Samurai's Angles

Nicely angled, mostly.

Here is our latest homework for our canine performance anatomy class. It shows that Samurai is nicely angled in the rear, with a sloping pelvis that means that he can get his hindquarters up underneath him, helping him to jump and turn quickly. His front is straighter, but not bad for a toy breed dog, with a shorter upper arm. It luckily has some angle to it. We'll be learning more about what this all means, but this how things look right now. 

Sam's Anatomy

Learning about canine performance structure

with our pal, the invisible Sam.

Samurai was a skinny puppy, but his bony little self was never so transparent as this layered photo illustration Mike and I created of him for our class with Helen Grinnell King for Daisy Peel's online classroom.

This is a work in progress and the illustration you see here has already been shifted and corrected, with a couple more tweaks to do for tomorrow.

The class has required quite a bit of hands on and computer-assisted exploration, but it's all been worth it. I've learned how little I really understood about canine anatomy, and particularly, functional anatomy.

Still, it's amazing when you think about it. Underneath all that hair, is a very complicated piece of equipment that makes our little guy move the way he does. Understanding the particulars of how he's put together will hopefully help me fine tune the way I need to handle and manage him, as well as project where potential trouble spots might lie and what I can do to prevent injury.

I've enjoyed this class every step of the way and there is more to come.