Berkley the Basset

Do all bassets have the walrus feet in the front? Berkley looks like a huge ballerina because his stick straight out to the sides when he sits. Post Pictures of your dogs feet to compare with each other. Im wondering if there are any that dont stick out?

vonny01

My lots feet don't really stick out

Berkley the Basset

OH MY GOSH, the last ones ears are so long!! They are so cute.

I just tried getting some pictures of Berkleys feet but he kept moving

Berkley the Basset

he doesn't really sit he lays. so i got one that sorta shows them. I posted it to my page, Im not sure how to add pics to these posts..

Esther

HOLY TOLEDO those ARE long ears!
Mine are shorter, but THICKER for some weird reason.
He-Human cooks a lot of pizza and said my ears are like pizza dough not rolled out thin enough. Hmpf. Glad HE'S so perfect.

Trying to understand exactly what the walrus feet thing is. Are those like bow legs or the paws that pace different direction? Known some poor houndies that had some real trouble with their legs b/c of that--they said on the rescue site that it was a problem that comes from poor breeding practices. I don't know about all that stuff. MikeyT? Is that true?

Finally I was gonna' post a new picture of MEMEMEMEME that shows my footsies but they're having trouble up at photobucket. Is it just me or is anyone else having an issue with them? Maybe it's because I paw the keyboard. HA
later tater

Mikey T

Feet the point east west instead of north south is actual a very serious conformational fault but quite common. The common term is fiddlefront beause when you look at the whole of the legs from the chest down the outline of the leg loos sumewhat like the body of a violin/fiddle esepecial where the elbows turn in.

Keep in mind that the feet do not sliply point out they point out because the elbow is routated in an tucked under the chest force the feet to turn out. The coformational adnormality actual occurs in the forarms elbo and shoulders it just manifest itself at the feet. Most of the time it has no adverse effect on the dog but in some rare cases it can increase arthitis risk. ANd in even rare insidence in which angular limb diformity is the culprit ( on bone grows too long/short0 surgery may be the only option to alieve pain and future problems.

That said in a vary limited sample size the more fiddlefronted the dog the better agility dog it was for me I have read that for many/ most dogs when that have this when they run and the front legs need not support as much load the feet point straight ahead again. This becomes a very good indication when it occurs that the dog will not have any problem cause by being fiddle fronted.





It certainly does not help but even good breeder can throw a fiddle fronted dog on occassion. Proper basset fronts are very difficult to maintain because it is polymorphic (many genes) invovolve so if for instance breeder from two different lines where to breed a pair even though both lines are known for producing good front the combination of the two might produce very poor result because it is not just have the Right gene it is the right combination of genes and it is not singular in nature. there are multiple combination when right will produce a symetrical front It is why line breeding is prevelent. moving outside the line can produce devestating effect on the frons So poor breed is part of the problem but also one can not discount that dwarfism that cause the baset bassic shape does not produce consistent results and effects on all the bones hence this is one area that bassets because of their unique genetic are more natural variable than other breeds.

AmyB

Sadie had nice straight legs:



but Spencer didn't:



When he was a pup, the vet said he would be more prone to arthritis, but Spencer lived to be 14 years old, and never had arthritis in his legs. He was rather clumsy though, and would trip & sometimes even fall over his feet.

__________________
Amy, mom to
Sadie (ATB, 6/9/06) & Spencer (ATB, 8/19/10) - always in my heart
and Clifford (gotcha date 7/2/11).

Scully

Here are Larsen and Ninja's legs:


Ninja's look a bit turned out sometimes, but not very much. Larsen's are really straight. When he walks, his gigantic paws point perfectly forward!

__________________
Mom to Larsen, Ninja, and Scully (ATB ~ forever in my heart)
www.countercruiser.com

vb3

Fiddlefront would be a good show basset name; 'Fiddle' for short.

__________________
www.jowlsoffury.blogspot.com

Wworm

Hmmm... is it possible for the legs to be straight when they're born, and then become more and more turned out? I fear that's what might be happening to Worm. His feet look more turned out now than they did couple months ago... is that a bad thing?

ps. ("i'd like to check out your legs, Esther, so I hope you can figure out how to post soon." admiringly yours, Worm)