Abstract
Working dogs help to keep society and individuals safe, secure, and healthy. To perform their varied functions, it is critical to select dogs that are structurally sound and capable of demonstrating power, coordination and agility. Characteristics such as size and substance, head and axial skeletal structure, chest size and conformation, and thoracic and pelvic limb angulation should be evaluated to select the optimal combination of characteristics to suit the tasks to which each dog will be assigned. This review provides guidance on how to evaluate each of these structural components and discusses the contributions of those body parts to a working dog's function.
Highlights
There are many different types of working dogs – dogs with jobs that help to keep society and individuals safe, secure, and healthy
How that structure relates to function in Working Dogs is the subject of this review
The thoracic and pelvic limbs in a given dog should have approximately equal, or balanced, angulation. This is important for coordination of movement, at the trot, when diagonally opposite thoracic and pelvic limbs strike the ground at the same time
Summary
There are many different types of working dogs – dogs with jobs that help to keep society and individuals safe, secure, and healthy. Discussion will be limited to working dogs that help communities, as opposed to assisting individuals The majority of these dogs work for government institutions, such as the military, police forces, the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and agriculture defense dogs. The cranial and limb morphology of Canis familiaris are more variable than in all of the other canid species combined [3, 4] Those differences arise from the functions for which each breed was originally developed, combined with features selected for by the dog fancy throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. How that structure relates to function in Working Dogs is the subject of this review
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
