I don't think so - he is an intact male, and this is definitely part of it, I think. A bitch of the same general build wouldn't have the same muscle at the front. He looks good to me. He looks a tad unbalanced front and back and perhaps that's what you are seeing. Because - as Rachael said, with better angulation at the back, he would have more muscle on the rear to match the front a bit better. Hope you don't mind us critiquing your dog @Rosie - he's so lovely he can take it though.
Goodness yes, no disrespect meant at all, he is beautiful! Really a lovely dog; I love good strong male Labradors, just my kind of dog. Difficult to say whether the photo does him justice, as I see what Julie means about the slight imbalance between front and back. It's difficult, this judging of a dog by his/her looks, isn't it though? It's so personal - like someone judging your child on their adherence to a scale of physical perfection.
Just to underline again - if people are interested, do take a look at the book. This is all about the science of movement.
Here is Homer, well the best I can do at the moment. I can't say he's relaxed as he's in between barks. And not quite straight.
And another also not relaxed as his ball went under the cupboard. His head is in a bit of a shadow. Julie, I would think his back legs are a bit straight and he is a bit long.
Ok, everyone! You have to put your own dots on your dogs! If you have a go, we'll help you if we can. You can import your pictures into power point and have a go from the diagram, or stick cut out dots from post it notes on your dogs by feel. Homer looks like a really sweet dog - he is an adorable colour! He looks young, so no doubt has a way to go to build muscle yet. Just from looking, yes, you are right he has straight angles at the back - I can't really see a turn of stifle. If you look at his rear leg, it is almost a straight line up and down, although this might change somewhat as he gets older (as in a well muscled thigh might make the leg look a bit more curved). Compare it to the angle in the diagram on the skeleton - do you see what I mean?
It's nothing to do with cross breeds or not - you can evaluate angles of wolves, cheetahs...anything. Poodles, Labradoodles, whateverdoodles - it makes no difference. Go ahead and have a go at sticking the dots on your dogs. Happy to help to see whether you get them right (same as anyone with any kind of dog).
I really don't want any misunderstanding that this is all about the Labrador breed standard. It isn't*. So went looking for some examples to show you. This blog from Susan Garrett contains a nice picture of some angulation lines on a wolf (compared to a 'square' poodle). I like her explanation here: A good sloping shoulder will allow the dog to reach and accept the power from behind. If the dog has good rear angulation and power from behind, it needs a well angulated shoulder to balance that drive. If the shoulder angle is lacking, the dog will tend to move up and down rather than forward http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/10/helen-king-on-structure-evaluation/ * Well, it is in that the Labrador breed standard says the dog must have good angulation, but 'good angulation' is a scientific thing.
Here we are, dots on a wolf (well, the skeleton of a wolf) - it's the same as the diagram above of a dog. dots on a wolf by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
Trying to check whether the diagram is accurate...it might just be a sketch, so trying to get a diagram of a 'real' one... Wolves have very big bottoms! I now know from looking at the conformation of wolves. Puts Charlie's skinny little thing to shame...
Here is Obi (we went through a lot of liver treats to get this....). He has a short pelvis compared to the wolf. His shoulder angle is much better than I thought it was, though I still think his upper arm (above the elbow) is a bit short. He does not have a prominent breastbone so maybe that makes his chest look shallower and his front end look straighter than it is when you actually feel the bones underneath. Obi wishes he looked as manly as Pongo....
For the sake of clarity (and for those of us who like me are not too hot on maths and physics ) can we identify here how the correct or 'ideal' angulation has been determined and by whom? Some more information would be good - for example, are we looking for a perfect 'square' here? And if so, why?
There is some debate and argument over it, of course. I'll post some articles later (just about to drive to Cornwall), but the comments I'm making are based on the book I quoted above and the 'ideal' is shown in the picture I posted from the book.
Interesting that the lower point of the diamond shape on the wolf skeleton is way above the ground, compared with the lower point on the diamond shape on the dog that won crafts. I am still quite confused as to what this actually tells us about the dog or his performance.
Just google 'angulation dogs performance' - there is really stacks of stuff on this, it's a big topic in agility etc.
