Disorders of the bovine hoof are important factors influencing the well-being and milk production of the dairy cow. Here, results from 2 different studies were used to demonstrate the value of how contemporary groups are defined, standardized recording, and improved trait definitions, to investigate the genetic background of important claw disorders. In the first study, 1,962 first-lactation cows from 7 commercial (contract) herds were subjected to hoof trimming with an assessment of hoof disorders as binary traits. Sole hemorrhage (SH), white line disease, sole ulcer, and interdigital hyperplasia (IH) showed to be the most important noninfectious claw disorders. The DNA of 1,183 of the cows was used for analyses with a custom-made array of 384 SNP. It revealed that SNP rs29017173 is significantly associated with SH disorder status. For IH, bull lineages with high proportions of IH affected daughters and granddaughters were identified. With the help of 192 genotyped cows (Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip) from well-selected cohorts, 4 candidate regions were identified. A second study based on 729 pregnant heifers from an US-American commercial dairy herd focused on bovine digital dermatitis (DD). New DD trait definitions were used to investigate the genetic background of this infectious disease. The new traits enabled the differentiation of clinical stages and their succession over time. The heritability estimates for the DD traits ranged between 0.19 and 0.52. An association study, based on 106 genotyped cows from this study, revealed 3 promising candidate regions.