Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Need help with dog foot problems in snow.

My springer has been hunting birds for me in crusted snow. Sooner or later her pads start to bleed and I have to end the hunt quickly. This puts her out of commission for at least three days. Other than "boots" of some kind, what are you folks using out there to protect your dogs' feet? Are boots the answer? Thanks!

I hunt a Brittany and have never had the problem. I do make sure he gets plenty of presason work, a lot of it on concrete and asphalt which makes his pads tuff. He's also very good about stopping during the hunt and cleaning the snowballs out of his feet.

Once their feet are raw I think your done for awhile, toughen them up preseason is my best advice. good luck.

Here in the land of sled dogs, we see booties on dogs regularly. These dogs get long daily workouts and still wear booties. I'm talking about dogs that run from Anchorage to Nome. I'm thinking if there is any other way, these people would know about it, and they still use the old standby. They do, however have different booties for different conditions. The most common being pack cloth (heavy cordura nylon) and polar fleece. The cordura ones shed snow more easily and they wear better than the fleece. They are very easy to make if you have a sewing machine. Also very easy to find commercially, at least up here.
M

Biz,

As a fellow Minnesotan - the snow conditions here have been brutal lately. Alternating layers of snow and skim ice are going to cut up a dog no matter what you do. Boots might save their feet, but this crap will also cut them higher on the leg.

Boots have their place in the dog kit no doubt.

There is a product called tough pad, it helped my hounds out.

I think its called" tuf-foot"?...I have a bottle at home. Its a real thin dark liquid with lots of alcohol I think. I used on one of my cur dogs a few years back that was having a foot problem.

My curs will have the same problem although snow balls don't build up between their toes. I used to fuss about it but the little bit of bleeding doesnt seem to bother them any.....a day or two in the kennel and their good as new

I am no authority about dog care, but I just got done reading a 1948 book called the "The fishing and hunting answer book" by a David M. Newell. He didn't mention snow but he said to care for your dogs feet, instead of boots which dogs don't seem to like, mix a miture of one third pine tar, one third fine sand and one third tannic acid. Heat the tar to mixing consistancy and stir in the sand and tannic acid thoroughly. After cooling, coat the dog's pads with the mixture.
He said it would provide protection without disconfort and could be used on dogs whose feet were already worn through by rough country as it also acted as a healing agent.
Although, I don't know how this would work for the snow, it sounds like it could be promising.

I had a springer growing up that had the same problem. Usually it was from little balls of snow that would build up between her pads and toes and chafe until her pads would bleed. We tried the boot thing, but she would chew them off, so in the end we just kept the hair trimmed and made sure that the snow balls were cleaned off.

Regarding the pine tar, we did use that on a horse that got it's leg cut up real bad in some barb wire (a coil of it hidden in the tall grass). It worked real well and the cuts healed marvelously. You could hardly tell where they were. Might work good for dogs too.


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