My oldest Siberian Husky seems to have paws like sandpaper. They are so rough and if he paws your bear skin with them there is a red mark and burning sensation. The vet has had a look at them and reassures me that there is nothing wrong with them but I am sure that they have got worse as he's got older. Has anybody had this problem with their dogs before? If so, what did you do to help calm it down because I'm wondering whether it's beginning to frustrate my dog now.

I attended a Malamute breed seminar the other week and the lady who took the seminar was a well known breeder from Canada. She thought that in general the dogs over here had pads that were too soft and she would have liked to have seen them far more rough. So it would seem your dogs pads are fine :) The rougher they are, the less likely they are to get damaged - which is most important in a working dog.

Lets take you lovely breeds job of running on ice, Put some sandpaper on a block and put some smooth plastic on a block.  Now slide along ice. 

What I'm trying to get at is if your dogs pads are too soft they will be unable to work.  If they are rought their is more friction.

You might find your sibe has the correct feet. :)

>> You might find your sibe has the correct feet.

They do :) I'd wager they are far better than most if they are that rough.

So even though my dogs paws like sandpaper are ALOT rougher than my other dogs smooth/slightly rough paws are OK?
Well...that's good! Thanks!

Although not knowing much about Huskies, I do believe it should be correct, and like said with the malamutes...Well their jobs are nearly the same.....

Unfortantly they may scratch you...I think it might be time you teach your dog not to jump up! :)  Then it can't hurt you!!!!! :D

The reason your other ones pads are much softer is because with breeding them in this country, pad texture is not important, you don't need to grip onto ice, often, so breeders haven't botherd to worry about it as much, whereas where/if they are still used for sledging on ice then the pads would be very important.

No, he doesn't jump up! He just paws you for attention every now and then LOL.

It's very strange that their paws are so different. As Byron (rough paws) was the breeders second litter, the sire and dam were very much mix and match so this is why I'm wondering why his paws are so rough. I've never worked him fully. He had a go once at rig pulling but that was on a dirt track which is basically what he's walked on.

My other dog  was purebred from a bloodline that's about fifteen years old, so that could be why he has smooth paws as they were never bred for working but were bred for ringcraft!

K