Someone got an early Christmas present! Well, in truth, she didn’t ask for them….but she needed them!
Cricket has had trouble walking and running because of her arthritic knees. Her back paws drag a bit sometimes. After taking her for a short walk one day on the gravel road I noticed a sore spot on the top of one of her toes, and I’ve also noticed the nails quite worn down. I knew we needed to get her some boots.
It took me a while to figure out which ones to get and I ended up with these Ultra Paws Durable Dog Boots *affiliate link*. The features I liked were that they are made for all weather conditions, and can be worn indoors or out. They are water resistant. They open wide to make it easier to put them on, and secure well with velcro closures. There is foam padding to cushion where they grip on.
They are guaranteed to stay on, and stay on they did, even when I didn’t secure one of them well enough our first time out. My goals were simply those: boots that are easy to put on (I have a bit of arthritis in my hands as well so doing things like that can be difficult for me), stay on, and protect her toes from scraping. Giving her the extra traction is important too.
She did the usual funny walking when we first put them on (but not as bad as some of those videos I’ve seen!). The first time out I put the boots on first, then her walking harness so she was quickly distracted from fussing over the boots. She gets very excited about going for a walk. Once we had success on a short walk, I put them on for playing ball in the yard and they stayed on for that as well!
She can walk a little funny in them, but honestly, with her bad knees she walks a little funny anyway – especially when she’s trying to go too fast (which is most of the time). I often jokingly say she walks like “a drunken sailor”. We got some snow recently and the snow is forgiving so we didn’t put the boots on for that. But the snow is quickly packing down and melting, so we’ll be needing them again soon; or whenever we’re going to walk on the road.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that she now has this protection, which means we can go for more walks and she can play fetch more as well!
*Disclaimer: Other than the affiliate link, from which we’ll receive a commission if you order through it, we were in no way compensated for this post. We are sharing these just because I’m so pleased with them!
It is great that you found something to help her, especially with winter weather coming.
She looks adorable in them! That’s good that you could distract her from them with the harness. (Rita says she has some socks she could loan her…. ) 🙂
I got some socks too, but haven’t tortured her with those yet. 🙂 I used to put them on our beagle Kobi, and he was so darn cute in them too!
That’s wonderful – so amazing how much we are learning from one another. I will certainly share this post – because others are out there and could perhaps benefit from this. Way to go my friend!
Thank you, Cathy. I just think it’s so important to share things that work for us and might help someone else out. Often we have no idea what to do to help our dogs out with an issue they’re having, plus there’s so many products out there, that trying to pick the right one can just be too much sometimes!
I’m glad Cricket has taken to the boots so well. I meant to spend the summer getting Barley used to having her boots put on and taken off, but then I just couldn’t think of the snow and do training for it–so now it looks like we’re entering another winter where on super cold days I’m going to have to alligator wrestle her to get them on.
Alligator wrestle – LOL – that describes perfectly what I have to do to Cricket to get them on as well! Once they’re on she’s fine, but it’s the process she doesn’t like. Anything that requires her to sit still for two minutes is just too much for her. 🙂
I’m so glad she is tolerating them! Good for her and good for you!
Great news that you’ve found boots that work well to protect Cricket’s feet, and she tolerates them. When we moved into this house with slippery wood floors, we tried to put boots on our Golden Retriever. I took my eyes off him for 5 minutes and he had eaten one off his foot! We ended up covering the wood floors instead of his feet!
Oh no! LOL. That’s something I could see Luke doing. But there’s no way he would ever let me put anything on his paws, so we’ll probably never know. 🙂
I’m glad you found a simple solution that works! These are the same boots I have for Sampson and Delilah, (btw, he threw one of the boots off on our first walk, the little stinker!) I typically use these to protect their feet from the snow, but hadn’t considered using them in the house.
Something to ponder…
Aw, Sampson had to prove them wrong, right? I’m really surprised that even when running in the snow, these have stayed on Cricket. They do slip down a little at times, but even then she can still walk OK in them.
I ordered some for Sheba too, because she’s having some real problems with traction in the house now too. Although the smart girl seems to be learning that if she lies on a rug or a bed, she doesn’t have difficulty getting up like she does if she’s on the wood floor.
Looking very stylish, Cricket. We hope those boots help.
Those sure look nice on you Cricket!
She’s obviously got the Runway Walk down pat with her high steps. ???? We will probably need to replace one of the sets of boots we have for walking on snowy sidewalks and I’m definitely gonna check this brand out! Thanks for sharing your experience with them.
I really like to share products that work for us, because I know how overwhelming it can be trying to find something these days when there are so many choices!
They look cute on her too!
Yay, Cricket! Nothing stops you!
it’s so great that you found the boots what are made for walking ;o)
Guaranteed to stay on!!! That’s a miracle. We have 5 different brands that fall off in seconds. We will definitely check these out
Thanks
Lily & Edward
I hope they work out for you if you try them! So far Cricket has still not had one fall off, and that’s even when running in the snow after the ball!
Glad that you found a solution for Cricket (although we think you would love Saltsox too). I’ve had to wear my boots twice so far and they are working out good but I still give lots of attitude about it. Love Dolly
Cricket does not like the process of having them put on, but after that she’s OK. I was thinking there was something about the Saltsox that wasn’t go to work for us, but now I don’t remember what it was!
That is so great you found boots that stay on. She is so cute!
Glad they are working for you!
I’m glad the new boots work for sweet Cricket! I bet that sore will heal faster now.
It’s already healed! But then she had another one, between her toes. Kobi used to get those too, I think it’s from when they splay their toes trying to get traction. So now she’s wearing her boots out in the snow as well, and they actually are working quite well for her in the snow!
So sorry to hear you are having that issue, Cricket. Katie started having that happen with her back left paw when she was around 12. It got really bad and she wore through the shoes and boots super fast. Her nails were worn down so very far and she had terrible sores on the top of her paw. We never found a complete cure for it. It wasn’t hip related, but the reflexes in her paw and ankle were no longer right. The vet thought it was more neurological than arthritis or anything. Using the Rejenease helped somewhat, and the ToeGrips did too a bit. We’ve never heard of it happening before until this post. I guess it is not talked about much. Hopefully the boots will help you and you won’t wear them out too quickly.
Our vet did not rule out anything neurological, he noted that in her chart, and I really wonder. Sometimes she just seems to have no control over which way her legs or paws are going. But he still felt it was more likely the arthritis.
I wonder if this is more common in senior dogs than we’ve heard? Kobi had issues with his back legs being weak, and with traction, but he never got the scraped up paws or anything.
Even Sheba seems to lose her balance and traction sometimes, but her paws never turn over either. I suspect hers is just because she’s probably losing muscle mass because of the cancer. But since both girls are 12, I just have to wonder about that.
I could not think of the best thing I did to get Katie to actually stop dragging her paw. Too much going on. This morning, I woke up and there it was. I started taking her to the chiropractor. The Rejenease helped her front leg where she totally stopped limping, but the chiro helped her drag her paw so much less that she didn’t have to wear a shoe anymore. The reason is that the treatments help to increase blood flow and stimulate nerves that may be pinched helping the reflexes come back. She was never 100%, but after three or four treatments over a month or so, the shoe came off for good. It helped her I would say more than anything else we tried for her back end issues and she always felt so good and much more energetic. Sometimes she would be really tired for a day or two right after because her body was adjusting, but then she would have so much more pep. I don’t know if you have one in the area, maybe find one who does horses and see if they do dogs too, ours does all animals and people. I bet the shoes could come off and she would feel so much better!
That is amazing how much difference that made for Katie! Last time I looked I could not find one in our area, but I will look again and try to look at horse ones too. I’m surprised yours does people as well as animals, that is pretty cool. Thank you!
Thanks for the link, I want to get boots for my dog because of the salt on some of the sidewalks here. I will check these out. Was Sheba and Luke laughing at Cricket’s boots or were they just jealous. ????
You’re welcome, Edie! I hope they work out for your dog.
I think Sheba and Luke were jealous – after all, Cricket looks awfully cute in them, don’t you think? 🙂