The topline

I feel this is a place I can teach those new comers to the breed Vizsla.  We are seeing big construction faults appearing in the breed, and these dogs are being bred from.  

The top line!  This is the back of the dog, and it should be straight.  We have the dogs withers which slopes to the top line and the top line is flat, straight with no bends in.  It is straight to the pin bones which is where suddenly it curves off to the tail. (Pin bones are the bones of the top of the hips). The curve is called the Croup.  The top line should be flat, and level.  So any variance in the topline is wrong which can cause poor health.  You do not want to see bends in the back, lumps, rises, arches, dips. 

Now what happens when there is a bend in the actual spine?  We see some dogs with slanting top lines, and some dogs have a break in the spine and it is a bulge.   I can not stress enough that you need to address this, because we see in other breeds IVDD, poor spine health which causes great pain to dogs.   Ive noticed on health forums IVDD being seen in some Vizsla and it's no wonder.   When we see dogs being bred from with incorrect spines.    It does not take much knowledge to know that the dogs spine is very important.  With poor spine you have PAIN.  Vet bills, high costs. 

If you own a dog with a broken top line or incorrect top line work to better the spine in your dogs.  It can be done over selective breeding.  Did you know it takes 3 generations to change a breed.  This term is often used when it's changing it for the worst.  But use this term to change it for the better. 


Just remember the body is a perfectly working machine.  I often think how the legs are connected to the skeleton and how everything moves in perfect motion. But when there are faults in the skeleton everything else does not work properly, and then the animal has pain, stiffness, or damage.  Which results in sadly vet bills.