Why can't big dogs move their paws as quickly when running as small ones?
- Thread starter Olga
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exchemist
Valued Senior Member
Probably to do with simple mechanics: more inertia in larger limbs, operated by muscles with less leverage, due to the greater length of the limbs from the body.
Also, longer legs allow the same distance to be covered with fewer strides, reducing the need for rapid steps. In fact, if you were to look at the actual speed of the paws over the ground, i.e. the ends of the limbs in contact with the ground, you would probably find it is similar for large and small dogs, even though the large ones need fewer and thus apparently "slower" strides to achieve this. But, not being a dog owner (we had a cat when I was growing up), I have never really thought about it much. Maybe someone else can comment.
There are small dogs with long legs, and they trot along just as fast as short-legged ones.
exchemist
Valued Senior Member
Er yes, that’s what I’ve been saying.
I meant, that they "rearrang" their paws more often than big dogs. Although they also have a big "lever".
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I've never seen an analysis of this, but I'd venture that it's not proportional. You watch some of the smaller breeds with short hair, like chihuahuas, and they're moving like hummingbirds.
Is it something to do with their fur, or is it just that smooth-haired dogs have better visible movements?
Yeah, I'm just saying that it's much easier to see how fast they're moving because they have short hair.
Меня всегда удивляло, почему собаки такие разные? Крошечная гладкошёрстная чихуахуа, и огромный лохматый сенбернар, маленькая болонка, и дог. Другие домашние животные таких огромных различий не имеют, хотя тоже подвероались селекции со стороны людей. Я ни разу не видела карликовой коровы, или кошку, в 100 раз больше размером, чем другие кошки, например.
My guess would be that with most other domestic animals, selection has always been based upon utility and they must remain within a fairly strict set of parameters to remain "useful". With dog breeding, much of it has been for vanity. In both instances, because a sizable majority of people have always been and will always be fucking garbage (Sturgeon's Law), this has always been done with total disregard for the welfare of the animals either way.
Кошка, размером с дога, охраняла бы дом покруче собаки.
Probably. But then a cat the size of a Great Dane might also be more inclined to rip your face off. I've known people who were actually scared of cats (cuz they were pathetic cry-babies), I can't imagine how they might react to a 150 pound cat.
Некоторые агрессивные породы собак тоже могут. Но их же не боятся. Кошка для охраны была бы намного более эффективна, чем собака.
Мой пёс пости такой. На двух лапах выше меня ростом. Огромный длинношёрстный немец. Килограмм 80 весом. Откормила его мясом и творогом с детства, на сухом корме он бы таким не был.I wish this dog was real:
He could probably take on an army.
80 kg?! Jesus Christ!
The biggest dogs I've ever seen were the Kangal and Kars dogs in eastern Turkey. There's also supposedly this other massive dog that they have on military installations in eastern Turkey, but I never got to see them and I'm honestly not convinced that they're even real. There's a lot of myths about their supposed extraordinary capabilities--I think they're kind of like the Turkish dog version of the X-Men.
Мои друзья советуют мне купить ему седло, и ездить как на лошади. Кинолог говорит, что в нём много от волка. Все повадки как у волка. Когда видит впереди кого-нибудь на прогулке - ложится и вытягивает голову. Это он так охотится. Огромный, чёрный, как канадский волк. Если бы не гавкал, можно бвло бы перепутать.
This is kind of interesting though. There are tiny varieties of pigs and horses, but they still basically look like pigs and horses. But there are varieties of dogs that do not even remotely resemble other types of dogs.
That said, if you were to take a person who for the first 20 years of their life only knew Greyhounds and were to show them a Pug, would they recognize the Pug as a dog? My guess is that they would, almost immediately. Genetics aside, what is this essence of a dog that is common to all dogs? Is it a physical attribute or a behavior? Or something even more elusive? My guess here would be simply that dogs are cool, and this indescribable coolness is what distinguishes them from everything else.
Они лают - это в них общее. Вот с бегом мне непонятно. Когда мой пёс бежит, он похож на скаковую лошадь стилем бега, а маленькие собачки бегают совсем по другому. И почему мозг маленьких собачек даёт команду лапам двигаться чаще, а большие так не могут? У них же похожий мозг и нервная система?This is kind of interesting though. There are tiny varieties of pigs and horses, but they still basically look like pigs and horses. But there are varieties of dogs that do not even remotely resemble other types of dogs.
That said, if you were to take a person who for the first 20 years of their life only knew Greyhounds and were to show them a Pug, would they recognize the Pug as a dog? My guess is that they would, almost immediately. Genetics aside, what is this essence of a dog that is common to all dogs? Is it a physical attribute or a behavior? Or something even more elusive? My guess here would be simply that dogs are cool, and this indescribable coolness is what distinguishes them from everything else.
Yeah, most mid-sized and large dogs do the galloping thing when they run--the front legs alternate while the back legs largely move in tandem. A lot of smaller dogs do one foot in front of the other, back and front, when running. It strikes me as less efficient--and less fast--but many seem to have remarkable endurance, comparatively, for their size.