Kims first summer, that he enjoys out on the balcony.

Kim is pacing. He seems to like it because he does it a lot. He started pacing in february/mars and if there had been competitions in pacing, as there is for Icelandic horses, Kim would easily have become a Champion. He can pace incredibly fast! I wasn't actually that concerned, until I attended a seminar about the dogs muscels and joints. It was held by Freddy Wegelius, who is very knowledgeable in the area, not to mention one of the most well-known dogphysiotherapists on the swedish westcoast.

Among many other things, Freddy talked about pacing. He says:
- Pacing = we walk too slowly with the dog.
- Pacing = problems with the backloinactivity.
- Pacing = FORBIDDEN!
Gallop is many times a defence to something the dog is not able to handle.

Since Kim is bouncing up and down all the time, it's not strange that he has gotten injuries in his back that effects his movement. He is called "the Cangaroo" and the "Bouncing ball" at our dog trainingclub ;-) Marianne Gustafsson, artist and Sheltielover, who I lived with at the swedish Sheltie clubs big arrangement in Härjarö in may, told me that she couldn't possibly do a sculpture of Kim, since that would have to hang 3 meters up in the air to do his personality justice!

What can you do to work against pacing? Freddy Wegelius talked a lot about how the dog is built. The ideal sporting dog is square, the length of the chest should be equivalent to the length of the loin (hind quarters), a shorter loin is a risk that the dog will pace. He recommends bicycletraining and climbing to the pacing dog, along with stretching afterwards. When you stretch the frontleg forward, you also stretch the muscles in the loin. A balanced dog should be able to stretch his leg equally long forward as backward. The angulation of the shoulder blade determines how far you can stretch, and also the length of the dogs steps. Another excellent exercise for the hind quarters is the poles in agility.

When the dog is pacing, he is moving both legs on the same side
in the same direction at the same time, while trotting is a diagonal movement.

Since Kim only was 5-6 months when he started pacing, I didn't dare doing anything about it, but now when he is nearly 11 months, we have started bicycle exercise and stretching every third day. The rest in between is important to avoid overstrain and damages. The muscles need to recover for best result. I also don't allow him to pace. Every time he starts pacing, I stop him and start over again, hopefully in a correct trot. Unfortunately I am not the best in the world of being consistent... So far he really enjoys trotting along by the bicycle, but sometimes he tryes to jump up on me and bite me in the sleeve ;-)

Agility training will be started as soon as he is around one year old and controlled free (one can hope) on hips and elbows. Why this careful? Well, I don't want Kim to have the same joint problems as Tintin has nowadays.