Saarloos wolfhound - Cow Heel, why?

[nanouk]

In the original standard, dutch, it says:

In stand is een lichte koehakkigheid toegestaan

looking than at the official site of the FCI the english translation says:

Slight cow-hocks are permitted when standing.

So i fear the translation you have is slightly off.. with that in mind i think the explanantion of fenris might be to the point!

I think the problem you see with many dogs that are cowhocked is that they loose rear thrust , in a breed like the SWD, where the typical lightfoothed movement is much valued, the ability to single track, that indeed it would be ununderstandable to allow cowhocks. But as with my boy, who is a fairly good mover if i might say so my self, he stands slightly cowhocked but i have seen no negative impact on his movement, and i have seen that in more SWD, in shows and outside.
What i have often seen what i think is also interesting is when cautious, scared, they seem to sink between the elbows, probably enabling to make them ready to make a run for it. Maybe than what Jos has mentioned sets in motion, offcoarse also creating a harder to judge picture of the bodystructure. Judging SWD from stand is dificult, but i think as soon as a SWD moves you can tell easy enough