring' or flexibility which plays an important role in the correct Rottweiler 'gait' or movement.

You can see important excerpts from both Breed Standards used above on my Rottweiler Breed Standard page.

I hope this helps some. I wish you the best of luck with Chippy, he's a beauty.