Speaking with tongue-in-cheek, a dog’s withers provide a convenient (and accurate) place to measure their height. This is important to know when entering competitive sports in which hurdles are involved, but also when buying a doggy door and dog bed. Structurally, the withers are the highest point of a dog’s shoulders and are part of the dog’s topline (along with the back, loin and croup), and they are one more reason to know the standard for your breed. Why? Because in some breeds, the withers are called upon to be slightly higher than the croup (German Pinscher), in some breeds they should be higher than the back (Kuvasz), and in the case of the Old English Sheepdog, the dog should stand lower at the withers than at the loin.
Broadly speaking, high withers are preferred in most breeds because they have longer spinous processes, bony projections off the back of each vertebra which provide a dog with bigger and better anchors of attachment for the neck ligament. The neck ligament gives power for the front leg movement and anchors the muscles involved in moving those front legs back and forward. The neck ligament also provides the capability to raise and lower the head. This is one reason why ewe necks are a fault – they have weaker neck ligaments and offer less support for the muscles of the dog’s shoulder blades and front leg muscles. Such a neck shouldn’t be mistaken for an arched neck, and again, one should refer to their breed’s standard to lean what is an appropriate “arch” for their dog. Necks are slightly arched in the Pumi and Icelandic Sheepdog, while in the Basenji, Irish Wolfhound, and Miniature Schnauzer, for example, the necks are “well arched.”
In Claudia Waller Orlandi’s marvelous, “Practical Canine Anatomy & Movement,” the author shares that the word “withers” comes from an old anglo word meaning “against” and was used to refer to the part of a mule or horse that “pushed against the harness collar.” One more thing we’ve gotten from the equine world.
Image: “Irish Wolfhound in Profile, ” artistic photography by Eva Lechner is available as fine art, and in home decor and lifestyle items here.