good feet

[doggy bag 20]

ias i siad in the topic on colliexwhippetgreyhound i mentioned feet , me i love to see a dog with big strong feet , what mix of dog do you think puts good feet into a dog . the deerhound mix always seem to have big strong feet , good feet is one of my musts

[darbo 4,774]

had saluki lurcher cross collie lurcher with good feet. had beardy/grey also with very good feet.

[Maximus Ferret 2,063]

If good feet and legs are the most important thing for you, you need to breed from a line of dogs that have had their feet thoroughly tested. This probably means a family of sheepdogs which have worked a lot of sheep on very rough ground for generations.

Any breed of dog which has had it's feet tested over a few generations could be good but collies of one breed or another are easier to find. Having said that some people do work deerhounds and if a deerhound bred dog is what you want there's no point buying or breeding a collie cross.

[welshnutter69 78]

got a quater cross bull here with flawless feet.

[doggy bag 20]

If good feet and legs are the most important thing for you, you need to breed from a line of dogs that have had their feet thoroughly tested. This probably means a family of sheepdogs which have worked a lot of sheep on very rough ground for generations.

Any breed of dog which has had it's feet tested over a few generations could be good but collies of one breed or another are easier to find. Having said that some people do work deerhounds and if a deerhound bred dog is what you want there's no point buying or breeding a collie cross.

bet you hav had probs with feet , i have what am saying is feet is very impotant, hence shit feet the dog has a limited working life , collies have cracking feet some saluki xs have good big feet ,we all no looking at dogs we see what we like mines not just feet, shall i go on

[running addiction 207]

good feet is a must for me spend more time in kennel laid up with poor sub standard feet, mates got collie cross with feet of steel i envy him haha

[Maximus Ferret 2,063]

If good feet and legs are the most important thing for you, you need to breed from a line of dogs that have had their feet thoroughly tested. This probably means a family of sheepdogs which have worked a lot of sheep on very rough ground for generations.

Any breed of dog which has had it's feet tested over a few generations could be good but collies of one breed or another are easier to find. Having said that some people do work deerhounds and if a deerhound bred dog is what you want there's no point buying or breeding a collie cross.

bet you hav had probs with feet , i have what am saying is feet is very impotant, hence shit feet the dog has a limited working life , collies have cracking feet some saluki xs have good big feet ,we all no looking at dogs we see what we like mines not just feet, shall i go on

You're right about that. I've had running dogs a lot of years now and I've seen plenty of "big toes" and the various strains and foot and leg damage but what I'm getting at is there's more to it than just the breed of dog. Just because a dog's bred from a collie doesn't mean it'll have good feet. Some collies have better feet than others and some lines of collie are better tested and better able to pass on good feet. In my opinion that applies to all breeds and also to traits other than good feet.

[chartpolski 23,467]

Why doe's a dog have to have "big feet" ?? Surely small, tight , well constructed feet are better than "big feet" ??

 

Cheers.

[bird 9,872]

Why doe's a dog have to have "big feet" ?? Surely small, tight , well constructed feet are better than "big feet" ??

 

Cheers.

yes i was thinking that, most colliexs or saluki xs are only norm size dogs , so there feet are only norm size .Even with good feet you still get bit of damage (knocked nails or bangs to the feet) some ground can be very rough for a dogs feet ,and some not

[KittleRox 2,147]

I think you can help slash the odds of having feet problems by letting the dog excersise/mooch about the ground you,re going to be running on as the pups developing no matter whats in the mix

[Sirius 1,391]

Feet dont need to be big to be good,I like to see good structure, strong robust and nice fleshy pads in my experience but nothing excessed in size.

It's seems a little silly to state bigger is better, we dont want charlie chaplinesque running dogs with the surface area of the average dinner plate to be considered desirable :laugh:

 

You cannot compare a Salukis 'hare' feet to a pastoral type herding breed solid fleshy padded feet? They really are totally differnt, but both good strong feet just diffent designs

One area many people over look are nails and nail health keeping them trimmed correctly and looked after can really help prevent problems.

But if you start running on the flinty/stoney ground there inst that much that is going to stop your dogs pads getting a few slashs thats for sure, but maybe some feet are tougher.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Sirius

[skycat 6,173]

Feet don't have to be big, but they do have to be strong enough to bear the weight of the dog. So a big heavy dog on top of little weak feet.........well, they'll not last long if worked hard.

I'd be concentrating on looking at the thickness of bones, pads etc rather than just the out and out size of the feet. Collies can have very small feet, but the good ones are as tough as anything, with good thick pads. Salukis and Deerhounds should have very thick pads too: great shock absorbers.

[ianh 83]

i have problems with my dogs feet, they are nice and strong and they arent flat or bad to the eye but he seems to have weak claws, always knocking them up or splitting slightly, he is a heavy dog 70lb and he aint that tall, i watch where i run him only nice soft ground (learnt that lesson last season) but occasionally he'll run through a hedge after quarry across dirt/stoney tracks and always seems to damage them then. is there anything i can do other than keeping them well trimmed to improve the strength of the claws so he doesnt damage them so often?

[bunnybasher69 56]

i have problems with my dogs feet, they are nice and strong and they arent flat or bad to the eye but he seems to have weak claws, always knocking them up or splitting slightly, he is a heavy dog 70lb and he aint that tall, i watch where i run him only nice soft ground (learnt that lesson last season) but occasionally he'll run through a hedge after quarry across dirt/stoney tracks and always seems to damage them then. is there anything i can do other than keeping them well trimmed to improve the strength of the claws so he doesnt damage them so often?

 

imo a bit of road work would help strengthen the pads and keep the nails down but if they are weak I'd look into the dogs diet

[whin 463]

good feet are bred in fromgenerairions of dogs with sound feet i like a strong hock as they usaly ahve strong feet to boot .along time since i had afot injury running them odd skint stopper , i like adogs feet whenthe nails dont touch the ground etc m nice and short only two dogs realy like that saluks and collie type , odd deerhound type