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When is a sporting dog functionally ready to resume higher-level activity after orthopedic or neurologic injury?  Human sports medicine has established limb symmetry indices (often targeting ≥90% on strength and hop tests) as one benchmark within broader return-to-sport frameworks. For dogs, single-limb hopping is not feasible, so clinicians have long sought practical, sport-relevant alternatives that can reveal residual asymmetries not apparent at a walk or trot.

Researchers tested three versions of a stationary platform jump in healthy dogs to see if hind limb push-off symmetry could serve as an objective outcome measure.

What they tested 

-   Sit-to-withers-height jump  

-   Stand-to-head-height jump  

-   Stand-to-withers-height jump with side rails  

20 sound dogs completed 5 valid trials of each. Peak vertical force was measured with a pressure-sensitive walkway and expressed as % symmetry.

Key results

-   Average symmetry across 5 trials was below 90% for all tests:  

       -   Stand-to-head-height: 83%  

       -   Side rails: 73%  

       -   Sit-to-withers: 67%  

-   High trial-to-trial variation within dogs  

-   No learning effect across trials  

-   Best single trial of the 5 for each dog exceeded 90% on every test:  

       -   Stand-to-head-height: 97% (lowest variation)  

       -   Sit-to-withers: 94%  

       -   Side rails: 92%  

Every dog produced at least one trial >90% symmetry on each test. The stand-to-head-height version looked most consistent.

How this fits with existing tools

FourLeg’s Return-to-Sport checklist already includes jumping onto a platform (higher than the dog’s height, 5–10 reps) as a functional test, plus slow-motion video analysis of sport-specific jumps to check movement quality, symmetry, and fatigue. This study adds kinetic data (peak vertical force symmetry) on the same general task.

What the authors note

-   Average of 5 trials did not reach the hypothesized >90% symmetry  

-   Using the best of 5 trials may better capture a dog’s capacity for symmetry  

-   Stand-to-head-height showed the most potential among the options tested  

-   Further work is needed on sensitivity in dogs with injury, test refinement (positioning, surface, box size), and safety before clinical use  

Full paper (open access): Dequaine & Gordon-Evans, AJVR, 2026. doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.26.03.0131