Published:  Dog News in Feb 2004 RIB CAGES AND FRONT ANGULATION By Dr. Daniel A. Buchwald and Norra L. Hansen A constant topic of conversation at past A.B.C. Nationals is the declining level of the front assemblies in our Boxers. There seems to be a lack of consensus on what is good front angulation and how it should be evaluated; what structures are involved in this feature and their influence on the entire balance and gait. No wonder that from our sampling of Boxers at A.B.C. (and this is a very significant sampling), the biggest variation and inconsistency in quality was in the front assembly, especially front angulation and rib cage. If you ask breeders or judges who have good knowledge about dogs what is the most common fault they find in their own breed nowadays, a significant number will answer “the front construction”. There is a marked difference in the assembly of the front quarters as opposed to the rear quarters. In the rear the bones connect to the body by joints (articulations) and the length and width of these bones result in shapes and angles that can be clearly seen when you look at the outline of the dog. The front is built in a very particular way and is more sensitive to other influencing structures, the most important one being the rib cage. Just remember that the bones involved in the front assembly are NOT articulated with the rest of the body by joints. They are kept in place by ligaments and muscles and sit over the sides of the rib cage. Therefore, strong muscles and ligaments are very important but above all the rib cage has to have a proper shape so the scapula and umerus can properly operate by sliding back and forth over it, pretty much like a pendulum. As a rule you can say that the more evident the spring of ribs the more pronounced the front angle will be. Just imagine the shape of a Daschund rib cage and the angles of the same dog and compare that to the ribs and angles of an Ibizan Hound. Ribs that are well sprung also cause a more efficient expansion of the rib cage while the dog is inhaling as opposed to the slab sided ones and especially the barrel shaped ones. Each rib has roughly the shape of the letter “C” and is connected to the spinal column at the upper end and to the sternum (breastbone) at the bottom end. Yes, you are right, not all of them are connected to the sternum. Some connect to those in front of them that then connect to the sternum. A couple will even just “float” and connect to nothing at their bottom part, but still the majority of the ribs have both ends structured that way. The ribs have muscles that attach each to the next, promoting smooth forward rotation resulting in an expanded thoracic area that draws the air into the lungs. (This action is greatly regulated by a powerful muscle called the diaphragm, which also separates the thoracic cavity from the abdomen). For a quick understanding of the above try to create the shape of the letter “C” with the thumb and pointing finger of your left hand. Now do the same with your right hand and have your thumbs touch and pointing fingers do the same. They are now your “make believe” ribs. Where your pointing fingers are touching is your “make believe” spinal column and where your thumbs touch is the sternum. Try to rotate your hands just a bit without separating your touching fingers. They are “hinges” now, so watch and see how the area limited inside the fingers changes in size. You would think that the more you curve the ribs the higher the rate of expansion area. That is true but only to a point. When the ribs get too rounded (barrel shape) they don’t have the same capacity to move, rotating back and forth, so you start with a decent area but the expansion is not so remarkable. The ratio between maximum expansion and relaxation will give you the lung capacity for that dog. We find quite humorous that some standards will describe the rib cage as “needing the necessary room to house the heart and lungs”. We’re yet to see a rib cage so underdeveloped that it will squeeze the heart or a lung into the abdomen or throat… The rib cage should not only have the proper spring of ribs but it also should have the proper depth. This will result in a brisket line that gives amplitude to the rib cage and maximum capacity for those vital organs to perform. The scapula should be of ample length and slanted 45 degrees with the horizontal. This feature is associated with the length of each step. If you could picture an imaginary arrow over the shoulder blade with its point toward the ground, the spot where the arrow hits is approximately the place each paw will hit in a trot. Therefore, less shoulder angle, less ground to be covered by each step and obviously more steps (and more spent energy) to cover the same amount of ground. Those who were fortunate enough to witness the famous German Shepherd bitch “Mystique” (all time top-winning dog of all breeds in America) move in a trot around the ring will clearly remember what effortless ground covering stride means! That could only happen with the proper lay back of shoulders (along with balance front and rear, of course. But our focus in this article is the front…). At the bottom end of the shoulder blade is the shoulder joint. This is the point where upper arm and shoulder articulate. Notice, as we stated before, neither the shoulder blade nor the upper arm is connected by joints to the rib cage. Many standards use the shoulder joint as one of the points to measure the length of a dog’s body, i.e. from the shoulder joint or “point of shoulder” to the rear part of the buttocks. A few standards will use the frontal projection of the forechest. Although in many breeds the side view will show the point of shoulder at the same level as the tip of the forechest, several will have extremely projected forechests like certain Weimaraners, Dobermans, some Boxers and Great Danes. The proper site to reference should definitely be the point of shoulder. Excess forechest should not potentially grant a dog the label of being long in body! The upper arm in most breeds should be of equal length to the shoulder blade and form with it an angle close to 90 degrees. The forearm will determine and provide the proper pendulum motion of the front leg in a trot. Many Terrier breeds are ideally known to have short and less slanted upper arms (“Terrier front”) and this will prevent the maximum amplitude of step as well as change the whole center of gravity in the front. Dogs with short upper arms will naturally have a tendency to very upright pasterns and sometimes will even knuckle over. What is a virtue in those Terriers usually becomes a common fault in many other breeds. A good example is the incidence of short upper arms in Boxers. In our opinion this has become a fault of epidemic proportions. Nowadays a Boxer with proper length of upper arm is an exception to the rule and because it looks “different” is actually less likely to win. How do  “knowledgeable” breeders and judges seriously involved in dogs look at those shoulders with no lay back, upright short upper arms, no forechest between the front legs (just a hollow empty space where the forechest should be) and not find fault in their own breeding programs and/or judging?  If these “working” dogs continue to place and win over properly constructed dogs, what will be the future of our breed? For a simple test, try to look at the dog’s front from a ¾ angle. This can be from ¾ to the front or to the back; just enough to make sure you are not in a complete profile view of the dog. Level your eyes with the height of the dog and look at its front assembly. If you can see the inside of its elbow on the opposite side from you, that is because there is not sufficient rib cage to prevent you from seeing that part of the elbow. Sadly in Boxers, as in many other breeds today, there is a lot of “inside part of the elbow” showing! There seems to be a nationwide tendency that affects many breeds of today where both the shoulder blade and the upper arm are in a much more open angle than the desired 90 degrees. This will naturally move the withers up and forward causing a sharp angle where the neck meets the shoulders. Such construction is usually associated with an extreme amount of angles in the rear and a complete and shocking lack of balance. The problem with such a combination is that it makes the front “high stationed” and the topline therefore sharply slanted towards the croup, making a pretty (however improper) picture when the dog is stacked. These poor souls are nearly crippled when it comes to movement, not knowing how to avoid interference of front and rear legs, but they sure look arresting when stacked. This particular fault is most common in coated breeds like Afghans and Irish Setters, but Boxers and Dobermans are strongly moving in that direction as well.  Only self-education for breeders and judges will interrupt this alarming trend. Proper study of the rib cage and front angulation would be very helpful in bringing back some soundness to our dogs. It is the breeders’ responsibility to breed those animals but it rests on the judge’s shoulders the duty to properly praise such assets. Let’s start making correct more important than pretty and we may eventually learn to see the pretty side of correct.