Quote Originally Posted by shepgirl View Post
Guess I'm lucky to live where we do. None of our police dogs work with boots on and our sidewalks are kept free of broken glass. Our city fathers must be doing a great job for us. I've never been on sidewalks "littered" with glass, maybe the occasional accident that is easy to skirt around.
As for the salt they might pick up I did say I rinsed their feet off or rather wiped them when we came in from walking on such streets, everyone does it, common knowledge.
The boots don't sell well here at all as I was told by one worker at PetSmart. they only carry the tiny ones for toy breeds.
We are probably fortunate to have dogs with tougher feet, but what my vet advises I follow since she's one of the most respected in the area. And no she doesn't advise to feed kibble, she is a raw feeder herself.
No one does shutzhund with boots on either according to a friend in Alberta. And she does extensive work with both her dogs and is in army corps to boot so she is well versed in what the protocol is out there.

One of my shelties has bad reactions to some ice melt stuff, it's not salt it's chemicals. If he even walks on it for a minute he can't put his feet down. So he wears boots in the winter as I can't exactly wipe his feet off mid walk. My other sheltie is fine no matter what. My rottie can't stand really cold temperatures. Every dog is different in what they can tolerate.
I have had to carry my dogs over areas of broken glass while out walking as well...thankfully that was just with the shelties... and I don't consider my city to be dirty.

Nicole -- I have the muttlucks for the shelties and they stay on really well. They only wear them in the very coldest part of the winter, but they've withstood the shelties crazy running for about 5 years now.