What does a dog have dew claws for?
What are dewclaws? In the glossary of the book “Sporting Dogs – the breeds and standards as recognized by the American Kennel Club” by Charles T Inglee (1935) ‘dewclaws’ are defined as” “superflous claw inside the hind leg just above the foot”. This makes sense from the point of view of the standards that say ‘dewclaws, if present, may be removed’. Primitive terrestrial vertebrates have 5 digits on each foot. All wild canids in the genus Canis normally have 5 digits on the forefeet and 4 digits on the hindfeet. The missing digit on the rear is the equivalent of the big toe, the medial (innermost) digit (digit 1 for anatomists trained in North America and the United Kingdom). The loss of this first digit seems to accompany the evolution of the ‘up on the toes’ (digitigrade) stance of canids. The flatter footed (plantigrade) carnivores have 5 toes on each foot. Although natural selection dumped the 1st digit from the hind foot fairly far back in the evolution of canids (and also, indepen
