I have always had nice tight round feet. Now have a girl from other lines who is much nicer than my own lines in many ways except her feet at 9 months are quite splayed.

Is there anything I can do about it? What causes this?

Splayed feet is usually from poor nutrition and is also genetic.

What is this girl being fed?
Are her nails needing trimming? And are they trimmed regularly?
What kind of ground is she on? Is she in the kennel on gravel? Or pavement? Or?
What is her exercise like? Swimming? Walking? Etc..

Unfortunately I know a few lines that splayed feet are genetic, and sometimes you can't fix that :(

When she was younger, I was concerned about the same thing with one of mine. I've found that feet are like the rest of their bodies, lots of swimming and conditioning seems to tighten the muscles in their feet and it pulls them up into a nice cats paw.

I sent my girl out for field training when she was younger and she came back with nice tight feet. I think LOTS of swimming was the key. She used to train really hard toward an SH and MH.

I do notice in the off season she'll loose some of that conditioning but if we get her working, her feet shape back up again.

Nails trimmed regularly, but not drummeled which maybe I should do.
I am feeding Exceed Performance C&R which I have been happy with BUT you have me thinking. I had her on Sure Grow supplements until a month ago for turned out feet. Within 3 weeks of Sure Grow, legs straightened. When I ran out of the Sure Grow, I stopped giving it. Feet seem worse since quitting so I think I'll go back to the Sure Grow.

As for exercise, weather permitting, she and another 9 month old pup are out for several hours in a 50x100 play paddock. They play a lot with naps between.

I do have a pond, so we will try swimming when ice is gone.

Thanks both of you for responding.

I too believe that it can be genetic and/or due to lack of nutrition and proper exercise. I like to keep dogs on gravel to ensure they really use their feet/toes when moving; it strengthens tendons and musculature when having to really use their toes to grip and get traction. If it's due to genetics, a loose foot can be conditioned to be as tight as it can be by having to work. Nails are kept extremely short here for that same reason.

Just as an aside, a Labrador's foot isn't meant to be a "cat foot" - that is too short/small. They need more foot than that as a working/sporting breed - that type of foot is associated with some toy breeds and terrier breeds.

I know keeping nails short help the most, but are you saying they are not either born with nice feet or not. I just thought some pedigrees were known for nicer feet. Like all the genes they are handed .

Yes, they are born with either good feet structure or not-so-good feet structure. Good feet can be ruined by leaving nails too long, by not giving exercise and surfaces that are condusive to good feet, and by improper nutrition. Conversely, not-so-good feet can be given every opportunity to condition themselves to be as good as possible and to develop as strongly as possible by short nails, good surfaces and exercise to develop and strengthen them, and good correct nutrition.

Like lots of other things about a dog that may not be perfect, you can minimize damage and try to develop the foot's structure to be as strong as possible; just because the feet aren't as strong and tight as other dogs doesn't mean you can't try to get them to be as "in shape" as possible to help minimize the impact of poor flat or splayed feet on the rest of the dog's physique. Poor feet can eventually cause problems in the elbows, hocks, knees, etc because the dog has to move funky or awkwardly because of the pain/interference caused by the poor feet. This is as simple an explanation as I can give.