So much has been going on with BeeBee! Today was such a glorious sunny day I decided to take her and Ollie out to see if I could get some pictures that would help me better understand her gait and, in the process, more about how her brain works or doesn’t. It’s obvious to me that her gait isn’t not normal, but as far as exactly how it isn’t, I’m clueless. One of the problems with taking pictures of her is that I have to get past her desire to see what I’m doing and that’s not always easy. No sooner did I lift the camera than she came barreling toward me up the walk.
However, once she and Ollie got into the chase mode, I had better luck.
These pictures are typical of her running, which usually seems to involve one foot or none on the ground at the same time. Even though she can get up an amazing amount of speed, as you can see there’s nothing graceful about it. It’s as if she just puts her mind into high gear and expects her body to follow.
Below you can see the one-foot-on-the-ground position as she and Ollie play tag. In the photo on the right, notice how she throws her hind end to the right, I assume either to somehow shift some of her weight from her left front leg or to help her make the turn.
Believe it or not, this next picture is one of her and Ollie engaged in normal dog, but she really looks demonic, doesn’t she? I don’t know if you can see it, but her left eye is rolled down to expose the white which really adds to the effect. Next up in the game, Ollie proves that the best way to slow down a racing dog is to grab her by the tail–even if she doesn’t have one!
If you compare the running Bee pictures above with this one of her walking you can see how deliberate her movement is when she walks, to the point she almost looks like she’s stalking. But if she slowed down that much, I suspect she’d fall over. When she’s walking slowly she sort of staggers and inside I can sometimes hear a back foot scuff the floor or rug when she has trouble lifting it up high enough to bring it forward to place it. In general, she seems to put a lot more mental effort into walking.
To me, the next photo looks like she’s airborne, but I find it interesting the way she tucks her back feet so close to her body. It doesn’t seem like she has the fine motor skills to get them down to propel her forward before she smashes into the ground, but some how she does.
And if you’re feeling sorry for poor Bee who always loses the race, don’t. She gives as good as she gets. 🙂
But play is only play, no matter how bad it looks.
But back to work for me. Nap-time for them.
As I prepare to post this, the two of them are sleeping together under my desk, and I can hear BeeBee snoring. She sounds like a very large cat purring.