I think your dot at the top of the shoulder is probably too far forward in both cases. Willow has a good front end, even though she's not standing up. Shadow has really good feet! Round is good. He's got a very pleasing look to him, though his front end is a bit straight (short upper arm). In horses a flat back in the rump area (like an Arabian horse with its high set tail and flat croup) means a short and horizontally positioned pelvis. Definitely not desirable in a dressage horse (power and spring required) or a racing horse (power, speed and length of stride required). Maybe it's good for something else though.
Just went back to Obi's pic. His legs look ridiculously short compared to your two, haha!!!! Part of that is a deep chest which takes up a bit of leg at the front. When he was younger, round a year, he was really leggy looking because his chest hadn't deepened. Still, he looks like half his legs have been chopped off, next to your guys.
Yeah, dunno about the Arabs. Arabs have become a very exaggerated looking breed. The halter horses (show ring types) are the most exaggerated as far as flat backs (and those awful seahorse heads) goes. I wonder if the successful endurance horses are actually the more slopey rumped versions.
I should think the answer to that is very complicated - it no doubt also depends on all sorts of things, including the height/weight of the dog, its muscles, the quality of the joints...plus what it's asked to do. I have found this exercise incredibly useful. I now look carefully at dogs to see whether I can figure out what they seem to do effortlessly, vs what seems to take more effort. I'm only just starting to figure out anything though!
Why is round good? This isn't a pointless challenging question, I've really been wondering whether we know why round is good.
I only meant from a breed standard perspective. Don't really know what it might mean from an ability perspective. Feet can be too short and round of course - too short and round would give nothing to stand on. But shortish might mean faster turning and liftoff of the foot (faster breakover)...?Running on the toes (humans sprinting or horses whose whole foot is one toe) means faster. Not that speed is what you think of when you think of a Labrador. I suspect we're getting into aesthetics territory with the round feet.
The comment you made the other day about length in lurchers' feet assisting with speed (or was it stability at speed - or both?) made sense to me. I do prefer the aesthetics of a wheel-for-a-foot, though
It's was stability at speed - but, you know, it was just an article by some bloke on the internet. He'd written a lot of stuff on performance and conformation but who knows what he knows, really. I got a reference for a DVD from the article though, it's called Dog Steps. It's old, but apparently one of the main references. https://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=dan123 I also bought 'coaching the canine athlete' by Dr Zink. http://www.amazon.com/Peak-Performance-Coaching-Canine-Athlete/dp/1888119020 Both on my 'things to read' pile....
But just going back to round feet...if you zoom in to Willow's feet, she does not seem to be standing 'square' on her foot pads. This was similar to something we noticed on Ella, and they both have those longer toes and nails. Not that I know this matters, at all. Or that it's not because both dogs weren't about to move and didn't have their weight on that paw. But Shadow seems to stand much straighter on his pads with the weight vertical.
