This is going to be my first winter with pup and I wondered if any of you do anything with paws to protect them from frosty pavements and salted roads ?
Also, do you still walk in snow ?

She is a toy breed so small and dainty !

Coming from Sweden the first thing I do when it snows is head out with the dogs -best time ever for walks! :) The toys all wear coats (ones that cover the chest as well) as they do get cold otherwise, especially as mine don't have waterproof coats (one Cavalier and the rest Papillons). I don't walk on roads that are salted or gritted as we're in a rural area but when I lived in Sweden, it was either a case of using paw wax or rinsing the paws after a walk. Also cutting the long fur (if any) in between the pads, to prevent big snowballs from forming underneath the paws. And avoid entire male dogs sitting for too long as it can burn the testicles -in Sweden I used to have to get my Golden to stand when waiting to cross a road in winter rather than sit, as he did burn his testicles otherwise.

I have a wonderful video of my first Cavalier in 1995 running through deep snow -it looks like he is swimming as the snow was as high as he was tall. :)

I would be careful with a young pup as the salt can really burn if it gets in between the pads. I must admit that I have carried a pup where their is loads of salt visible and only put them down when it is just snow. If you have a large breed pup this may be tricky.

You do need also to be careful when coming home, if the roads have been salted, to clean the paws off well. Dogs will lick their feet clean and the salt is very dangerous when ingested. Not wanting to scare you, but a very important factor in winter dog walking as it can prove fatal (to cats too)!

Not so much a paw care, but a general care ... if you use anti-freeze make sure you don't spill. It's a substance that apparently is appealing to cats and dogs as it's quite sweet, but it is lethal :-(

Know nowt about small breeds (but there are plenty on here who do), but I'm guessing they only remain 'small and dainty' if constantly treated as such by their owners! I've seen many so called small and dainty tiny dogs running round in the snow and rough housing with the best of 'em ;-) Enjoy!

Depends how much snow you have. When we had deep deep snow a few years ago my minature poodle was in it stomach deep. I felt it was cruel to attempt to walk him in that as his chest and stomach area would have been frozen.

As far as paws I think just approach with caution. If theres salt try to avoid it. Freds never been bothered by the cold snow but I know some friends dogs are so you may need to shorten your walk if pup feels discomfort on his paws

:-)

> I've seen many so called small and dainty tiny dogs running round in the snow and rough housing with the best of 'em Enjoy!

LOL :) I would have thought that the main danger with a small breed would be if they fell into a deep drift and you couldn't see them/they couldn't get out :(

Our Spanish Water Dogs love the snow, even our precious girl who feels the cold changes her mind when it snows. She likes to do snow angels and gets covered. We used to have problems with snow and ice clinging to their coats but now I rub cooking oil on their legs and tums before we go out and that prevents the worst of it! We're lucky to live opposite forest so can avoid gritted roads.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">We used to have problems with snow and ice clinging to their coats but now I rub cooking oil on their legs and tums before we go out and that prevents the worst of it!

Thank you for that fantastic tip :-) I always need to bathe Fred after any snowy walk to defrost the horrendous snowballs he gets in his fur. They literally drag him down :-)  Will have to remember the oil trick the next time we have snow :-)

We don't go anywhere much that the roads are gritted, but if we did I would rinse their paws afterwards. Interesting idea with the oil, my Yankee in particular can get covered in snowballs on winter walks. But I think they would either spend the whole walk licking themselves or each other, or I would have to bath them all to get the oil off when we got home!

Ours are so excited by the snow they don't stop to lick it off Lucydogs and a wipe over with a towel removes all the wet and the last of the oil. It just means I don't have to spend 15 mins defrosting them in the bath! :)

Oh well I might try it if we get snow again this year. :-)