Dog paws & how we can keep them healthy
There are so many aspects of dog health and body care, so lets start from the ground up. When you think about it, your dogs paws are almost the most important part of their body. They need them for everything they do so it is important to keep them as healthy as possible so your dog can thrive.
A dogs paws are 10x as absorbent as the palm of a human hand. Their feet could soak up oil or transmission fluid or insecticide cleaning fluids. Wearing boots can protect them from those things.
It is important to protect your dogs paws from any extreme heat or cold, lets focus on the heat first.
Did you know that asphalt can be 50ºf+ hotter than the air temperature on sunny days? If it’s 77 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the pavement is about 127 degrees Fahrenheit! If it’s 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside the pavement is 140 degrees Fahrenheit & if the air temps are 102 degrees Fahrenheit the pavement is 167 degrees Fahrenheit! That is hot!
So what can you do to protect your dogs paws from heat? There are a few options, you could alter your walk schedule & only go when it’s dark outside, either early in the morning or after the sun goes down so it would be cooler. You can walk in grassy areas, if that is available to you. You can also get some great dog shoes. My dog is my service dog so she is with me all of the time so we can’t just stay in grass or only go out at certain times. So because of that I use dog shoes for her. I really like the Grip Trex boots by Ruffwear. They are the perfect summer dog shoe because they are breathable & offer a ton of protection for their feet, they also have great grip so they are wonderful for any surface, even hiking!
Now let’s talk about cold weather paw problems. the chemicals found in salt used during the winter can lead to irritation & blisters. Walking on frozen ground can lead to frostbite & cuts on paws. So once again we are looking to boots to help. Ruffwear makes winter boots for dogs, Polar Trex that are perfect for cold days. If your dog dogs go our barepawed in the winter make sure to wash their feet off when they come in so you can remove any salt or snow melt. This would also be a great time for a paw balm.
Of course temperatures are not the only thing we need to be aware when it comes to our dogs paws, we also need to make sure to trim their nails regularly. Your dogs nail grow quickly, just like ours! A good rule of thumb is if you need to trim your toenails, it’s time to trim your dogs too! I am a big fan of using a rotary file instead of nail clippers for my dog, it’s much safer and it makes them smooth so they don’t hurt themselves while scratching or hurt us on accident if they jump or paw at us. The rotary file I love is from dremal, I have had this same model for about 15 years & I still love it!This makes dog nail care easy so I file my dogs nails weekly. If you have accidentally let your dogs nails grow out too much, you can slowly get them back to a proper length by filing small amounts often. It’s also a good idea to have stop bleed powder in case you cut too short. I’m sure this goes without saying but you want to make dog nail trims as positive as possible so try very hard not to trim or file too short. That will cause them to be fearful of future nail trims. It’s better to take a longer time to get them comfortable up front than have to repair their trust. Offer plenty of treats and breaks if needed and build that trust.
I have one final tip that is a game changer!
Make sure to touch your dogs feet regularly, not just when you are doing nail trims. If you are starting with a puppy touch their paws several times a day from their first day home. This normalizes this behavior for them and will make your life together easier in the future. Tricks like high 5 & shake hands are great for building trust with touching their front paws but back paws are just as important. Something I like to do is put paw cream on my dogs paws every day, this is how I make sure to touch her back feet daily too! It feels nice to her, makes her feet soft & it allows me to touch her paws for something other than a nail trim. I like the Green Goo Animal First Aid balm, it’s natural & it’s the one we use year around. You can also use this for irritations, rashes, dry noses, insect bite and many other things.