A dog walks on its toes like a horse, not the soles of his feet like a bear or a human. The dog's front limb assembly resembles the human arm with shoulder, upper arm, and forearm, and the human wrist is analogous to the canine pastern joint, the back of the hand is the dog's pastern, and the fingers form the dog's paws.

The dog's paws and the pasterns work together to absorb the shock of jumping and running and to provide flexibility of movement.

Structural faults such as straight or loose shoulders, straight stifles (knee joint), loose hips, and lack of balance between the front and rear structure, can all cause gait abnormalities that in turn lead to damage to pasterns and feet.