FOREWORD
“I recommend this book without hesitation.”
Dr Tamás Jakkel
President, Fédération Cynologique Internationale
Some books change minds; a few change habits. Louis Donald’s first book, the 1,200-page The Definitive German Shepherd Dog, combines rigorous, well-researched anatomy, biomechanics, veterinary, genetics and ringside judgement, and stands, as I have encountered, as the most extensive single-breed work in our field. It also earned high praise from Prof. Dr Heinrich Messler, President, Verein für Deutsche Schäferhunde (SV), who called it a new bible for the breed.
This new work, Herding and Droving Dogs: History, Anatomy and Locomotion, widens the lens to 51 herding and droving breeds without losing focus. It shows how function sets type, how history explains function, and how sound anatomy makes that history visible in the moving dog.
Covering so many breeds is a bold undertaking, and what makes it work is the author’s consistent method. He does not treat the breed standards as a static “list of points”. Instead, for each breed he takes the official breed standard and, in association with a high-quality, exemplary dog, transcribes the standard into a flowing critique. In effect, the reader is walked through a coherent and highly descriptive word-picture of the ideal dog: the outline first, then proportions, head and expression, ribbing and loin, pelvis and croup, limbs and feet, coat, character, and finally the movement that should logically follow. The effect is a literal mind’s-eye image, formed before the reader even studies the photograph. It is an unusually practical way to teach type, because it links what the standard means to what the eye and hand should actually find. It also makes drift easier to spot: when the critique and the photograph do not match in function or balance, the gap becomes obvious.
The early chapters place herding and droving dogs in deep time and in real work, from ancestral canids to the farm and field roles that shaped modern breeds. Design followed duty: tending on cropped land required energy efficiency and steadiness; wide gathering on open country favoured lateral agility and an efficient, enduring stride; driving cattle on the road demanded robustness, enormous strength of character and patience. Form grew out of these functions, not from show-ring fashion, and the author makes it clear that each breed’s future depends on those fundamentals being retained and respected by judges and breeders.
The book is practical. An extensive shared terminology chapter removes confusion and helps judges, breeders and handlers speak the same language about structure and gait, from skeletal landmarks to everyday terms that drift in meaning. Character and working drives are covered in detail and tied back to purpose and assessed as carefully as structure. A deliberate choice runs through the chapters on Anatomy and Gait. The German Shepherd Dog is used as a stable midpoint for comparison because it falls between lighter-bodied livestock-gathering breeds and heavier drover breeds. Principles valued in the earlier book return here with fresh diagrams and clearer bridges from structure to stride. Ratios and angles are treated as causes with effects, linked to reach, load distribution and efficiency. The most sought-after content from the first book returns here as a highly detailed 340-page treatment of Anatomy and Gait, but in a preceding chapter, that material is tuned for a multi-breed audience.
The dog’s spine is treated as a dynamic beam, not a single line on a photograph. Pelvis angle, tibia length, croup angle and footfall are tied to what the eye can test: where the trunk is supported, how the topline behaves over the lumbar region, and whether reach meets drive under the body, including how duty factor shifts with speed.
Importantly, the author explains how exaggeration of form is contradictory to function, that a longer stride distance is not always better, and that more angulation, particularly increased hindquarter angulation, is not automatically more efficient—quite the contrary.
Each breed presents a concise history, a balanced reading of the standard and a critique-style word picture that gives the reader a clear mental image of the ideal dog before they look at the dog or the photograph. Profiles are brief, exact and anchored by what each breed was meant to do. The book presents 51 breeds using this consistent, comparative method and high-resolution photographs of outstanding examples of each breed.
Readers will also recognise a steady tone of service to dogs themselves. The aim is better decisions, not louder arguments. Where exaggeration has crept in, the discussion returns to work and efficiency: endurance, traction, limbs, feet, lungs, working-dog character and nerves. Where judging has drifted, the remedy is a steadier eye, a better vocabulary and a return to breed purpose. Taken together, these pages give judges clearer markers, help breeders plan with foresight and offer owners a deeper understanding of why good working dogs look and move as they do. History illuminates purpose. Anatomy explains performance. Gait analysis connects what you feel in your hands to what you see with your eyes.
A final word. Anyone who keeps or works with a herding or droving dog should read this book. Breeders, judges, experienced practitioners and trainees alike will benefit. It sets out each breed’s history and purpose. For every breed, the official standard is presented as a detailed critique that helps the reader form a precise picture of the ideal dog in the mind’s eye, anchored by a high-resolution photograph of an excellent example. I recommend this book without hesitation.
Dr Tamás Jakkel
President, Fédération Cynologique Internationale
The book is practical. An extensive shared terminology chapter removes confusion and helps judges, breeders and handlers speak the same language about structure and gait, from skeletal landmarks to everyday terms that drift in meaning. Character and working drives are covered in detail and tied back to purpose and assessed as carefully as structure. A deliberate choice runs through the chapters on Anatomy and Gait. The German Shepherd Dog is used as a stable midpoint for comparison because it falls between lighter-bodied livestock-gathering breeds and heavier drover breeds. Principles valued in the earlier book return here with fresh diagrams and clearer bridges from structure to stride. Ratios and angles are treated as causes with effects, linked to reach, load distribution and efficiency. The most sought-after content from the first book returns here as a highly detailed 340-page treatment of Anatomy and Gait, but in a preceding chapter, that material is tuned for a multi-breed audience.
The dog’s spine is treated as a dynamic beam, not a single line on a photograph. Pelvis angle, tibia length, croup angle and footfall are tied to what the eye can test: where the trunk is supported, how the topline behaves over the lumbar region, and whether reach meets drive under the body, including how duty factor shifts with speed.
Importantly, the author explains how exaggeration of form is contradictory to function, that a longer stride distance is not always better, and that more angulation, particularly increased hindquarter angulation, is not automatically more efficient—quite the contrary.
Each breed presents a concise history, a balanced reading of the standard and a critique-style word picture that gives the reader a clear mental image of the ideal dog before they look at the dog or the photograph. Profiles are brief, exact and anchored by what each breed was meant to do. The book presents 51 breeds using this consistent, comparative method and high-resolution photographs of outstanding examples of each breed.
Readers will also recognise a steady tone of service to dogs themselves. The aim is better decisions, not louder arguments. Where exaggeration has crept in, the discussion returns to work and efficiency: endurance, traction, limbs, feet, lungs, working-dog character and nerves. Where judging has drifted, the remedy is a steadier eye, a better vocabulary and a return to breed purpose. Taken together, these pages give judges clearer markers, help breeders plan with foresight and offer owners a deeper understanding of why good working dogs look and move as they do. History illuminates purpose. Anatomy explains performance. Gait analysis connects what you feel in your hands to what you see with your eyes.
A final word. Anyone who keeps or works with a herding or droving dog should read this book. Breeders, judges, experienced practitioners and trainees alike will benefit. It sets out each breed’s history and purpose. For every breed, the official standard is presented as a detailed critique that helps the reader form a precise picture of the ideal dog in the mind’s eye, anchored by a high-resolution photograph of an excellent example. I recommend this book without hesitation.
Dr Tamás Jakkel
President, Fédération Cynologique Internationale