I've just noticed that my boy is rather down on his pasterns when he moves. He is exercised pretty much daily and also does a lot of hill work owing to where I live. Can anyone suggest any reason why he's gone down on them and how to improve this situation?

Get him vet checked to play safe. A friend has a bitch that now looks like a sealion -she can only walk on the pasterns, it looks (and is) very uncomfortable, but I cannot remember what the condition is called.

How old is your boy Suejaw? Some times the tendons stretch so much that the whole area below the pastern is on the floor and the "heel" pad behind the joint is all but touching the ground. Think this can be operated on but if it is not causing problems then I would leave it in an old dog. This has only happened to one of mine and he was fond of jumping about and I guess he just gave the joint too much work to do and like us our dogs probably live longer than they were designed to do.

I take it that the slackness is causing the foot to move too far forward of the leg and not that the dog is knuckling over.

> I cannot remember what the condition is called

Carpel subluxation syndrome?

To the OP, Buster was very low on his pasters at about 5 months old, he was put on a low proten diet (terrier biscuit & tripe,approx 18%protein). Within a few weeks it started to rectify and by 7months old there was a vast improvement. He hasn't got the stongest pasterns in the world, but they are much better!

However, worth a vet check wheather your dog is still growing or not.

He is just over 4yrs old now. I'll have a word with someone who had hands on him the other day to see what they think too. Sometimes we can be over critical of our own dogs, sometimes too much so. But it does concern me enough to ask on here. He's not knuckling over or anything like that, its like when you see dogs under exercised, that is how he looks currently when on the move around the ring. Hmm

Does not sound too serious then, in fact, he may just be a bit slack and there is nothing you can do about it, think I know the breed but may be wrong - some breeds do tend to loose pasterns with no really problem (not even in the ring). Not sure there is a lot that can be done exercise wise as it is the tendons not the muscles that seem to be too lax and if anything exercise will make worse not improve.

If your vet is good on conformation I would ask their opinion but if not you may do better to ask someone you trust in the breed or better still two or three and get yourself a selection of opinions.

Know what you mean about coming down hard on your own, have stopped showing sometimes because I think there is a glaring fault and then I watch my breed being judged and see others far worse and put mine back in the ring, get placed badly and ask the judge why he is not liked and was told he has a small white mark on his chest, he has, but that had not bothered me at all and I do sometimes wonder if you enter enough shows you can make up all but the 3 legged.

I'll see if I can get him to a ringcraft where there are a few people who are in the breed, he'sa Bernese.
I've not put him in the ring for a while but he was in a match night on monday and just felt his movement wasn't as good as it normally is, he is normally so very light and positive and is always compliemented on it, that I know somethings not right..
I'll get him into the vet for an MOT too and he is due a set of vaccinations this month. My vet breeds and shows so hopefully he'll be able to spot what may or may not be the problem.