It's easy to feel like your dog is just like you. After all, he's your best friend! While he may love to cuddle and eat the same snacks as you, your dog's body is not just like yours. There's several key differences in a canine's anatomy. As a dog owner, it is important that you understand your dog's body so you can recognize an injury or chronic condition that requires intervention. Just like you would take yourself to the doctor if you were running a fever, you need to get a dog shoulder brace if he is showing signs of painful walking.
Some canine anatomical names may be familiar to you, dogs have noses and ears and eyes, but other names may be downright foreign. With that in mind, let's look at some key aspects of dog anatomy:
Your dog's head: Your dog's head has eyes, ears, a nose, and a mouth. It also has their muzzle, comprising the upper and lower jaws. Like humans, dogs have eyebrows, or simply brows. Whiskers provide some sensory feeling. Flews is just a fancy word for a dog’s lips.
Neck and shoulders: The nape of the neck is where the neck joins the base of the skull in the back of the head. The crest starts at the nape and ends at the withers, which are the top point of the shoulders, making them the highest point along the dog’s back. There is a neck of course. The shoulder is the top section of the foreleg from the withers to the elbow. If your dog needed a dog shoulder brace, it would be placed here.
Back and chest: The back and the chest create the dog’s torso, which includes the prosternum, the top of the sternum, a bone that ties the rib cage together. The chest is the entire rib cage of the dog. The back runs from the point of the shoulders to the end of the rib cage. You know what his back is, of course. The flank refers to the side of the dog between the end of the chest and the rear leg. The belly or abdomen is the underside of the dog from the end of its rib cage to its tail. The loin is the back between the end of the rib cage and the beginning of the pelvic bone.
Legs: You would be forgiven for thinking his front and back legs are essentially the same, when in fact they're about as similar as your arms and legs. The elbow is the first joint in the dog’s leg located just below the chest on the back of the foreleg. The stifle or knee is the joint that sits on the front of the hind leg in line with the abdomen. The long bone that runs after the elbow on the foreleg is the forearm. Like your arms, it’s comprised of the ulna and radius. Your dog also has an elbow and a wrist on each of his front legs. Dogs have a foot or paw at the end of each leg, called the forefoot or hind foot depending on whether it’s front or back.
The rear: The rump or croup is the rear end, where the pelvis bone is. The tail set is where the tail attaches to the rump.
Knowing your dog's anatomy makes it much easier to determine whether he needs help, like a canine knee brace. He will thank you for it!