Unless you’re a raisin, wrinkles are never a welcome sight, and the same holds true in our dogs. How so? Because wrinkling over a dog’s withers in some breeds can be a sign of straight shoulders and/or short upper arms. Usually, this is accompanied by stilted, choppy steps (a poor reach), a short neck, bouncing up and down behind the neck, and the lack of a forechest. You want to remember the importance of checking a breed’s standard, bearing in mind the actual breed because some breeds are wrinkled, and incorporating other signs when a breed is so coated as to make seeing skin, let alone wrinkles, challenging to see (such as a Lapphund).

 Image: Finnish Lapphund by Jean-Louis Klein & Marie-Luce Hubert is available as a print, poster, and phone case here.