The eleventh measurement
Ten of them you can take on a standing dog. The eleventh needs the leg forward, and it is the one that decides whether a coat is worn or left by the door.
Every coat that comes back to the bench unworn comes back for the same reason, and it is never the reason the owner gives. They say it’s too tight, or he hates it, or she shrugs out of it. What has actually happened is that it fits a stationary dog and binds a moving one.
Ten easy ones
Neck. Chest. Girth at the withers, at the ninth rib, at the flank. Back length, collar to tail set. Drop at the flank. Width between the shoulder blades. Depth at the brisket. Length of the forearm.
All ten come off a dog standing square, which takes four minutes and a helper with a biscuit.
The eleventh
The eleventh is the distance from the point of the shoulder to the elbow with the leg extended forward, as it is halfway through a stride. On most dogs it is between fifteen and thirty per cent longer than the standing measurement. On a deep-chested, long-strided dog — a lurcher, a working collie, a vizsla — it can be forty.
If the armhole is cut to the standing number, the cloth has to stretch or the shoulder has to stop. Waxed cotton does not stretch. So the shoulder stops, slightly, on every stride, and the dog quietly decides that this object is an obstacle.
You cannot see the problem on a dog standing on the bench. You see it thirty metres down the Row, when the head starts dipping slightly on each front step.
Why it isn’t standard
Because it is awkward, it needs two people, and nine coats in ten will be tolerated without it. Tolerated is a low bar and most of the trade clears it comfortably. But tolerated is also why so many dog coats live on a hook, and why the owner believes their dog simply doesn’t like wearing things.
Mostly the dog likes wearing things fine. It dislikes wearing this thing.