Hi, I have a beautiful 17 month old black boy that I've just started showing. My question is this...he fits the standard in every way, but is slightly cow-hocked in the rear. Is there a way to "fix" this problem? I'm new to the sport, and eventually plan to breed in a couple of years. If there is a way to straighten his cow hocks and it's successful, should I use this boy as a stud knowing that he had the problem to begin with? He has a very strong pedigree, similar to that of Beechcroft Study's Top Secret.

Oops, the preceeding ! was supposed to be a ?, lol

Just exactly what do you mean by "fixed" and "if successful"? Are you talking about something surgical???

Emily does he show "hockey" in his movement or is it it just when he stands around? If his knees turn in on his gait, I would be concerned about it not going away with age. Sometimes with a slightly over angled rear you will see this until the dog is fully mature.

I agree with Gregg. I have seen dogs that have a lot of rear angle stand slightly hocky. Usually it goes away when they mature and fill out. They may always stand and move a little close in the rear, but hocky movement is a fault that cannot be changed.
You can try to build up their rear by having them walk and run up and down hills a lot to develope muscle.

When he stands, it's the same as when he walks...no better, no worse. His back legs are pretty close, and he seems to be a slow maturer with some filling out left to do(especially in the rear). It's not horrible by any means, but enough that I notice it and I believe it's having an impact on him in the show ring. He gaits well, and has a very fluid movement. I'm not looking to surgically "fix" it, I was just looking for certain exercises to make it less noticable. I'll try running him on hills and see what happens. Thanks!

He'll probably do just fine. Many of the top winning stud dogs have a rear like that, and they win specialties, and so do their kids with rears just like dad.

Aww, thanks for the vote of confidence ! It's easy to feel overwhelmed with so many great dogs out there competing with you, I appreciate it.

I had an 18 month old boy that was more than a little hocky. I felt that the whole world was staring at his rear every time I showed him. As he aged, the rear improved drastically....so much so that I had almost forgotten about that phase with him. I finished him just before his 3rd birthday. Hang in there. With luck, your boy will be fine.

I don't know what you mean by "fix"

I have one right now who stands "sloppy" and appears cow hocked, but her really isn't when you look at him going up and back.

Is it something like that, that you just are wondering how to handle him in the ring to represent him well?

At 17 mos, most of his structural growth should be complete, so if he is truly cow hocked, then there is nothing that can be "fixed".

By the responses to the question, I'm not so sure he is truly cow-hocked anymore, as I took a long, hard look at him last night. It seems to me that all the adult competition I see in the show ring have back legs that are straight up and down, from the hip to the ground, with a space of lets say 7 or 8 inches between their feet respectively. My boy's rear legs in themselves seem straight, but as they come off of his hips, his feet meet the ground with a space of lets say 5 or so inches between them. It appears that his legs from top to bottom are straight but angled inward. I don't know how else to explain it. He doesn't have hip problems, I had him OFA prelimed with a result of "excellent". By "fixed", I mean I just want him to look like the other dogs. His rear end does need some expansion, and as I said before he seems to be a slow maturer. Maybe I'm just paranoid that a problem exists but actually doesn't, as he is my first and oldest show dog and I'm just starting out. I'm hoping that with the advice I recieved from all you great people, everything will develop as it should.

I'll be the first to tell you that I have alot to learn, and I love this forum. I'm pretty sure I have him standing correctly, and it's not just when he's standing...I notice it when he's walking and gaiting for show. I'm going to start attending handling classes soon, as everything I've learned so far has just been by watching and talking to other people at the shows I've been to. I also have a close breeder friend who shows labs very competatively and is my mentor. Any other suggestions or advice are more than welcome.

Why don't you have your friend watch you move him away from her so she can see if he moves straight or hocky? If he moves straight you are fine, he just needs to grow up. Boys can be really slow to mature. I used to show mine as puppies to train them and then do other stuff with them until they matured sometimes at 3 or 4 years old before getting them back in the show ring. You can always go to matches to learn how to present your dog and save some money when he is growing up. The key is knowing when they are ready to win then getting them out. It takes lots of patience.

This was the best post on this particular thread!
There was a very famous imported stud dog that showed this issue and was never put into the ring until he fully matured at 3+ years of age. He easily finished and is many of todays pedigree's. Some of his ancestors show this very same trait but maturity takes care of most of it.
As hocky said, it takes patience, one of our boys at 16 months was so ugly I could not even give him away. He looked like a big black Greyhound. Thankfully our mentor visited us and convinced me to hang on to him. She visited again when he was a little over three years old and quite frankly I really had not looked at him much (when something is not too attractive you tend to not spend much time looking) and wanted to know if that was the same ugly Lab she had looked at on her last visit. Well I took him out and finished him easily by myself (which is an accomplishment by itself)
To say it again, patience is the key!

So it sounds like my best bet is to take the wait and see approach, and to do the fun matches. I do still plan on showing him, just so I can get the experience we'll both need in the future and because I think it's fun. My next show is an all-breed tomorrow, maybe I'll ask a few experienced people there to give me an honest opinion of him. That's why I love the lab world...it seems everybody is supportive of everybody else, even when they're competing with each other.

If anything can fix it it would be road working and maturity. Now if he was hocky as a puppy then I would not waste time on him, but if he had a true rear road work him!

Start off on a short distance like a quarter mile a day and then slowly increase it until he is doing at least two miles a day or better yet four.

Some times the muscles develop more on one side of the leg than the other. This will even it out and also at the same time get him very relaxed while gaiting. Road work can do nothing but help in every way in my opinion. Running and swimming develop the WRONG muscles for trotting so doing that will not help at all but possibly make his movement worse.

If after you have road worked him for a good couple of months and it isn't changed it really is a structural problem and you may want to wait to see if it changes with maturity. Some times it does, some times it doesn't.