To figure out the angles at which one bone joins another, you must put your hands on the dog. The dog must be standing with his legs directly under the point where his shoulder blade ends (i.e., make sure he’s not posted up). Holmes has few markings on his show side (which might actually make this easier). First, I print out a photo on plain paper. This particular photo is one taken by Adrienne yesterday morning. Then I find the point of Holmes’ elbow. His is behind and below the tip of the white “Christmas tree” marking on his show-side front leg. I make a dot on the photo to indicate the tip of his elbow. Then, with my fingers, I follow the humerus bone up toward his prosternum. He has a little tab of brindle that reaches into his white front, and the point where his upper arm (humerus) and shoulder bone (scapula) meet is behind that tiny tab of color (for that joint I put a dot on the photo). Then I move my fingers up the scapula and find that it ends just behind the little collar that comes around from his off-side and, (unfortunately) ends just beyond the middle of his spine. Final dot goes at the top of the scapula.
I bring the photo back upstairs to the computer, call up the document (photo) and tell my program I want to draw a line. I start the line at the elbow dot, then drag it to the joint of the upper arm and shoulder blade. I end it there. Then I start a new line at the top of the shoulder blade and drag it to the joint that is located behind the prosternum. My program permits me to then lengthen the lines, color them, and change their position so I might best match up my dots. I convert the photo (with lines) to .pdf and then save it as a .jpg to insert into a blog post.
Doing this is so much better than running the vacuum.
