A dog's webbed feet indicate that there is tissue connecting every one of its toes. Since all dogs' feet contain padding and some tissue at the bottom of each toe, dogs having fully webbed feet have skin connecting every one of their toes. Webbed feet, which help transfer water more efficiently than non-webbed feet, can indicate a natural swimming ability. Webbed feet are not present in a pure German Shepherd, as they are in a retriever or a water canine. They do have some connective skin among their toes, but it isn't long enough to be called totally webbed. Even if they don't have webbed feet, they can learn to swim successfully. It merely goes to demonstrate that the German Shepherd was not bred to work in the water.