Basic Canine Foot Morphology

What Coyote Teaches Me About Tracking Dogs

 Perfect coyote tracks (overstep walk) on the beach at Dungeness Spit, Washington coast.

The lower track is the front and the upper track is the hind foot which has landed just ahead of the front foot on the same side of the body. 

This is the typical walking gait of four-footed animals.  As the animal moves faster, the hind foot moves further ahead of the front foot. Because the feet are close together, I know that this coyote was moving slowly from the bottom of the photo towards the top.

This track photo will be the one used in comparison with the tracks of domestic dogs. I'll use it to point out how dog tracks differ. These are the things I see that make this coyote -the shape and size of the toes and pads

•  overall oval shape
• the tight toe arrangement
• the X in the negative space between the outer toes and the pad
• the short "gap" between the top of the pad and the bottom of the middle toes

Wild coyote hunting in a field near Duvall, Washington