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4 Month Doberman Puppy Walks Weird

13K views 34 replies 11 participants last post by  ECIN 
#1 ·
My 4 month doberman puppy walks kind of weird, his butt sways left to right while walking almost as if his rear legs are longer than the front. Is this normal? He doesnt bunny hop when running and doesnt seem to limp or be in pain. He loves to jump on things too, sits normally, likes to stand up and put his paws on my bed (because he wants to get up on it). I know maybe he might not be in pain yet, but just wondering what this might be. I'll post a vid up asap. When he was around 8-10 weeks I did not notice this, but gradually as he got taller I've noticed it almost as if he walks like Captain Jack Sparrow. He is 16 1/2 weeks now. Hopefully you experts can point me in the right direction.
 
#4 ·
Good catch, MaryD....I hadn't thought of that possibility. They do sway back and forth quite a bit when they pace. Mine tended to do it when they were tired on a long walk.

But OP, you should get your pup checked out if you're at all worried about his gait. There are some leg problems that show up as a puppy grows (front legs knuckling over is one I can think of right off the top of my head)...some of them are relatively easy to treat when the puppy is young, but not fixable when the dog is mature.
 
#6 ·
Puppies like colts grow up in the rear first. So at various growth periods puppies (and colt) will be substantially higher in the rear than in the front--it will affect their gait. I'll go back and see if I can figure out what he's doing--since I'm at the library and can actually see videos.

I don't think he's pacing--but it's sure a sloppy walk and sometimes puppies are lazy and the walk is kind of a lazy gait anyway. See if you can get someone to take a picture of him going away at a nice crisp trot, That'll tell you more than a walk will.

An awful lot of puppies don't have enough muscle at 16 weeks to make any of their gait's look good.

If I was really concerned I'd have his vet take a good look at him moving away and toward and across at a trot the next time he was at the vet clinic for anything. I don't think I'd make a special appointment just to do that.

dobebug
 
#8 · (Edited)
What I'm seeing now that your video is posted doesn't look horribly worrisome right now. Like Bug said, point it out to the vet when you see him next. You could even bring a little cell phone video to show the vet if you don't think you can actually get the pup to demonstrate his walk during your appointment (sometimes dogs get so hyped up at the vets they don't act as they normally do. Like that's a surprise.) If you decide to bring pictures, try to take the video from all angles--side, front and rear shots--as he moves.
 
#10 ·
Update:

Took him to the Vet where they examined him, and felt his bones/joints. Everything checked out okay, we did some walking up and down the hall but the Vet didn't even notice anything strange? He still has that weird sway from left to right when he walks tho; rear legs do seem longer than front would be a guess on my part.

I will be keeping an eye on this. For some reason now that I have a doberman puppy everything worries me!
 
#13 ·
I just looked at all of the videos. I wish you'd get someone else to do the camera work so that you could take that puppy and have him trot while the videographer get lower down so you could see the feet and legs better than the top of the dog. And I'd really like to see pictures from the side.

Here's what I think--I think this is a gangly puppy who is most often moving at a speed that is basically just a little faster than a fast walk and not quite right for a trot. And it looks like he has managed a gait that is midway between the two gaits.

Look at what his feet are doing--half the time he starts off moving both legs on the same side together (and this would be characteristic of a pacing dog--AND I think it's what makes his gait look so funny) but as he speeds up, just before he breaks into a gallop (a canter really) he managed to get his feet moving so that he is trotting.

At the very beginning of this thread I said a lot of puppy are really sloppy walkers--and he fits that description--so you see this dumb looking half gait which I don't think is evidence of anything other that young, puppy, not well muscled moving half way between two gaits so you see his rear swing back and forth (left to right).

I'm going to fall back on my explanation for a lot of stuff you see in young dogs. He's a puppy--ever watch little kids walk when they have just started walking--puppies, kids--they all look uncoordinated. But I don't think there is really anything wrong with his structure. Keep asking the vet about it whenever you see him--he'll tell you if he sees something wrong.

dobebug
 
#14 ·
^^^ Dobebug saw what I saw.

It's almost like his front isn't moving simultaneously with his rear. What I mean is he goes in and out of pacing. The only way to do this without a little skip/hop is if the front and the rear aren't moving simultaneously. I think it's kind of funny lol. I also think it's just a puppy thing that he'll out grow. Puppies don't tend to know their rear end from a hole in the wall, especially the boys. I spent a better part of 8mo. working my male trying to get him to figure out that he had a rear lol.
 
#17 ·
Yes! If I worried about how almost any puppy I've ever owned moved at 16 or 18 weeks I'd never have shown them.

I thought from the first video it was just a puppy thing and from the most recent video's I'm pretty sure that's all it is.

He's also fairly long (maybe a stage or maybe not)--and that, with how loose and gangly he is all contribute to that sloppy gait that looks pretty weird from the rear.

dobebug
 
#15 ·
Thanks to you both for the feedback. I have to say I love these forums and I really do appreciate your guy's/gal's expertise/feedback. It really helps, truly does. Thanks once again. I will try to get more side angle videos for further analysis. I am always eager to share and get insight here (I honestly would rather come here than go to the vets). I really do love this dog sooo much he's like my baby. This has become my one and only go to forums I have so much questions to ask I always feel shy but I'm feeling a lot more confident now to ask for everyone's pov.

Aloha
 
#16 ·
It's great to hear that this is your go to forum............I have visited a few over the years and I also found a home on this forum.
Lots of first hand experience along with quite a bit of laughter.
We have a few wild ones on here!!! All in fun........
Great group!
Stay with us...start a new thread that is strictly about your pup ....we love to read along and watch them grow through your pictures,videos, and stories.
:grin2:
 
#19 ·
Our 3 mo old pup walks like this as well. I think it could be clumsiness, but I notice your pups hind legs are a bit bowed, as are our Alex’s. We’ve only had him a week and switched to taste of the wild puppy kibble. His shine and softness of his coat has improved so much. I’m hoping the better food will get him the correct amount of nutrients he needs so he grows out of the bowed legs. His front are only very slightly knuckled over. Again I hope diet corrects this. I’m going to give him vitamin c as well since I read a few vets recommended that.

Been doing a lot of research too, lol. Glad I’m not the only one. Plenty of people suggest adult food with lower protein, but I read a column from a dog nutritionist that had cited clinical studies showing that high protein does not cause knuckling or bowed legs. To a non expert person like myself, lower protein makes sense, but it simply isn’t true to the data. He said to keep on high protein, quality puppy food for all the other ingredients that a puppy needs.he suggested large breed, but from what I’ve gathered TOTW is great for large breed even though it isn’t specific for them only. The main thing that causes bowing is nutrient imbalance and access weight or over excursion/running. Alex was the biggest by a small margin but definitely the chubbiest, so I’m trying to lower is body fat a little by not overeating and giving carrots as snacks instead of treats. Hopefully that baby ball of pudge on his chest burns off a bit and the tuck of his belly becomes more pronounced with less fat on the ribs. That’s my 2 cents and my very first post. I have gotten a lot of insight from this page. Glad I signed up

It’s been a couple months, so I’m wondering if you have an update?
 
#23 ·
Our 3 mo old pup walks like this as well. I think it could be clumsiness, but I notice your pups hind legs are a bit bowed, as are our Alex’s. We’ve only had him a week and switched to taste of the wild puppy kibble. His shine and softness of his coat has improved so much. I’m hoping the better food will get him the correct amount of nutrients he needs so he grows out of the bowed legs. His front are only very slightly knuckled over. Again I hope diet corrects this. I’m going to give him vitamin c as well since I read a few vets recommended that.
Jeffrey Hart,

About your puppy and what you think are bowed hind legs--at 3 months puppies don't have a lot of muscle in a variety of places--one of the places is the inside of the hind leg at the upper and lower thigh--this will give the appearance of a bowed leg--another several months and you'll generally find that the leg no longer looks bowed because the inside of the leg has started to pick up the kind of muscle you see on adult dogs.

Also you say his front is only slightly knuckled over? I know a number of first time large breed puppy owners look at the bone at the carpus joint (knee) and because it is large because it's what he'll grow into--think that this is the knuckling over that gets talked about. It probably is only the normal large bone at the knee of a large or giant breed.

Been doing a lot of research too, lol. Glad I’m not the only one. Plenty of people suggest adult food with lower protein, but I read a column from a dog nutritionist that had cited clinical studies showing that high protein does not cause knuckling or bowed legs. To a non expert person like myself, lower protein makes sense, but it simply isn’t true to the data. He said to keep on high protein, quality puppy food for all the other ingredients that a puppy needs.he suggested large breed, but from what I’ve gathered TOTW is great for large breed even though it isn’t specific for them only.
See the information about the 'look' of bowing and knuckling in the paragraphs above.

The main thing that causes bowing is nutrient imbalance and access weight or over excursion/running. Alex was the biggest by a small margin but definitely the chubbiest, so I’m trying to lower is body fat a little by not overeating and giving carrots as snacks instead of treats. Hopefully that baby ball of pudge on his chest burns off a bit and the tuck of his belly becomes more pronounced with less fat on the ribs. That’s my 2 cents and my very first post. I have gotten a lot of insight from this page. Glad I signed up
Glad you signed up too and as far as baby fat goes on puppies at three months they should be a little chubby. I think Melbrod commented on this too. When puppies grow--they go from chubby little guys to tall lanky guys in a matter of days and suddenly from chubby they end up looking like you haven't been feeding them. I look at puppies daily to see if they need more or less food. And I stick to food formulated for dogs (either ALS--all life stages) or an appropriate puppy food (usually large breed would be the best) If you are concerned about giving too many calories in treats I'd suggest that you measure out his daily food and take some of the kibble and reserve that for treats rather than feeding him carrots at this stage of his life.

Puppies like babies change shape as they grow from babies to toddlers to adolescents and you can't expect a puppy at three months to have the muscle and shape of a puppy at 6 months. Just something to keep in mind.

It’s been a couple months, so I’m wondering if you have an update?
An update on the puppy whose sloppy gait started this thread? Or?

dobebug
 
#20 · (Edited)
I don't think I'd try to limit calories on a growing puppy as young as yours by purposely substituting veggies, etc to his kibble. If you feed a good kibble, it should be balanced with the correct nutrient ratios and ingredients to grow a healthy mature dog. But there are more folks here with a lot more experience in raising pups to healthy adulthood--they're in a better position than I am to talk about what kibbles have worked for them.

You might want to start a new thread with your questions, given that, as you said, this is an older thread.

You could even copy over the text of your post to start your own thread...just edit it a little to take out the specific references back to this discussion.


And welcome to DT from Colorado! As you may have noticed if you've read a few posts here, we ALWAYS demand puppy pictures! It's like a rite of passage for new puppy people who sign up on DT. LOL
 
#21 ·
Odin is almost 8 Months old. He still sort of has this lazy walk going on with the sway, but sometimes when he picks up a bit speed it turns into a normal gait. I've noticed his rear hind legs are longer than his front (always has been this way). Perhaps this contributes to the walk. I'm wondering if it could be just weird growth, or maybe conformity issues might be happening. I did get him from a Back Yard Breeder, so I really don't know how he's gonna look only time will tell. He might be done growing as well. He's around 25" at the Withers and maybe around 60-65 lbs currently. He still looks lean. I honestly don't notice any bowing in his hind legs but I"ll take another look again. Will probably post another video to this sometime soon. I used to feed TOTW and honestly he has done better on it stool wise, currently I feed him Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin / Stomach Salmon flavor as per recommended by forum users. There's a certain protein percentage that you don't want to go over and calcium percentage as well which this food follows (I don't know the exact numbers). Honestly tho with food I'm beginning to think just go with whatever your puppy likes and can tolerate. His stool is actually not as hard as when he was on the TOTW, but could be because I sometimes spoil him with treats (Rawhide). Might take him to the Vet soon, but I have been incorporating Pumpkin/Yogurt in his diet as well seems to help. Best of luck to you and your pup Jeff.


 
#22 ·
Odin is almost 8 Months old. He still sort of has this lazy walk going on with the sway, but sometimes when he picks up a bit speed it turns into a normal gait. I've noticed his rear hind legs are longer than his front (always has been this way). Perhaps this contributes to the walk. I'm wondering if it could be just weird growth, or maybe conformity issues might be happening. I did get him from a Back Yard Breeder, so I really don't know how he's gonna look only time will tell. He might be done growing as well. He's around 25" at the Withers and maybe around 60-65 lbs currently.


At 9 months, Odin still has some growing to do, and especially a lot of filling out. I'm guessing he will still grow at least another inch in height - if not 2". As far as the funky walk, who knows what it might mean. If I were you, I'd think about getting his hips x-rayed after he turns 2 years old. Ask for OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) X-rays and consider sending them in to OFA for rating (Excellent, Good, Fair, dysplastic). OFA has hip X-rays rated by 3 independent specialists, and it is not expensive. First make sure that your vet knows how to do OFA x-rays - not all vets do. They do have to be over age 2 in order to be OFA rated. If it happens that his hips are not very good (even a "fair" rating is fine), then you will know. There are things you can do for bad hips.... and the sooner you know, the better.
 
#25 ·
Yeah Im thinking of switching from PPP back to TOTW. 1 because his stools havent been too hard lately. Secondly because the first bag of PPP I got was full of weevils once I got through like 1/4th of the bag I noticed it. Worms/Black bugs in his food bowl. Second bag I got was fine for a month, but now Ive noticed worms coming out from the bottom corner creases of the bag. Im not sure if they were in there from the beginning or was introduced somehow but they looked like meal moth worms that ate their way out. Never seen these bugs in my life. Its from the local petco but my TOTW bag never had any gross insects so will be switching back. Might just go with the smaller sized bags.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 
#28 ·
Eeeeuuu!!! Bugs! Well I know they look disgusting but a nutritionist told me one time that certain areas of the county have a really hard time keeping kibble bug free and that frankly the moth larva and miscellaneous other larva really only constitute additional protein. (I know but I return bags of food if I find living things in it.) I also check best buy dates to find the one with that date at least a year out.

And from information on storage of foods that have a lot of cereal or are all cereal (like flour or any kind) ALL food with a high amount of cereal grains will also contain insect eggs--if the food remains DRY or COLD (as in freezer cold) the eggs don't hatch but warm damp climates they do and you'll see weevels and/or larva in the food if it takes much time to use it--smaller bags help and checking best buy dates help but all of the bigger manufacturers will take food back for full credit.

I know a woman who found that in Florida every time she bought a big bag of kibble she ended up with larva/weevels in it by the time she was half way through the bag (30-35 pound bags--that took her dogs about a month to eat). She had a freezer with extra room and started breaking new bags of food into four containers--three went in the freezer and she fed from the one that wasn't in the freezer--stopped the problem for her.

Good luck though--Hawaii is kind a prime climate for growing insect life in food stuff...

dobebug
 
#26 ·
Yukky!

You might consider ordering your food online...I've had a lot of luck with Chewy.com, though they were fairly recently bought by PetsMart, so I don't know if that's going to change as time goes on.

Anyway, their prices are as good or better than the local box stores and they ship orders over $49 free...which most dog food bagged in doberman quantities are.

I've had a soft spot for them ever since they sent me flowers after Kip died (I had called them to cancel an order and explained why). That was before Petsmart acquired them, but still....
 
#27 ·
I've had a soft spot for them ever since they sent me flowers after Kip died (I had called them to cancel an order and explained why).

That’s a class act right there !

I also use chewys , had a question on something and it was on a Sunday , I called , and they answered , the guy I talked to didn’t have the answer either , said he would find out and call me back , about 5 minutes later , I got a call from them with a complete answer , can’t beat that
 
#30 ·
Whoops, just noticed you were in Hawaii. I don't think Chewy ships there. :( And I must say, just looked at reviews and it appears the Petmart acquisition has hurt the Chewy's service and prices.

Guess you'll just have to move. :x
Interesting that you've seen that, Mel...I've still had truly excellent service and great prices at Chewy, and I've seen lots of friends still getting very nice notes, flowers, etc from Chewy when dogs have passed away, and that kind of thing. I've noticed zero changes from the buy out by Petsmart and am really happy with Chewy.
 
#31 ·
That's good to hear...I remember a cost increase when they were taken over, but it was at the same time Hill's (I think it was them) discontinued their kangaroo prescription dog food that Kip, the allergic dog needed, and Royal Canin became the supplier. So I don't know for sure how that factors in. I just remember a BIG jump in price. But still very much cheaper than my local vet.

I do still go to Chewy first if I'm going to order pet things--they have a wider range of products than your typical petsmart/petco, but the impulse buy at the pet store remains a large part of my pet budget.
 
#33 ·
Here's a tip for you about storage of kibble--if you are going to put in a container without the bag make sure that every time you empty the container you also wash it out thoroughly with hot soapy water--otherwise you can easily end up with eggs in the container that will contaminate the next batch of food.

I'm not sure that trying to go grain free will solve the problem--although cereals are the biggest attractor of insect there are other things that will attract insects--some insects look for protein rather than carbs. Just keep checking for the bags with the longest best buy dates--those will be the ones that have been in storage (either at the distributer or store) the shortest period of time.

Good luck...

dobebug
 
#34 ·
I agree with Bug - you live in a warm, humid climate, the perfect recipe for attracting bugs. I'd buy smaller bags of food and store the food in the original bag, in an airtight container.
 
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#35 ·
Something to think about her boys and girls :grin2:

One time we got a new bag of dog food at a east side Indy pet store , believe this or not , it was the closest one = 25 miles . Well we opened it up and the dogs ate good , then the next day when I fed them , they did not want to eat it , smell it , then walk away , well empty tummy’s won and they ate it , then with in minutes , both dogs were throwing it up , wife went to thedog food bag and smelled it , then she about puked , said Ken , this food is spoiled ! It was a big name company , Ken was pizzed and called the pet store and told them what had happened and I was on my way up there with the bag , when I got there , they had pulled all this brandsfood off the sleeves , I walked in and sat the bag down and had to hear how sorry they were, I told the manger to smell it , then he said , I trust what your saying , I didn’t let up till he did and then he about puked . Lol

I was still pizzed the next day and called the company headquarters , I got a very nice lady , and she was very up front , she said we take pride in there foods , yet ! When it leaves our factory , then it’s out of our control ,they’d had two facilities , one in CA . And one in TN ,our food came out of CA . ! The plant inTN was only 5 hours away ! But heck no , they shipped it from CA = stupid people! What they had found out was it was shipped in a refer trailer which is climate controlled and then off loaded to a transfer drop in KS to then be loaded on to another truck for Indiana , this is were the problem was, it sat in a wear house with 100 + degrees for 4 days and the temp change caused it to spoil , lmao

This dumb stuff seems to only happen to us , but then where ole Doc get stories to type :grin2:
 
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