During my first semester of PT school our biomechanics professor warned that the lecture he was about to give on human gait was going to change our lives. From that point on we were doomed to always find ourselves analyzing people’s gait and he couldn’t be more right. There is not a day that I don’t find myself analyzing them, especially at crowded places like parks, amusement parks and athletic events. The same can be said about the canine gait as well. Now, every time I go to the dog park I find myself analyzing their gait, what compensation mechanisms are they using, and trying to guess in my head what their diagnosis would be.

As time goes by, and I get more experience with the canine population, it becomes easier to analyze their gait. As a new grad I remember struggling with it, afterwards there are so many things to look at from head to toe, but with time I became more comfortable with it. Then it all changed once I started anaylizing 4 legs instead of 2! Now that was hard! Luckily, we have technology on our side these days and been able to record and watch it in slow motion on my phone is a game changer.

Dogs basically use 6 basic gaits: walk, trot, canter, gallop, amble, and pace.

Walk: slowest of the canine gait, the first move is always initiated by the pelvic limb followed by the thoracic limb on the same side (LR-LF-RR-RF). The walk is the only gait in which at moments there are 3 feet on the ground.

Trot: dog moves diagonal front and rear limbs (LF+RR, RF+LR) forward and they land on the ground at the same time, with a moment of suspension after each diagonal pair of limbs lift off and before the other pair lands. Also, when viewed from the front the limbs should be straight and converge on a center point under the dog’s body for best biomechanical efficiency. This is the gait pattern best used by clinicians to detect any limping/lameness because it is the only gait where the limbs are not assisted by the contralateral side.

Canter: there are 2 different kinds, transverse and rotatory canter. Interestingly, dogs prefer to use the rotatory canter whereas horses always use the transverse canter. For the transverse canter they will land first with the rear limbs followed by the front limbs (RR+LR+RF together, then LF). The lead leg will be the second of the pair of front or rear legs that strikes the ground. For the rotatory canter  the footfall order will be RR, LR and LF (forelimb hitting the ground just after the pelvic limb), then RF. When a dog turns while cantering it uses the front leg that is in the direction of the turn as the lead. Personally, this was the gait pattern I struggled the most at first to understand, but if you look at it it looks like 1-2-3, 1-2-3… Hopefully this video from Care Animal Clinic Brookfield helps you understand it.

Gallop: as also seen in the above video, the dog uses the power of their legs along with the flexibility of their spine and abdomen to produce 2 moments of suspension, each moment followed by the front limbs or rear limbs striking the ground. As in the canter, they often use different lead legs in the front and the rear when galloping. Horses on the other hand use the same lead legs. This gait is used when the animal wants to achieve full speed.

Amble: refers to a fast walk pace that dogs tend to use when they are tired but still wanting to move quickly, or when they are not fit enough or are trying to avoid trotting at a slow speed. During this gait the forelimb on one side start to advance forward shortly after the ipsilateral rear limb, thus appearing as if both of them are moving forward together; however, it is considered a fast walk/amble as long as there are still moments, even if brief, that there are 3 feet on the ground.

Pace: it differs from the amble because in this case both limbs on the same side are advancing forward together, thus only having 2 feet on the ground. This gait is not efficient as the dog wastes energy with the center of gravity shifting side to side. From experience, I often see this gait in the clinic with overweight and/or deconditioned dogs.

Personally, I have always been a visual learner. So for those like me here is another video from Care Animal Clinic Brookfield available on youtube that breaks down the walk, amble, pace and trot.

As I wrote this post it became larger than I had expected it to be, so for the next post I will cover gait training techniques and some compensation mechanisms we see on dogs.

~TheK9PT

Legend:

RR= right rear, RF= right front, LR= left rear, LF= left front