Take a look at the bottom of your dog\u2019s feet. If your dog has hair on the bottom of their paws and between their toes, it is a good idea to use a (beard and mustache) trimmer to trim the hair from the paws. If left long, the ice and snow can build up on the bottom of feet, and cause cold and discomfort.\u00a0\u00a0Imagine having ice cubes stuck between your toes!\u00a0\u00a0Ouch!<\/p>\n
Always keep tabs on the condition of your dog\u2019s pads. Are they soft and supple or are they dry, scaly and, even worse, cracked? It\u2019s important to moisturize your dog\u2019s pads on a regular basis. How frequent that is depends on your dog - just enough to keep them soft.\u00a0\u00a0You can find paw balms at most dog boutiques or specialty shops. Or you can always use Bag Balm (designed to keep cow udders from being chapped) but note that it\u2019s somewhat greasy. I recommend massaging it into the pads and wiping away the excess.<\/p>\n
Now, let\u2019s talk BOOTS! Even though your dog may not agree, boots can be one of their best friends during the winter months. Boots keep salt, snow and ice away and out from between the pads of their paws. There are MANY options available out there and so it\u2019s difficult to choose which ones will work the best. My first recommendation is Pawz Dog Boots. They look like balloons but they are thicker and they come 12 to a pack. They are called disposable, but you can get many uses from each one.<\/p>\n The advantage with these boots is the dog can still feel the ground through them. (One reason dogs dislike boots so much is they can\u2019t feel the ground under their feet.) These boots also stay on rather well (if you get the proper size). You\u2019ll get longer use from these boots if your dog\u2019s nails are trimmed and filed<\/p>\n If boots just will NOT work for you, there are paw waxes such as Musher\u2019s Secret that you apply to your dog\u2019s paws before going out. It provides a protective barrier from the cold, ice, snow and salt. When you come in, you use a towel to wipe it off their feet.<\/p>\n Finally, we need to talk about paw safe ice melts. Regular salt\/ice melts can stick to your dog\u2019s feet and cause discomfort or pain just by walking in it. It can also stick to your dog\u2019s paws and when they come in from outside, they can lick their paws, ingesting the salt. Some salt can heat up to 175 degrees inside of your dog. Always be careful.<\/p>\n PS -- If you\u2019re lucky enough to live somewhere that stays warm in the winter and you rarely see snow \u2013 well, we don\u2019t want to hear about it!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most Sighthound people \u2013 the Borzoi parents are giving us blank looks \u2013 know the importance of keeping pups warm in cold winter weather. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[247,246,248],"class_list":["post-3494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-sighthound","tag-dog-safe-ice","tag-dog-winter-car","tag-snow-boots-for-dogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/snowpaws.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p52ryM-Um","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3498,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions\/3498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Neve-the-Galga](\"https:\/\/sighthoundunderground.com\/http\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/neveboots.jpg\")
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