# GSD trot - Neurological problem????



## Ursula (Jan 19, 2013)

Hi all,
So I have a now 4 month old German Showline GSD puppy.
He has the usual (Showline) GSD trot. You know what I am talking about, this high and wide movement with the front extremities when trotting.
Well, also, in the past 3 weeks he went through an enormous growth spurt and gained quite some height and weight. Not extreme, he was a little puny and then in the past 3 weeks he gained about 4-5 pounds and is now about 33-34 pounds. (His parents weren't the heaviest either).
Well today we saw a vet in our clinic that hasn't seen him in a while. The other vet saw him in the past 2 check ups and she never saw anything wrong with him. She was out today and I saw another vet for his final round with his puppy shots. Well, I feel like I should have waited for the other vet to be in, because now she got me all worried... 
Since his last growth spurt he changed a lot. His head went from too big to smaller an, the ears are ALL OVER, his body seems to be awkward to him and you can see he is trying to figure out his body. He also started to somewhat pretend-lift his leg. And he is obviously not in pain. (He screamed bloody murder when having his temperature taken or he is doing the dying tortured dog when he is getting his nails clipped)

Well, so today the vet thought that there is something wrong with him 
Now I know, they don't have that much experience with those dogs and other vets and techs that saw him didn't see anything wrong with him. 
But this vet was sure he has neurological issues because he is lifting his front legs when running and having this really accentuated trot and because he has this awkward gallop these days and because he is somewhat cow hocked.
I know he is a little cow hocked, this came with the past growth spurt, but to be honest, besides knowing deep inside, that he is fine, I am pretty insecure now and I must admit outright SCARED that my beanie is having some weird Disease!!!
Did anybody of you experience something like this before???? 
Should I freak out that my dog is having some doom death disease or is that vet just seeing ghosts? 
(I will see that I get a video in the next days to post here)

I attached some pics of him. (Please no Showline-Bashing, he is NOT in pain and to everybody else he doesn't seem to have issues, but to that one vet)

Thank you very much!
Y

16 weeks standing

16 weeks running/gallop with ball

(I hope you can see the Goose-stepping in this one a little bit)


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## Ursula (Jan 19, 2013)

Found a pic in trot.
here is trotting through the (unmowed) yard




THX 
Y


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

The pinhead thing is a normal phase - everything is growing at different rates in a young puppy...maybe a bit more exagerrated in a showline due to more angulation (not bashing) but usually just normal.

The picture though shows him pacing not trotting which is a bit odd though I don't know if it means anything or not.


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## Ursula (Jan 19, 2013)

**** should have seen th pacing, after years working with horses - shame on me! 
In that pic, he was stalking the neighbor's chickens, not sure about the threat level of those... 
(He is still VERY respectful towards those chickens! )
thx 
Y

(You can imagine, I am a little crazy right now due to the fact that I had to run up and down in front of a cam with my dog at the vet's office, while there was wondering about possible neurological issues with my dog)


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

Puppies lift. He's a baby. I wouldn't be concerned about it. I had a puppy be "lifty". She outgrew it, and moves beautifully. Neurological issue? I don't know where that came from.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

if i were concerned about my pups movement i would
go to a specialist. i got my pup when he was 9 weeks old.
he was very awkward in his movement. he slowly started
being coordinated with tight movement. from 9 weeks old to
18 months old my dog slowly developed.


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## Xeph (Jun 19, 2005)

Sounds like a normal puppy to me. I have a bitch here that is BEAUTIFUL now, nice easy mover, not terribly overdone in motion.

She was all loose and awkward as a puppy, and even I made a face at it


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

My puppy was known to my friends as the "afghan hound" because of the way she lifted when she gaited. Like I said, she outgrew it!


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## Ursula (Jan 19, 2013)

Thank you!
It is silly. I KNOW nothing is wrong with my dog and he is just the totally normal wibbely and wobbely puppy, but she got me ticked off big time.
After seeing him today running around, chasing his big brother and after balls, after I realized that he has enough front-leg dexterity to open Kitchen cabinets and drawers and do other stupid stuff, I am pretty sure he is not having some awkward spinal injury and I came to the conclusion my vet just hasn't seen a German Shepherd puppy like this before, since we live in Couch Ornament City and the average dog here is some designer-stuff with Poodle or fits in purses....
Her vet tech has GSDs and she didn't see anything wrong with him, so I think somebody wants to make some $$$$ for a nice new piece of equipment or the summer vacation... 

I also think she didn't take into account that he gained 3 Inches in height and god knows what in leg length and so on. But he is figuring it out.

I am going to see that I am going to switch to a GSD savvy Vet for the future! 
Thx very much for taking the edge out! 
Y


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## volcano (Jan 14, 2013)

I asked my vet about hips and she said you cant tell till at least a year or 2 old. I was also having the pretend leg lift thing where it was like she wanted to itch her neck but would lift the leg and wiggle it without quite reaching up to her neck.


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