01/07/2025
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"Spanning" a chest. Do you know what that means?
Most dog owners who aren't terrier fanciers haven't a clue what "spanning"
is, let along how to do it - or why.
Even if you don't show your terrier, you should know why terriers who "go to ground" are able to do so.
At least three terrier breeds we can think of (the Jack Russell Terrier, Parson Russell Terrier and Border Terrier) have to be able to function as a working terrier in order to meet their breed standards. This means being able to work within the tight fit of a tunnel. There was a time when terriers who couldn't work were useless to their owners.
Old terrier men used to put their hands around a dog's chest not only to determine their dog's chest shape, but to see whether or not their terrier could squeeze through a fox hole (see photo). This is called "spanning," and show judges are still expected to know how to "span" certain terriers today. Why?
Because a terrier's chest is the determining factor as to whether she can follow her quarry underground or not. We may no longer depend upon terriers to control vermin on our farms, but purebred dogs should still be able to do the job for which they were bred. All the heart and determination in the world won't enable a terrier to go after vermin in a tight burrow if her chest is too big or the wrong shape.
Put simplistically (very simplistically), a round chested (or barrel ribbed) dog won't fit in a tunnel. A dog with a flatter rib cage (or "slab sided) has a chest that's more flexible and compressible, but the increased distance from the point of her withers to the middle of her chest makes it hard to maneuver in the tunnel which will seriously impact where she can go underground; it will decide if she can reach the vermin, or even if she can get back out of the hole again.
We defer to terrier experts on the intricacies of "spanning" a dog, but the "See Spot Run" explanation follows:
Put your hands around your terrier's chest just behind his elbows (the dog is facing away from you) and gently lift his front feet making sure his back feet are still on the ground. Confirm that your middle fingers are just touching, and test to see whether or not your thumbs meet. You should also be in a good position to feel the chest's shape and "give" (flexibility). And yes, the size of your hand makes a difference. Terrier people, you want to take this one?
There's a very nice diagram at TheDogPlace.org which is also where we also found this photograph: http://www.thedogplace.org/BREEDS/Russell-Terrier/Judging-the-Breed_Simmons-126.asp