24/09/2026
Interesting read on pacing in dogs…
How often have you had an owner bring their dog in for a full assessment because they are worried about the fact that their dog paces on walks?
They have noticed it, perhaps someone has pointed it out to them, or they have read somewhere that pacing can be a sign of pain or musculoskeletal dysfunction. And understandably, once they have seen it, they can’t really unsee it. Every walk becomes another opportunity to watch the gait and wonder whether something is wrong.
So, we assess the dog.
We assess gait and functional movement patterns, palpate them, assess their ROM with a focus on the spine, look at muscle mass and symmetry, strength, function and comfort… and sometimes, we simply don’t find anything significant enough to explain the gait we are seeing.
And then we discover that the dog only paces when they are walking on lead.
This is where I think pacing becomes really interesting, because while we are often taught to associate pacing with compensation, weakness, pain or dysfunction, the research suggests that the relationship is not quite that linear.
A study looking specifically at whether pacing could be used as an indicator of musculoskeletal pathology found pacing in both healthy dogs AND dogs with musculoskeletal dysfunction. In fact, two of the strongest predictors of whether a dog would pace were being on lead and travelling at a speed somewhere between a walk and a trot.
When you think about how we walk our dogs, this actually makes a lot of sense.
We generally expect our dogs to match our walking speed, rather than allowing them to choose theirs.
But what if our comfortable walking speed isn't particularly comfortable for the dog?
Perhaps it is slightly too fast for their natural walk, but still too slow for their comfortable trot. They are on a lead, they are expected to remain beside us, and they need to find a gait that allows them to maintain the speed we have chosen.
For some dogs, that gait may simply be a pace.
This is why I think we need to be quite careful about looking at pacing in isolation and immediately deciding that it represents pathology.
That doesn't mean we should ignore it. Pacing absolutely CAN be associated with pain and musculoskeletal dysfunction. But the presence of a pace doesn't tell us why the dog has selected it.
The context does.
When I see a dog pacing, I want to know whether they have always done it or whether this is something new. I want to know whether they pace off lead as well as on lead, and what happens when they are allowed to choose their own speed. I want to change the handler's walking speed, alter the lead length, watch them over different terrain and see whether they comfortably transition into a trot when given the opportunity.
I also want to know what else has changed.
Has the dog suddenly started pacing when they previously trotted comfortably? Are they now reluctant to trot? Is there concurrent lameness, stiffness, weakness, pain or a change in behaviour?
Because I would probably interpret a dog that has suddenly started pacing very differently from a comfortable dog that has paced on lead at their owner's walking speed for the last six years.
And speed isn't the only factor we need to consider.
Conformation can influence gait selection, with relatively long-limbed dogs being more likely to pace at intermediate speeds. Terrain can influence which gait is most mechanically useful. Training may also play a role, particularly when dogs spend a great deal of time being rewarded for maintaining a very specific position and speed beside their handler.
Pacing isn't inherently normal, and it isn't inherently pathological. Sometimes it may be telling us that something hurts. Sometimes it may be a learned behaviour. Sometimes conformation, terrain or speed may make it the most comfortable option available.
Our job is to work out which of those possibilities makes the most sense for the dog standing in front of us.
I would love to hear what you have found in practice. When an owner has brought a dog to you specifically because they pace, how often have you found a meaningful musculoskeletal reason for it? And have you ever had a dog whose pacing completely changed when you simply changed the speed at which they were being walked?
