Rowanglen Shelties Perm. Reg'd

Ch Rowanglen's Enchantress
Great-granddam of "Lance":
Am/Can Ch Rowanglen Sir Lancelot

Chrissy Illustrates The Sheltie Standard:

1) - a short back relative to the length of body gives the shoulder and rear room for extended movement;
2) - a body which is relatively longer than the back extends the point of shoulder and rear to a position where they have freedom of movement. Also notice the depth of chest of this bitch;
3) - a long shoulder blade that lays back about 45º at rest gives maximum room for extension of the upper arm (5). If (3) were in a straighter more vertical position, then it would be impossible for (5) to swing this far forward. Because of the "floating" ability of (3) during motion to accommodate leg action, the shoulder angle will vary when moving. By the way, this dog has a shoulder measurement of 42º. Her daughter, Ch. Rowanglen's Barcelona measured 43º, and her grandson in turn, Ch. Rowanglen Sir Lancelot, has a measure of about 40º;
4) - arrow (4a) illustrates the position of the left upper arm on the other side and it is parallel to the diagonally opposite right stifle (4b);
5) - the angle between (4a) and (5) illustrates the range of motion. Notice that the angle between (3) and (5) is just short of 180º;
6) - the left rear foot is being placed into the spot where the left front foot is just leaving;
7) - this line is drawn to point out that the foot (8) extends in front of the nose, which is a rare occurence. During uninterrupted motion the head usually drops lower than shown bringing the nose and toe in line, but in this instant, the dog illustrated was on the verge of slowing down and raising her head when this picture was snapped;
8) - the forward position of the foot shows the extended reach of the forefoot;
9) - the sloping croup created by the short back to longer body ratio opens up space for freedom of rear movement, and the low tailset acts as a rudder for the rear action;
10) - notice how long the strides are. This photo was taken at a moment of suspended extended trot as is evident by the fact that no foot is touching the ground at this split second of time. Notice that there is a shadow under each foot, and no foot shows wasted lifting action.

Excerpts relating to movement quoted from the Canadian Shetland Sheepdog standard:

GAIT: The trotting gait of the Shetland Sheepdog should denote effortless speed and smoothness. There should be no jerkiness, or stiff, stilted, up-and-down movement. The drive should be from the rear, true and straight, dependent upon correct angulation, musculation, and ligamentation of the entire hindquarter, thus allowing the dog to reach well under his body with his hind foot and propel himself forward. Reach of stride of the foreleg is dependent upon correct angulation, musculation and ligamentation of the forequarters, together with correct width of chest and construction of rib cage. The foot should be lifted only enough to clear the ground as the leg swings forward. Viewed from the front, both forelegs and hind legs should move forward almost perpendicular to ground at the walk, slanting a little inward at a slow trot, until at a swift trot the feet are brought so far inward towards center line of body that the tracks left show two parallel lines of footprints actually touching a center line at their inner edges. There should be no crossing of the feet or throwing of the weight from side to side. Faults: stiff, short steps, with a choppy, jerky movement; mincing steps, with a hopping up and down, or a balancing of weight from side to side (often erroneously admired as a "dancing gait" but permissible in young puppies); lifting of front feet in hackney like action resulting in loss of speed and energy; pacing gait.

Chrissy is modelling extended trot.