Snow Feet

[Ker_man]

Dogs with good feet with tough skin and good hair between the toes are a nessisity to do a lot of running on snow. Some will bring up conditioning to toughen the feet, yes it is a factor but running in crusty or granulated snow requires a special foot.
The running dog men have bred it into their hounds and there some treehound lines out there that have it.
This is just my opinion, Lets hear what you all think about this and lets name some hound lines that have the feet. Terry

[tman308]

Ker_man,

I discovered the very thing you mention this winter. My hounds had tough feet for the rocks and hard dry ground of AZ but when I moved up to MT and started hunting I had some bleeding feet. The dog that had the best feet for dry ground was in the worst shape. However after about a month of hunting that crusty snow his feet adapted to the new environment. Something that I noticed is that my "cat-footed" dogs had the problems where my splay footed ones didn't. I run walker bluetick crosses and one full walker.

[chsnlions]

I found the same thing as tman308 this winter. The snow is so hard and icy on top they can walk on it for the 1st couple hours of the morning and then start breaking through as the day goes on, the snow still has that sharp icy crusty top. I had as much problems with cuts around their dew claws and lower part of their legs as problems with their actual feet. Although the more consistant miles they put on in these conditions the better it got. The dog that seemed to be more effected by this was my walker-blue tick cross, her skin seems thinner, her hair is softer feeling and her forelegs and dew claw area got skinned up more. I have a reg walker that has thicker feeling skin, with coarser feeling hair and a blue tick that is the same way with thicker feeling skin. All thier feet seemed to get conditioned over a few weeks but the walker-blue tick cross legs got skinned up more than the other two.

[cat and bear]

Frozen granual course crust and snow is the hardest thing, i know of on dogs feet. With these crazy winters we have, I bred a half trigg litter, feet was part of why. After another winter of terrible conditions, I can say from experience, guys with tree dogs, it didnt seem to matter what color, or breed, had to leave dogs at home or limit their hunting, because the feet couldnt take. A lot of guys could only run one day a week and doctor and heal the dogs feet the rest of the time. That was watching four or five different hunting groups. The running stock dogs, it didnt seem to effect, and I run them four days straight on these conditons, with no blood on pads or around nails. My buddy with a couple running walkers experienced the same. Pad heal can help toughen them some, among other things, good hair, on feet and toes is a good indicator, but doesnt always hold true either, especially for pad issues. What % of running dog to keep tough feet Im not sure of, maybe dewey could answer that one

[Ker_man]

I would like to hear from Dewey and also I'm sure some of the guys that run coyotes with treedogs or crosses.These runs will realy test a dogs feet. I have seen a dog's pad toughen up as the winter goes on but the end of the toes under the claws just seems to get worse and worse. I have coyote hunting friends that tell me that as a dog gets sored and scarred under the nails the bleeding shows up sooner every year and worsens.
A smaller dog should hurt themselves less. Some say black feet are better.......I've seen some very tender black feet and some running dogs with quite pink feet that stand up well. Terry

[Ker_man]

Boy I,m getting long winded I only know of one male Treeing Walker that is producing great snow feet, he is a dog a friend of mine bought as a pup from Ted Reynolds from maine and is now owned by Dwayne Smith of VT. Bill is old now, I think 10 or 11? My friend has had pups from 3 or 4 diffrent breedings and Bill and his pups have become my measuring stick for feet. Bill was sired from Nelson Cole's Musket dog and I believe that the female was of his breeding as well (might be wrong). Not sure if all of Nelsons dogs had feet like this? Terry

[johnnyrick1981]

i run tree hounds on coyotes and cats dam near every day of the winter. I'm laid of from oct. to april, the best way to keep their feet i have found is to condition them BEFORE winter comes along. I road mine on gravel roads and old railroad grades all summer and fall. I also keep them chained on gravel, I dont think keeping them on black dirt or soft ground helps them at all. I also notice that they end up with smooooooth pads in the end.

[Ker_man]

Thanks guys,
Cat and Bear we are talking about the same thing it sounds like what I've been seeing.

Johnnyrick I believe your theory about keeping dogs on rocks or coarse gravel and the conditioning has to help. I have clay ground and no dought pay for it. I try to keep some stone under them but don' have enough. What tree hounds are you useing? Any difference from dog to dog?

[Emily]

Its been a very icy winter here in the Catskills. I have two redbones that I run whether or not we're hunting, just for exercise. They have great feet on nasty surfaces even though they are house dogs that share my bed. They have different bloodlines with very little overlap. Both have entirely black pads and a lot of webbing with fur between their toes. Both are more than happy to run 20 miles plus in bad conditions. They occasionally get torn up above the pads when there is sharp crust, but the only time they have trouble with their pads is if they run a long way down a heavily salted road. That is painful for them, but does not lead to bleeding. Both mine are catfooted. They have entirely different gaits. Maybe I was just lucky--I bought one from down south where he rarely encountered real winter conditions--but I have to think its at least partly conditioning. They have the freedom of a fenced yard when they're at home, and do a lot of tearing around at full speed whenever they want. They dig in the snow, break trails around the yard, etc. Neither has ever had a bloody pad from snow or ice, although they've hunted with other dogs that were leaving a bloody trail within 20 minutes.

[cat and bear]

No question conditioning them sure helps them, or is a factor. I've seen dogs that hold up all summer, and isnt worth owning on snow, without conditioning. For what its worth, i think about every dog with feet problems first, had white pink pads. If its real bad snow, doesnt matter color. Also from past experience, My brother run a good dog in the winter, when i quit . The ice, and snow was that bad. After the few weeks he ran, and I didnt, I noticed a couple years following, the dogs feet became more apt, to bleed on marginal snow, and even sometimes during the summer. I think from, taking the pads to far down, without letting them heal, which has long term effects also. My cat dog and stud, has had his feet bleed, one time in 10 years, he is 100% tree dog, i dont condition him at all, but I dont run him, when you, know better either, or run him one day a week. In my lazy or wisdom or both age, that is part of why, i bred some running dog in, I dont have to condition or mess with feet, healing etc. They give a good stamina, bottom, and feet hold up, and conditon themselves, and got a race in front of me at the same time

[ol'guy]

Hi Terry hadn't herd from you in while,
breeder of the famous SPOOK dog
DPS&JP {vermont}

[Ker_man]

Hi Ol'guy, it has been a while. It might be more acurate to say the'' Famous Breeder'' of the Spooky dog and the Justin dog. If you make any more like them let us know! Hope you have had a good winter. Terry