Cane di San Bernardo

  More than footfall is trot: a dynamic expression of breed morphology, that is a gait which allows the most appropriate observation of motion. In trot any body structure defect shows immediately. It is a hopped askew motion, of two strokes in a double tempo, marked by a brief stage of suspension. Since trot displays regular movements and therefore easy to observe it is, during shows in the ring, the prefered kind of gait for the locomotory system evaluation. During the trot the barycentre of the Saint Bernard generally shifts sidewards only slightly, while its vertical shifting, during the suspension and rebound fase, are quite relevant.

  There are different types of trot:

1) Ordinary trot (during which the dog covers himself). Between propping the first and the second foot of a diagonal pair intervenes a short period of suspension.

2) Small trot (or slow trot) (during which the dog does not cover himself). Lack of the suspension period.

3) Elongated trot (during which the dog overmarches himself). The suspension period is rather long.

4) Racing trot, a very elongated trot during which the suspension period is even more prolonged.

5) Disjoined trot: if askew strokes are disjoined.

  The two kinds of trot of the Saint Bernard are: 1) the small trot; 2) the ordinary trot. Elongated trot, typical of the German shepherd, does not suite the Saint Bernard. If a Saint Bernard adopted elongated trot it would mean proportions and angles of the subject are no longer typical. Therefore let's not be deceived by the pleasant looking trot which is absolutely unsuitable for our breed. It is precisely what happened to the American Saint Bernard who, as we said before, has a beautiful trot but which has no longer any of the proportions required for a mountain dog.

Trot

  During the trot of a Saint Bernard we can see his head and neck are held slightly forth and lower compared to the position during footfall. As we mentioned before, the hind drive starts from the hocks and is commeasured to the tibial-metatarsal angle which, in the Saint Bernard, is of 145º/150º. This allows him a great drive which gains an excellent drive from the front. Furthermore, the frontal extension phase in the Saint Bernard is usually good because the front lope tends to exceed the hind one. Obviously a metatarsal angle less than a 145º would allow him a greater lope of the hind, but it would be in contrast to the general characteristics of mountain dogs who never show strong angulation on the hind.
  A meticolous exam of the dorsal-lumbar segment in the ring during trot is very important because the spine, as on footfall, must always reamain straight and steady without ever show waddle pelvis. We have already dicussed this topic speaking of the "alltogether compactness".
  This exam is undertaken showing the dog from a lateral prospective. One must notice that during trot the spine turns rigid, therefore a sinkage is to be severely penalized. In cases of convex or saddlebacks the parallelogram of forces falls apart and the impulse which generates motion is dispersed seriously challanging gait. All of that is to be severely penalized.
In the case of saddleback muscular effort to lift the back and allow, even if only partially, impulse transmission, implies a great energy loss at the disadvantage of the locomotory performance. During trot the dog, if well trained, tends to increment speed either by extending the lope or, more frequently, by increasing footstep frequency, and therefore shortening lope. Either way, the adopted system will always aim, for the sake of conserving energy, to the less tiresome one.

  It's worth stressing how a universally shared idea of ideal trot, according to which all dogs perform trot in the same way, does not exist, because each breed presents its typical trot which reflects the aspects of its peculiar conformation. So the evaluating parameter for trot doesn't lie in a universal ideal concept of trot but in the ideal concept of trot for the breed, which is in our case the ideal concept of trot for the Saint Bernard. That means a dog trots in a perfect manner on the ring when he developed the smoother and most balanced gait expected from his breed category. The judge must ascertain the lateral movements on one side are symmetrical to the ones on the other side, in other words that the drive is balanced and does not produce lateral shifts or deviations. When during walk and expecially trot the body of the dog, or better his longitudinal axis forms an angle with the direction of motion we have the so-called "crab-gait". This phenomenon is linked to the unequal transmission of force between the two hind limbs. Lateral deviations impose severe penalization. As a consequence of insufficient propulsion are trotto saltellante/cavort trot and the so-called trotto indeciso/irresolute trot, which are to be penalized. When the dog lacks in front-hind synchrony or has the hind very much under himself, tends to "clap the castanetses/nacchere", an expression borrowed from hypology to indicate that during motion the animal claps with the top of the back foot his front foot. The lack of front-hind synchrony can also determine the aforementioned "disjoined trot" which obviously declasses the subject.
   The judge has to evaluate and analyze also the lope width both anterior and posterior, the lope extension ahead and behind the shoulder blade as well as ahead and behind the coxo-femural articulation. As we mentioned earlier, lope width in the Saint Bernard tends to be superior in the front than in the rear and is measured during small trot, indeed at this gait one of the two diagonal pairs of feet is always on the ground, whereas in the ordinary trot or in the elongated trot there is a suspension phase between the backing of one diagonal pair and the other, during which the dog moves forward while suspended in the air, making the evaluation of the lope difficult. Anterior or posterior lope is considered the distance between the foot of a limb that is backing on the ground at the moment of maximum extension ahead and the foot of the homologus limb at the moment of its maximum extension aback, measured at the moment of maximum extension of the lope itself. In the Saint Bernard lope width corresponds to approximately 75% of height at withers (index 0,75). Let's remind ourselves that the German shepherd has an index of 1,2 (therefore a much wider lope than the Saint Bernard), the fox terrier an index of 0,6, the greyhound an index of 0,8 and the pointer an index of 0,75/0,80. If the anterior or posterior lope reduces in the Saint Bernard, the dog is incapable of faultless gait. Anterior lope can be reduced if the shoulder blade is not inclined enough, if either the upper-arm or the fore-arm are not long enough. Frequently frontal lope can be reduced some more if to a short forearm is added, for compensation, a long metacarpus. On the contrary, in the Saint Bernard a long forearm is desirable for footfall width, particularly if associated with a not too long metacarpus. Dogs whose barycentre shifted forward, in other words those whose shoulder blade is straight and forearm short, or associated (as we saw) to a long metacarpus, don't lift their front feet enough and that brush the ground both on walk and trot. This defective gait, which makes the dog stumble on his own front feet, is called with a rather picturesque term "grazing the carpet", and must be, as we already said, heavily penalized. Sometimes, in particular in England where, due to parallel or even divergent axis of the skull and muzzle, the dog tends to hold his head high, lift his neck much causing the barycentre to shift back and weighting that way the hindquarters. These dogs tend to "stepping" which means they project up and forward the front limb to a maximum extension, and that is a severe fault for a mountain dog.
  From a rear prospective hindquarters will be solid and never swing, in other words the hip will remain steady. The judge will concentrate on hind limbs to verify if they are perfectly parallel. In any case the judge will have already seen if hocks are steady or wobbly while the dog was performing walk.
  In a well built, high Saint Bernard with a strong and trained locomotory system occures, during ordinary but tense and striking trot, an inclination towards the inside of both front and hind limbs in toto, in other words: in the front shoulderblade,upper-arm, forearm, metacarpus and foot, in the rear thigh, leg, metatarsus and foot.
  This is not a tight gait due to limb malformation but, as it occurs at a pretty fast trot, it is an active action of the dog to eliminate sideslips and to gain best locomotory performance (single tracking). In other words the dog behaves as a bicycle which tends to cover an increasingly straight line as speed increases, if it slows down so much it almost rests forces of lateral shift tend to increase. We can assert that the transversal forces are inversely proportional to the speed of the animal in motion. It is evident that dogs with very wide prop basis (therefore strong lateral oscillations of the barycentre, for example the bulldog) have very ponounced sideslip forces and their gait will as a result be slower and tiresome. On the contrary, dogs with narrow prop basis (such as the greyhound) and minimal transversal oscillations of the barycentre will have very much reduced sideslip forces hence smoother and quicker gait.
  In the case of the Saint Bernard we know the barycentre lies rather high because a mountain work dog has long limbs (the length of the front limb, from the elbow to the ground corresponds to 50 or better yet 55% of heigth at withers) and a wide, but not too wide, prop basis. Dog who have a too wide prop basis are static and unsuitable for mountain work. Saint Bernards who have short limbs have a too wide prop basis in relation to their heigth suffer a greater lateral shift of the barycentre which determines a sensible increase of the transversal components of propulsion forces. This shift or lateral totter can express itself either in the hindquarters or in the front limbs or even in both. A subject with such a defect is defined a "dog who rocks", and must be severely penalized.

Il "single tracking" (di fronte)

The "single tracking" (dietro)

  Dogs who are short on their limbs, gaining speed in trot, can not perform single tracking so they either allow the transversal forces to express inducing the aforesaid oscillatory motion of the body, or they turn rigid in the muscular mass of the body trying to restrain the transversal component, even if that implies a great effort and is detrimental to gait.
  As we know, withers in the Saint Bernard must be prominent and long, if it is short and brief the barycentre moves too much towards the front with serious obstruction of gait. A high but brief wither determines saddleback therefore slows the gait.
  When the judge assesses the dog from the front he will be able to evaluate the same elements partially dealt with during footfall and from the rear during trot, in other words the dog who entwines, spreads and crosses his legs. There are other defects of gait expressed from the front, such as:

1) "bigliardare": when, during gait, the dog's front feet describe the arch of a circle of external convexity. This fault is widespread among toed-in dogs.

2) "scything/falciare": when, during gait, the dog's front foot extends to describe the arch of a circle of internal convexity (is an opposite defect of the latter one and is common among dogs with mancinism).

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