Well if your sticking with nurbs.... rugid bind so you can use flexors, but if your going poly smooth is best..... and you can paint the weights and use blenshapes for some of the hard defromations.
4 legged characters are a bit harder to weight than humans.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination, knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)
https://www.artstation.com/kurtb