Chimera Kennels

There was a discussion on another board about the subject of tight feet. I know this is a subject that comes up often, but I am trying to understand how really important it is for a dog to have tight feet?? Some people seem to believe that a dog with loose feet is worth nothing, some think it makes no difference. I am a little confused:wink:. What can a dog that has tight feet do, that a dog with loose feet can NOT do?

Loose/splayed feet tend to have a slower response time in agility. Not always, but typical. A tight "cat-like" foot is better if all else is equal. We have carefully looked at the feet of our dogs and are pleased with the very tight feet our dogs tend to have as a result of performance selection. The only dogs we have kept that didn't have very tight "cat-feet" would be dogs that were INCREDIBLE performers that EARNED their keep by performing extremely well.

Lee is correct.  Tight feet are definately preferred to loose feet for a number of reasons.  With that being said, I am always amazed when looking at old photos of some of the all time great pit dogs, quite a few of them had loose feet.  I also heard that pea gravel is good for dogs with loose feet/toes, as this surface seems to tighten them up some.

Thanks for the reply.

chimerakennels at 12:18PM on Mar 31, 2010

Loose/splayed feet tend to have a slower response time in agility. Not always, but typical. A tight "cat-like" foot is better if all else is equal. We have carefully looked at the feet of our dogs and are pleased with the very tight feet our dogs tend to have as a result of performance selection. The only dogs we have kept that didn't have very tight "cat-feet" would be dogs that were INCREDIBLE performers that EARNED their keep by performing extremely well.

Game bred dogs back in the day were not bred for their conformation and if you go through some of the photos of the old timers you will see hideous conformation faults; flat pancake feet, straight shoulders, etc...

Their lives in the pit were not usually long so conformation faults that would cause issues later in life were not considered much of an issue.