Paws on roads=boots needed

I agree that you should probably look into boots if you are getting raw pads.

I had to put my dearly departed boys Snarky and Pogo in boots for a season. They liked to help round pen my horses: equines inside the round pen, canines running along on the other side of the round pen fence. That year the sand outside the round pen hardened like concrete, and it wore the callous right off their feet. Musher's wax wouldn't have helped; it wasn't an issue of the feet drying out and cracking. They needed protection from abrasion.

I got them each a set of the original Muttluks, with mixed results. The design was a layer of soft suede leather on the bottom and nylon on top with a velcro ankle strap to hold the boot to the paw. The boots did indeed protect their feet, and the boots didn't rub. The boys happily ran full tilt while wearing them. However, one day the boots rotated, with the result that the boys were running with the boots nylon side down. This destroyed the boots; the nylon couldn't hold up to the abrasion. I was frustrated by the destroyed boots, but I was still pleased that the boots protected the feet even when worn upside down. I haven't tested any of the newer Muttluks designs or any other brand.

Today was a much milder day and mostly overcast, so I took Rufus out on the roads. I checked his pads before we left and they looked ok—not perfect, but not raw or scabbed. About halfway through his run—and man, can he RUN—I checked his pads again and one was bleeding. He, of course, never slows down even when his feet look bad (to me) until later when we’ve been home for a while. We turned around and now I’m guessing I will need to get boots. I’m not sure the heat of the road is the issue. I’m really thinking it’s the pavement’s roughness. I’m sure the heat probably amplifies the abrasive action of the road, but I think the main issue is abrasion. The location is odd to me though, but I don’t know nearly as much about the biomechanics of foot placement/impact for dogs as I do horses. It’s always the apex of the sort-of pentagon pad about half on the bottom of the pad and the other half in the crease between the big pad and the toe pads. (I’m going to Google the biomechanics now.)

I do brain games and indoor training with him almost everyday and increase it when it’s brutally hot. However, I’ve found that he needs the exertion of running at least once a week to let him focus. He’s a very busy dog without pacing, but vigilant—checking the perimeter, checking in with me, and listening for interlopers (sometimes just a car going down the road). Even with brain games & indoor ‘obedience’ training, he gets into more trouble—barking at every frog peeing in the road, getting in his peoples’ faces, mouthing and trying to wrestle with his people, chasing the bunnies by running around their pen, wrestling with the Aussie until she gets quite angry, etc—if he doesn’t get a good long walk or a shorter run.

Maybe I’m not doing the right kind of brain games…I’m teaching him various tricks, teaching him to play seek while I hide, fetch, working on impulse control using his ‘place’, jumping over obstacles I’ve made for him in the house, basic obedience-type things, using his Kong gyro-ball, and probably more, but I’m not remembering right now. We don’t necessarily do all of these things every time or every day, but when we can’t get good exercise outside I try to do several 15+ minute sessions with him doing one or more of these activities while getting him to focus on me and what I’m asking. The worst days for him are the ones after I have a flare-up of my migraine and can’t leave the darkness of my room for a day. When I’m feeling bad, he’s really good and stays near me, very calm and quiet. When I recover though, that next day I usually have to work extra hard to feed his brain and drain his battery. My kiddos have tried to do the same kind of things with him when I’m down, but he wants to stay with me and loses interest in whatever they’re trying to do with him.

if he were a horse having this trouble I’d probably boot him, so I’m thinking that’s what I should do.

I would absolutely be moving your runs off the road. 100 degrees is too hot on asphalt, and dogs are hardwired to keep up with us, even when it causes them pain or longterm injury.


This was on a 92 degrees day:

“Asphalt, depending on its age, is black so it absorbs the most energy of any color and should be the warmest substance found. The asphalt I measured had an average temperature of 145°.”


Boots could easily cause their own problems, by causing your boy to overheat. But another option would be to run him very early in the day, checking the temperature of the road with your own skin to be safe. I like to use something other than the palm of my hand.