On Sunday I shared some photos of Luke’s paws and toes and asked if anyone thought his toes were unusually long like my hubby and I do. Some commenters did agree they looked long, others thought they were just in proportion with his also long legs. I have been curious about it so did some research and here are some interesting things I found.
First of all, let’s look at the anatomy of a dogs paw. Below is a diagram I made showing the different parts that make up the paw. Cricket was the only one who would cooperate so I wasn’t able to get the underside of Luke’s or Sheba’s paw, but I’m sure most of you are familiar with where the dewclaw is anyway. Cricket’s dewclaws were removed by her breeder, since she was bred for rabbit hunting.
Each part of the paw serves its own purpose:
- Claws help with gripping surfaces.
- Dewclaws are for gripping and holding onto items, such as bones, and are found in the front only on most breeds. The front dewclaws contain muscle and bone. Some breeds, such as Great Pyrenees, have rear dewclaws as well, but those don’t contain much muscle or bone. There can also be double dewclaws in either the front or the back.
- The carpal pad aids with balance and to prevent sliding.
- The other pads are shock absorbers, bear the weight, and protect the bones and joints of the foot.
Dogs walk on their toes, and their anatomy has adapted over time to their environment to go along with whatever job they were bred to do.
There are three different types of paws: cat feet, webbed feet, and hare feet.
Cat feet are round and compact, and have stronger grip for endurance. They require less energy to lift so dogs can move fast for long periods of time. Some breeds with cat feet are Akita, Standard Schnauzer, and Kuvasz. Cricket has cat feet, and since beagles are bred to hunt I believe they need that endurance.
Hare feet are elongated with the two center toes being longer than the outer toes. More energy is needed to move these paws, but they increase speed. Some breeds with hare feet are greyhounds and whippets. Below you can see the paws on greyhound Bunny from the Tales and Tails blog. Those center toes really are much longer (about twice as long I’d say), and since greyhounds are racers it all makes perfect sense.
Webbed feet are for swimming. These feet help propel the dog through water and make them faster swimmers. Dogs with webbed feet include Labrador and Chesapeake Bay retrievers, as well as Newfoundlands and golden retrievers.
Water working dogs have webbed feet, but not all have long toes. So, who has the longest toes of all dog breeds? Newfoundlands, who were bred for working in the water and water rescue. The next longest toes belong to the Labrador retrievers, which explains Luke’s long toes, since he is mostly Lab. Interestingly enough, it is believed by some that Newfies and Labs are very closely related breeds, partly because of the similarities in their paws.
Our other Lab mix, Maggie, was an extremely fast swimmer. Sheba is a fine swimmer as well. Luke is still working on his technique, but I think once we get him out there he will also be very fast. I also read that Labs have the largest paws, though we don’t think Luke’s paws are overly large, we just thought he had long toes. Sheba’s toes may be just as long, but it’s difficult to see because of all the fur she has. Luke can really grab and hold onto things, like a ball, with those toes! Cricket and I can both attest to that fact when we are all trying to get the ball when playing fetch. When he gets it under one of those paws, we have a hard time prying it out from those toes!
I turned up another interesting fact about dogs who kick back, or scruff up the ground after pooping or peeing. Luke does this quite a bit, mostly after pooping. My hubby calls it “doing burnouts”. Luke kicks out mostly with his back paws, but sometimes with his front as well. We wondered why he did it, and it turns out it relates to paw anatomy. Dogs have sweat glands in their feet, which I did not know! I always thought dogs didn’t sweat at all, but they do sweat through their feet (and noses) via these glands known as eccrine glands. When they are kicking out they are marking their territory. I’ve seen the girls do it occasionally as well, but this might be something males do more than females.
I’m curious what type of paws your dog has! Take a look if you don’t know and see if you can determine it and share in the comments. Whatever type they are, make sure you take good care of those paws; I will share more about how to do so in another post.
We are joining the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop. Many thanks to our hosts 2 Brown Dawgs Blog and Heart Like a Dog. Please visit them and others through the links below!
I cited you!
Enjoy!
http://dzdogadventures.blogspot.com/2014/09/doggy-nail-care-dremel-vs-clippers.html
Thank you! That was a great post about their nails and the importance of keeping them trimmed!
Dante and Ziva both have cat feet!! Thank you for a great post, I’ll be referencing you this week when I do my paw post. 🙂
Love those cat feet….they’re so cute! I can’t wait to see your post, please let me know when it’s up.
This information is so cool! I knew about cat feet on dogs, hare feet, and webbed, but other than shape I didn’t think much about the purpose. For a Labrador, my Maya has small feet. I think Luke’s toes are longer than hers.
I am definitely going to have to share down the road if Luke’s paws get bigger and then the toes don’t look as long….I’m really curious since other Labs don’t seem to have the long toes in comparison to their overall paw size.
Omg, never knew there was a difference in dog paws…My Yoda has hare feet which I guess explains why she sprints like the wind… awesome post thank you!
You’re welcome….I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and learned a little about Yoda’s paws!
Really interesting. All of our Labs have kind of normal Lab feet. Tino had long thin ones – more like the doberman he had in him. Becca’s were really large paws – but mostly from arthritis.
I tried to find more info about arthritis and how it affects paw size, but couldn’t really find anything. I wonder if it’s because of the joints changing and breaking down that the paws seem to get larger.
Really interesting! However, I will add that Great Pyrenees do have a bone in their rear double dew claws, which is why it is highly advised against removing them. The pyr double dew acts a lot like a thumb. I love watching mine grip the ground with theirs as they run 🙂
Oh, yes, that must be cool to see! I might have to do another post just about dewclaws….there seems to be a lot to those as well. Thanks for the info about the pyrs and theirs….it’s really cool that they act like thumbs.
Interesting! Never heard of “hare” or “cat” feet before! Those names are not cool with Rita! I’m not really sure what her feet are… they seem to be webbed, but they sort of look like hare feet. She’s pretty fast for her build, so maybe that makes sense. She can swim, but she hates to! Our Abby definitely had webbed feet. She has a vet appt. today and I’m going to ask him about how she sometimes rocks back onto her metacarpal pad. It’s odd.
It does seem funny that they named them after cats and rabbits, doesn’t it? I wonder where Rita got her webbed feet, where she’s mostly shepherds, right? The hare feet would definitely account for her speed though.
Wow, I have never heard this before! So interesting. I mean, I know a dog’s feet anatomy but not the whole cat feet, hare feet stuff. Shiner’s feet are webbed, but not super elongated. They just seem average to me.
I’m really glad I got curious because of Luke’s toes, I learned so much too, and I’m glad everyone else has also found it interesting. I guess not all webbed toes are necessarily long either.
Ha! That’s funny! I am doing a post on the glands in their feet soon! BOL!
So interesting!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Oh, I can’t wait to hear what you learn too….GMTA, right? 🙂
Interesting post! Storm does the dirt kicking thing. I agree it is territory marking. Our dogs have webbed feet. Freighter’s feet are fully webbed almost to the tip of his toes. Someone once told me that how well a dog swims has a lot to do with how they are put together. If a dog moves well in the water, then they will also probably move nicely on land. I found that interesting. Thanks so much for joining the hop!
Thanks! I’m glad you found it interesting, and I’m happy to join in your hop! That is interesting about how dogs move. Luke also runs very fast, and I wonder if that does have to do with his long toes, and of course his long legs. I also can’t wait to take him swimming more to see how fast he gets when we really let him go.
You could be right about his legs and toes helping him run fast. People get down on pure bred dogs, but when they were selecting for traits way back when, it is interesting how and why they did it. For example, a barrel round rib cage was so there was room in the chest to breath and the heart to work without being constricted. A longer snout was so the dog can breath easily when running or working, as opposed to a snort snout. I find how traits were chosen very interesting. 🙂
With all the puppy mills and such, I think people forget that there are still good and reputable breeders out there who care about breeds and what is best for them. It is very interesting how they chose traits, and for the betterment of the dogs.
I didn’t know any of this! Thank you!
You’re welcome….glad you were able to learn something! 🙂
This is a really interesting post! Thanks for taking the time to break it all down for us. I just had to look at my guys’ feet, and I discovered… Emmett has REALLY stubby toes! Compared to the other dogs, his are disproportionately small! I’ll have to look it up and see if it’s common for his breed, but I never would’ve thought of it otherwise!
That is interesting about Emmett’s toes! I actually had trouble when looking at breed information finding out much about specific breeds and what kind of paws they have.
I loved your post!! I will have to look when I get home and comment back. 🙂 I was planning on doing a paw post soon, do you mind if I reference people back to your page for these fun facts?
~DZ Dog Mom
http://www.dzdogadventures.blogspot.com
Thank you! I would love it if you referenced people back here! Can’t wait to hear what you have…though it looks like one water dog from your picture there. 🙂
Oh dear, I think Bentley has cat feet too! As long as his girlfriend Emma has them too, he says it is okay!
Phew, that’s a relief! We’d hate for Bentley to have to hide his paws from Emma! 🙂
Well this is certainly embarrassing…it looks like all three of us have cat feet. Couldn’t they have found a different name, really??? Oh well, we are happy with our paws. My sisters and I don’t dig after doing our business, but Sampson and Delilah at HeartLikeADog do and they posted on it today.
We did see that post! I know, it is unfortunate that they had to call it cat feet, isn’t it? Though I have told Cricket that some of you hound dogs do share some other characteristics of cats….like independence. 🙂
This was a fabulous post.y dogs have webbed feet. Love the kicking dirt picture!
Thanks! We’ve certainly seen photos of your dogs swimming, and they seem quite good at it!
Oh you missed us diggers! I have huge paws in the front, bigger than the back, because Doxies were bred for digging up badgers. And I love to kick with my back feet after pooping. Of course I am marking my territory! Love Dolly
Oh, I didn’t see anything about diggers, Dolly! That is very interesting that your front paws are larger than the back. Luke has liked digging some too….and his DNA test said that he has some Doxie in him! I wonder if that’s where he gets his habit of kicking back?
Thanks for all your research. I will look more carefully at my dogs’ paws.
I remember seeing something about poodles when doing my research….I think maybe that they have webbed paws? Are poodles swimmers?
This was so interesting. We only have kitties now, but have had dogs in the past. I had know idea that different breeds had different types of toes. Thanks for sharing. XO, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
I never knew it either. I’m glad Luke’s long toes peaked my curiosity so I could learn these fun facts! I’m glad you enjoyed it too.
Jeffie and Rudy have webbed; Rosie cat. Such an interesting post! And I do think Luke has long toes.
Glad you think so too….he’s our only dog where you can literally see the joints in his toes!
Thanks for sharing about your crews’ paws, and I’m so glad you found this interesting! 🙂
My guys have the webbed feet for swimming. I’ve never paid particular attention to their toes though. Interesting about the kicking after peeing and pooping, I wrote about that today too. LOL
As for the labs being related to Newfs, I’ve done some research on that and Labs are actually descendants of the Newfoundland. Small water dogs bred with the Newfoundland to create the Labrador breed. It was the Earl of Malmesbury who worked on getting that particular breed. You can read more about it here. https://www.akc.org/breeds/labrador_retriever/history.cfm
Thank you for joining the blog hop!!
I know, when I went to your site to get the blog hop code and saw what you started out with, I had to chuckle…GMTA, right?
Thanks for sharing that link and info about Labs and Newfies….I think that is so interesting!
I was looking at some photos on your site, and your dogs’ toes don’t look unusually long to me. I tend to think that Luke’s paws just aren’t done growing, and when they fill out some his toes won’t look quite so long.
Great minds do think alike!! I looked at both their toes last night and they didn’t appear long to me. You may be right about Luke, it will be interesting to see what they look like when they’re done growing. 🙂
I’ll be sure to share that down the road!
Hmmm…interesting info! Not sure what a Shetland Sheepdog has.
Probably cat paws, but that’s just a guess!
I have webbed feet ( but I avoid water like the plague lol) and I sometimes kick out like a donkey after writing a pee-mail :o)
Oh, too bad you can’t put those webbed toes to good use, Easy! Our other golden retriever, Moses, would go in the water, but he would never swim.
I bet everyone knows when you’ve been around….good job!