I was reading a critique of my breed and it said rear pasterns long & turning in.....please correct me but all the books I have & learning I have has shown/taught me that the pasterns are on the front legs!!

I was always taught that the area on the rear leg commonly called the hock was actually the rear pastern - I think either term is acceptable.  The hock is the joint.

I have always known it as the hock also.

It's not specifically defined in the KC Glossary (and neither is hock), but it is referred to in the definition for "Snatching hocks".  http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=401&d=pg_dtl_art_news&h=238&f=0

As Valhalla says more correctly it is the rear pastern as the hock is the joint.

In horse terminology you have front and rear pasterns: http://horses.about.com/od/partsofthehorse/g/pastern.htm

Dictionary definition: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pastern

pas·tern (pstrn)
n.
1. The part of a horse's foot between the fetlock and hoof.
2. An analogous part of the leg of a dog or other quadruped.

As I was brought up with horses & cows(& obviously dogs), I always knew it as the hock.

The hock is the join not the limb, you have the foot, then the pastern, then the stifle, the hock is the joint between the latter two.

Yes, I know that it is a joint...I'm saying that I have always understood that the pastern is on the front legs & have never known it being refered to the hind leg.

I did the 'Points of the Dog' seminar at the KC last week, dogs have both front pasterns and rear pasterns.

:) http://www.prodogs.net/points%20of%20the%20dog/points_of_the_dog.htm

Confused me quite a bit when I first came into dogs to hear people referring to the whole area from the hock (joint) right down to the foot as the "hock".  Coming from a horse background some critiques conjured up very strange pictures using this terminology.

I'm enjoying learning the points of the dog, as I once learned the points of the horse when a pony-mad child. Forgotten most of the horse ones now, but have always thought of animals' legs in terms of near, off, fore and hind. I had a surprise though when I commented to a vet tech friend (who also has horses) that my dog seemed to be favouring his near hind... who frowned and asked "Which leg's that?"

LOL MsTemeraire, I use nearside and offside but mine is cars not horses.

Have always thought of the hock as the joint and the pastern the lower long bones and worry when they are described as flexing but think I have said "knuckling over on one front pastern" and I am not sure if that is what I meant.

<<<rear pasterns long & turning in.>>>

I would say this was a description of the term "cow hocked" In a youngster this can sometimes be improved with excerise. In my own breed it would be incorrect as hocks should be parallel.

Don't think this was a critique of the OP dog

> would say this was a description of the term "cow hocked" In a youngster this can sometimes be improved with excerise. In my own breed it would be incorrect as hocks should be parallel.

Not my dog, was reading DW & should be parallel in my breed also & it is not a young dog & from memory I dont think the dog is cow-hocked, it wasnt a breed judge either