Paw Pad Conditioning For Roadwork?

[Staranais]

Anyone got advice or toughening up pads for roadwork (trotting beside a bike)? Besides building up distance slowly, I mean, and taking time off if her pads are tender.

Someone suggested meths to me, I know you can use that on human feet to make them tougher, but would be worried about drying out her pads leading to pad cracks. On the other hand, not sure if conditioning her paws would help, surely that would make them softer?

Additional zinc in the diet was also suggested?

I'm hoping the sled dog people might have some gems of tried & tested wisdom to share.

[OSoSwift]

Are they sore at all or is it more of a preventative thing???

I have found given correct and slow and steady time to work up to increasing exercise is enough to allow the pads to toughen up naturally.

I trained my dog for the ET trial and didn't have any pad dramas, even the day we did the trial and the ground was extremely hard.

[Staranais]

They're slightly worn & sore today after biking yesterday & the day before, so we're taking a couple of days off so as to not risk aggravating them. I'm sure they'll toughen up by themselves naturally if we take it slow. Just wondering if there are any home remedies that can accelerate the toughening process. Guess I'm just impatient!

She's loving the biking, and it doesn't seem to be aggravating her shoulder at all (hooray!)

[Tilly]

When our boys started working security the first couple of shifts of walking on concrete and roads often saw them have "sore paw".

With our last working dog - when we started him at work we rubbed PaPaw Ointment on the pads (morning and night) and this really helped him.

[SilverHaze]

The best solution is to have dogs with naturally tough pads lol

However simple things can help - make sure the surface you run your dogs on is good for their pads. We do very minimal work on concrete/roads. Apart from being bad for their pads, it's very bad for their joints. Whenever possible make sure you can working on a surface with a bit of give (dirt/sand/grass/snow).

You can use products such as bag balm on cracked and sore pads. Also if you dogs have naturally tender feet you can look at using booties - check out sites such as www.dogbooties.com

Hope this helps.

[Staranais]

Thanks Tilly, I'll have a look for the PaPaw.

Thanks SilverHaze too, don't worry, we're not going to do long distances on road - but unfortunately, where I live, we're going to have to trot a km or two by road in order to access the dirt track where I eventually hope to run her. I've never heard of bag balm - is it udder cream?

[SilverHaze]

Yup Bag Balm is an udder cream.

If you go hunting on Sled Dog Central (www.sleddogcentral.com) you will find lots of links to sledding outfitters and many various products.

[Kynan]

Kynan had tender pads when he was younger and now they are fine (he is nearly 3). When training for the ET we used Friars Balsalm every day for a week and then once a week after that. This toughens and thickens the skin. I also rubbed in Papaw Ointment twice a day to stop the pads from drying out too much and cracking.

[Rottisliebe]

I know of a few Rottie people who have used a product called Musher's Secret.

[piperspal]

When we were Pigging (long before my DOL days) we used to rub colourless iodine on teh pads every couple of days, it would harden them up. We had one dog who would run his pads off, and with that it was fine, he had no problems after that.