Hi everyone, my 9 month old who is extremely healthy and happy (and insane ) will sometimes sidewind a little when trotting and almost always when he is on lead. He leans his butt slightly more to the left than right when this happens instead of going straight but it is not extreme. He does not do this when he is running and much less when off lead so I am not really worried that it´s a structural issue but more that he might be exercising his muscles more on one side or maybe he is growing faster on one side. I changed the side I am walking him on and the lead we have been using to try to even things out already. I don´t want this to become a habit. I have heard this sometimes happens with horses but was wondering if anyone had experience with this and wanted to share how best to tackle the issue?
Re: slight sidewinding when trotting I wouldn't worry about it. It's really common and is just a method dogs adopt to avoid clipping the front feet with the hind feet.
Re: slight sidewinding when trotting If I look at my dog from the front when he's trotting off lead his hips are slightly off to one side. He walks and runs straight though. He doesn't seem to have any problems and I just figured it was his way of avoiding hitting his front feet with his back feet..... Not sure that helps but you're not alone
Re: slight sidewinding when trotting Pongo does exactly the same (when trotting). Glad to hear it's normal!
Re: slight sidewinding when trotting Well it is good to know that more of you see this in your pups and that it´s not anything to worry about. Thank you for your replies I am slightly over the top I know : I do worry that this might become an ingrained habit of trotting on lead and eventually be very hard to correct since the muscles will align like that (I might be wrong though), and since he is still young I could nip it now instead of letting it go on. But perhaps I should just stop obsessing. (but if you think of something let me know ) Thanks again, Gudny
