Have you seen videos of dogs wearing boots for the first time? I watched one last week that featured a police K-9 going through an introduction to boots. He hopped, he rolled, he froze. I wished his fellow officers hadn’t recorded the embarrassing experience. It made me glad dogs don’t have to watch their own videos!
How much easier would wearing boots have been for him if he’d been doing it all his life?
Good dog breeders introduce puppies to footwear and other dog apparel before the puppies leave for their new homes. Good puppy classes make sure their young students experience wearing various accessories they may need when they’re grown dogs. The law enforcement canine in the video missed out on an early introduction to doggy footwear through no fault of his own, of course. He may well have been chosen for a law enforcement career when he was already an adult.
What about your dog—your pet dog?
Will your dog ever have to wear boots?
Photo by Marilyn Clair Wolf — Molly, four months old
Your dog may never have to walk in snow, on ice, or on ground treated with de-icer that’s not safe for pets. Your dog may never have to walk on pavement or roadway or sand or any substrate that’s simply too hot. Your dog may never have to walk on grass or ground cover sprayed with chemicals that are not safe for pets. Your dog may never have to walk in an area with foxtails, cheatgrass, or any plant material that’s not safe for pets. Your dog may never have to walk through water, mud, or effluvia of any sort that might contain anything that you do not want on his paws.
Really? Your dog will never have to wear boots?
It’s unlikely that your dog’s paws will never be endangered by extreme cold, extreme heat, or unsafe surfaces and surroundings. At some time in his life, you will very likely prefer that his paws not touch the ground—or that what’s on the ground not touch his paws.
If you’re not protecting his paws from unsafe situations, you might be protecting your home from tracked-in mud and mess . . . when removing the dog’s dirty boots at your back door will keep your house clean.
What about wearing things like boots?
Dogs sometimes get injuries or infections of their paws. When that happens, veterinarians often insist that the area remain bandaged (like after surgery), or covered, or dry, as it heals. Dogs tend to bother paw sore spots, chew at stitches, and generally interfere with healing one way or another, since their paws are so easily accessible. Owners often make repeat trips to the clinic to get bandages rewrapped or staples substituted for stitches, with further treatment (and expense) required because dogs have done damage to healing paws they could easily get into their mouths.
Dogs without past experience wearing things “like” boots are far more likely to resist wearing bandages, coverings, and waterproof contraptions that may be required while they’re healing.
Why wait until your dog is injured or ill to introduce “something like” boots, “something like” bandages, “something like” the waterproof bag your dog might need to wear—on veterinarian’s orders—to safely complete a healing process that’s already quite stressful for both the dog and its owners?
Photo by Marilyn Clair Wolf — Molly, eleven years old
Will your dog ever get old?
You hope so—I hope so!
Your dog may become infirm even before he’s old. Your dog could develop a chronic condition like arthritis that makes him uncomfortable with movement that a dog without the condition would perform with nary a twinge. Your dog could develop mobility issues resulting from injury or illness, issues that make her uncertain of her footing, unwilling to climb up or down stairs, unable to walk on slippery flooring.
How can you help your dog?
Help your dog with physical infirmity that might develop later in her life by introducing her now to assistive paw-wear—like gripper socks and boots that provide traction on slippery surfaces—when she’s young and healthy, long before the help is needed. Continue to give the dog regular exposure to assistive paw apparel and other doggy footwear, making every experience positive and rewarding to the dog. Then, when and if there’s a need, both you and your dog will be well prepared.
How do you introduce paw-wear?
Enroll your puppy in a puppy class or your young-adult dog in a beginning pet class at which doggy wearing apparel is addressed, demonstrated, and available for inspection, and where experienced instructors go through the positive steps to successfully introducing your puppy or dog to accessories they wear on their paws. You’ll leave the class confident that you know what to do, and be invited to check back with your instructors if you have concerns or questions.
Once his paws are fully grown, invest in whatever protective footwear your dog might need. In the meantime, use socks or vet wrap as practice wear. Practice regularly in short sessions that end on a success. Doggy dress-ups in snow boots should happen weekly throughout the year. When the snow flies, your dog will accept wearing his boots as if he’s worn them every day all year!
Add to your dog’s paw-wear wardrobe as he ages: gripper socks for up and down stairs, warm-weather protective boots for walks in hot summer sand, waterproof coverings for foot injuries or infections. Ask the staff at your locally owned pet supply store what’s new in doggy footwear. They can help you find the paw-centric solutions that work best for you and for your dog’s particular needs.
Next week: Introducing puppies and young dogs to accessories they may need as they grow older—eye protection, ear protection, pants/diapers (for females in season or dogs with incontinence issues), belly bands, Elizabethan collars (otherwise known as cones of shame), and some appropriate alternatives.
