INTRODUCTION  Current sports medicine textbooks suggest German Shepherd dogs leave a forelimb on the ground longer than other breeds for support because of angulated joints eliminating a true suspension phase (support trot). The objective of this study was to characterize the trot of healthy, adult German Shepherd dogs and describe morphometric relationships. The hypothesis was that all German Shepherd dogs have a standard trot that does not correlate with morphometric measurements. MATERIALS AND METHODS  Forty healthy, adult German Shepherd dogs with no history of musculoskeletal disease or visible lameness were enrolled in this study. Height, weight, body length, standing limb distance and standing joint angles were measured. Dogs were trotted over a pressure walkway collecting five valid trials. Each trial was categorized by the presence or absence of the suspension phase and the percent of standard trot trials was calculated. Mean and standard deviations were calculated for all data. A Spearman's rank sum test was performed for each of the morphometric measurements to assess correlation with the percent of standard trot trials. RESULTS  Of the dogs analysed, 37.5% demonstrated a standard trot in all five trials, 60% of dogs utilized a support trot intermittently, and one dog (2.5%) solely utilized a support trot in all trials. There was no correlation between combinations of morphometric measurements and percentage of standard trot statistically or visually. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION  This prospective clinical study showed that the use of the support trot was not correlated with morphometric measurements.

中文翻译：

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健康成年德国牧羊犬正常与支持小跑的发病率。

引言当前的运动医学教科书建议，德国牧羊犬在地面上留下的前肢比其他犬种更长，因为成角度的关节消除了真正的悬吊阶段（支撑小跑）。这项研究的目的是表征健康的成年德国牧羊犬的小跑并描述形态计量关系。假设是，所有德国牧羊犬都具有与形态测量值无关的标准小跑。材料与方法本研究纳入了40只健康的成年德国牧羊犬，没有肌肉骨骼疾病史或可见的la行。测量身高，体重，体长，站立肢体距离和站立关节角度。狗在压力通道上被小跑，收集了五次有效试验。每个试验都按照是否存在悬浮相进行分类，并计算标准小跑试验的百分比。计算所有数据的均值和标准差。对每个形态测量进行Spearman秩和检验，以评估与标准小跑试验百分比的相关性。结果在所有五项试验中，有37.5％的狗表现出标准小跑，其中60％的狗间歇使用支撑小跑，而在所有试验中，一只狗（2.5％）仅使用支撑小跑。在统计学上或视觉上，形态测量结果的组合与标准小跑的百分比之间没有相关性。讨论/结论这项前瞻性临床研究表明，支撑小跑的使用与形态测量无关。