Dante and Cold Weather

osbornl1

Dante has not been enjoying the extremely cold ground and snow on his feet. When we walk him to use the bathroom he only makes it about 5 minutes into the walk and starts holding his feet in the air. He will either lay on his side or back and yelp or he will actually place his face on the ground and attempts to hold his front feet up. Its really sad. He hates to have his feet dried and we try to rub them while he is relaxing to get him use to being touched. I don't see him liking boots or anything similar. Does anyone have advice?

Thanks in advance

tsukitsune

usually that means that snow/ice is forming little balls and/or that the salt is cracking his paws somehow. We will pick up the dog, rub out the paws with our gloves and keep walking. Bag balm seems to help, when you get back home rub a little on each paw (but try to keep him from licking!) When its extremely cold like this, we cut our walks down in time/distance dramatically.

sunyata

Boots? I have heard a lot of people will put boots on their pups when there is ice and snow out. Not sure if a Shiba will accept that as a possible solution though. I have also heard people using Musher's Secret. I am assuming it is similar to the Bag Balm that Jen mentioned.

cmmookie

If it is the salt or ice, you could try getting Pawz

They come in different sizes and are not as restrictive and awkward feeling as boots. Plus you can just rinse them off easily after use and reuse them until they wear out. They are pretty durable though.

If its the actually cold temperatures that bother him, you might have to go with actual boots.

ljowen123

Those look pretty neat, might have to check those out for Princess Paws Jazz

Calia

A quote from a newspaper article about protecting your pets from the winter cold. It is titled "Prep your dog for winter, says Dr. Porge Nakovich":

"PAD PROTECTION

When leaving her home, she sprays her dogs' paws with cooking spray. This prevents ice balls from building up between their pads and gives them some protection from the rock salt, too.

When she returns, she washes the dogs' paws to dissolve any salt that might be on them. She keeps a spray bottle with water at room temperature near the door."


Here's the address for the rest of the article if your curious about some of the other tips given:

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/thursday/partii/ny-lspet5998009jan15,0,4443736.story

lindsayt

Mushers Secert and Paw Wax are some things I think can be used for foot protection but that won't keep the cold away. The only thing I know of for cold protection is boots. I got some for Beebe to use when ever we visited people with hard wood floors. She pranced around like a reindeer-seriously that sort of high kicking has been banned in many places but she eventually got used to it. The best way to get the dog to realize that it isn't "broken" and can in fact walk, is to put the boots on and go for a nice long walk. I didn't like the ruffwear boots because they were too noticable for the dog and came off too easily on a shiba foot. The boots she has now have a sleeve that goes up the joint and that seems to work much better.