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that would be booties for my dog......1st winter for me with our 3 year old springer mix we picked up at the shelter in may. had her out on a long hike today in the snow and other than the snow buildup on the paws she seemed to have no problems at all. reason i'm asking is my vet said it might be a good idea for any sharp, icy spots on the ground... and i also did not see anything under the search function for this topic. thanks all.
Not gay..but not all dogs seem to need them either. Couldn't hurt to pick up a set and throw them in the pack for longer hikes. Road salt seems to fuck dogs paws up pretty bad, so try to avoid that.
I have used them with my dogs, but more retroactively. Once they hurt a paw then the booties go on. They seem to work alright protecting the paw, but the dogs often get them off, especially once they stop walking.
When I take Otis, my jack russel, into the b/c, he swims in the rivers and rides uphill on the tails of our skis if the powder's too deep. Unless your overnighting, I'd say no big deal. But clipping the hair inbetween your dog's pads will minimize globulets of snow from accumulating under his paws when the snow gets soggy, then frozen. Especially on long haired breeds.
what splat said about trimming the paw hair really helps. Do some more outings with the pup and see if there are any problems without booties.
The only time I've had to put booties on the dawg was while hiking in desert areas with lots of small globe cacti.
Booties are a good idea for soft coated dogs eg collies and retrievers.
Snow balls up on the soft fur between their toes and forces the toes apart causing the dog discomfort (imagine stones in your shoe.)
They will keep stopping to try and bite the snow out making you travel slower and the extra moisture on their paws from biting/licking makes the problem worse.
It doesn't seem to happen on harder and shorter coated dogs like shepards, huskies terriors etc.
I used booties almost every day on my collie, she was not happy with them at first but soon became used to them.
I take booties off for icy conditions especially climbing or decending.
I would only use plain fleece or canvas with a velcro strap. These are cheaper ($10ish) and the more expensive ones are slipperier for the dog. Tha claws will eventually make holes in them and they will come off and get lost.
Don't ever use the ones with an elastic and velcro band because they seem to stop blood return out of the paws.
Trimming excess fur on the belly and back of the legs is also a good idea as this will ball up in deep snow.
Booties are also good in very cold conditions.
I've bought them at vets, sled dog suppliers and made them out of scrap fleece.
My dog (boxer/pit mix) definitely got bloody paws hiking up on some crusty snow - I would think the booties would be a good thing in those kind of conditions.