Hello,

Our trail dog is currently laid up with torn front paw pads after an outing on man-made trail centre trails. The poor thing. She usually gets brought out on natural trails and has no issues with her paw pads there. The gravel man-made ones are more local though, and handy when time is limited.

Just wondering if others have come across the same issue? Any recommendations to prevent it? Has anyone used wax on their paws? She has vet-issued booties right now, just for walks, while her paw pads heal. They’re pretty flimsy though, and I doubt they’d hold up as protection when ready to get back out.

None of us like being grounded and definitely don’t want to put her through this kind of pain again. Any tips or tricks appreciated!

Pad wax for all 4 feet and Ruffwear boots for the fronts, they get the biggest loads so tend to suffer more.

We had this with out around cyb a few years back. We tried wax and had some success with ruffwear vibram/kevlar boots but ultimately, we just stopped taking him to places with inappropriate surfaces.

Just avoid places with hard, sharp trail surfaces. Anywhere with gravel or flint surface tends to cut pads quite easily. I have applied sudocreme to cut pads which I find helps them to heal and prevent any nasty infections. Since having the Fatbike, most of my off road riding is on the coast where cut pads is not an issue.

Hope says DTFU

We have the same problem with Fin. She is fine any where except trail centres. Had her to the vets after a weekend at Dalbeattie, their advice was to keep her away from them. Bit difficult so we just limit the amount she does on them.

Thanks for all the feedback. Yep, we’ll definitely try to avoid places with sharp surfaces from now on. Just sometimes, it’s unavoidable with gravel on fireroads, etc, before even getting to nice soft earthy trails.

Hadn’t heard about those boots, they sound like they might do the trick. Sudocreme, hah. Never even thought of that! The vet has us putting ointment on her pads twice a day, so we’ll stick with that and hopefully it’ll be a speedy recovery.

Thanks again.

Any recommendations to prevent it?

Yes, dont make your dog run on hard surfaces. FFS how stupid do you need to be to not get that?

I would recommend caution with the boots, a tiny bit of grit inside can cause a lot of damage. In your own shoe you’d notice it and get it out but the dog can’t tell you.

‘Trail Dog’

Isn’t she just ‘your dog’?

;-D

Sudocreme is waterproof so if you apply a good thick layer it sort of acts an anti-septic barrier which won’t wash off if they run on grass. It helps because you can leave the paw uncovered which aids healing. My dog usually healed within 3-5 days.

Obvious answer is to not take them to run on surfaces their paws are not designed to cope with. You know where the problem is coming from, so just avoid them.

I struggle to get my head round dogs on purpose built MTB trails. I love dogs, but I don’t care how well trained they are, some places are designed for a single purpose and it isn’t exercising your dog. I’ve seen well trained and not so well trained dogs at trail centres, and if I’m riding with my kids and trying to concentrate on their riding, even the well trained dogs are an unwelcome distraction.

Surely “trail dogs” are bred for this type of thing. It is a breed isnt it?

Surely “trail dogs” are bred for this type of thing. It is a breed isnt it?

An on message trend more like.

MCTD, we’d actually managed to get over double figures in a thread about dogs and riding before that old line came up, well done.

Im not bothered in user conflct arguements as my dog rides with me regularly, however you really should use torn paws as a warning that you are making pooch run on the absolute worst surface possible! Man made compacted mineral surface designed to go fast will destroy your dogs joints. Try to stick to the forest and more organcic trail surfaces and prolong the running life of your loyal trail pal!

we got some pad hardner for our dog, it was actually in France and called Solpad or similar and worked well.It was sold for hunting and working dogs. You put it on twice a day before you start working the dog and it does harden up.

We found shoes are only really tolerated when there is already damage to the paw – in my experience the soft neoprene boots work really well but you will need to modify them to stop them wearing out. I glued strips of cordura strap from an old rucsac to the bottom and they are bomber now but only as first aid. We have some ruffwear shoes, they are beautiful but the dog won’t walk with them for more than 10 mins as they are pretty stiff. They fall off too, the sizing can be tricky on a spindly dog.

Our dog has been on some mega multi day walk up to 100 days in length, her pads are as tough as can be but you can still wear them out. She will always seek out the smoothest bit of the track but sometimes there is no choice and it is just a matter of time before they sit down and won’t budge!

Places with rough sharp paths are a problem and best avoided long term. Limestone chuckies must be the ultimate torture for a dog.

Any tips or tricks appreciated!

keep your dog off trail centres 😉

Our dog has been on some mega multi day walk up to 100 days in length,

Thats a bloody long walk!

‘Trail dog’…..ffs

Any tips or tricks appreciated!

Don’t let your dog run around where there are people mountain biking.

Don’t criticise people exercising dogs on MTB trails, they don’t like it apparently 😉

Surely even trolls get fed enough at Christmas?

Hell, no!

It’s the time to overindulge, after all.

Mine used to get paw blisters when he was younger, mainly through skidding to a halt after catching wabbit scent- walking, trail dogging or trail building, its just a cut that gets opened up, keep it clean and let it heal. Run them on soft /wet stuff or fireroads with grass to the side and apply DTFU.

http://www.dogbootsactive.com/dogpag/dogboots.htm

my dogs paws only got sore when they were wet. softens up the pads

Musher’s Secret paw treatment is very good