While out tracking the other day near North Bend, we came upon these canine tracks. They look a lot more like a wild canine track than your average domestic dog track, but they are quite a bit larger (these were just over 4 inches with the claws) than coyote tracks which are the only really common wild dog nearby.
Earlier this year I went to a presentation Linda Bittle gave about a research project she's been doing - tracking domestic dogs. Based on the information she presented I think these may be tracks of a Great Dane - a large dog and a hare-footed one. Hare-foot dogs have longer middle toes so that they stick out in front of the side toes more than the more common shapes of domestic dog tracks and give them a more similar appearance to wild canine tracks.
I'm hoping that Linda will leave a comment with her thoughts about these tracks.
9 comments:
These tracks are exciting! You are correct that you are looking at a hare-foot dog - the gap between the top of the heel pad and the bottom of the middle toes looks quite large. I've only identified 17 breeds which have hare-feet, and the size of the track pretty much rules out all but a few of those. The Great Dane that I tracked had small heel pads and huge asymetrical toes...I'd be curious to know if there are any Chesapeak Bay Retrievers in the area...Did you notice any webbing in the tracks?
Thanks Linda,
The asymmetry of the toes in particular was another trait that made me think this might be great dane tracks. I remembered seeing that in the plaster cast you had of a great dane track.
I didn't notice any webbing in the tracks, but I didn't look very closely for it. When I zoom in as much as I can in my pictures I don't see any webbing in the tracks, on the other hand other considerations (like substrate) sometimes prevent webbing from showing up in tracks anyway.
Tonight I'll get out my photos and take a closer look at the Dane tracks. I would love to find out what dog left them... I really like that hind foot in your photo. It really reminds me of the Greyhounds but is way bigger. I just had a thought that I'll need to investigate before I throw it out...
...and I did transfer some photos to a disk to bring in for comparison. I'll remember to put the disk in my bag next week and send you some photos...don't think I can post them on your blog, but would love to see them side by side.
In talking with Linda in person some more about these tracks, it seems I was misremembering. She agreed that they look like hare-footed tracks, but apparently Great Danes are not hare-footed dogs.
I'm appreciate your writing skill.Please keep on working hard.^^
that was a nice poto of the tracks did you find out want the track were did you see them.
Glad you liked the photo. I didn't find out exactly what kind of dog it was from.
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