Mushers in the far north always protected their dog teams' paws from the ravages of cold and ice by tying rawhide squares securely around their paws. Direct contact with freezing snow and ice conditions would be painful to the Huskies, they needed that protection. When our daughter first adopted her Husky-German Shepherd mix, she decided that in the Ottawa winter months it would be a good idea to make her own boots for her dog whom she took on long trail walks in the Gatineau Hills and elsewhere. Actually in the ravine alongside our house as well.

So when we brought home our first little Miniature Poodle, Button, I decided to do the same. Although our daughter made Button's first set of boots, I set about making the replacements. Eventually we brought home a Toy Poodle and Riley and Button were both outfitted with winter boots of my construction. They were a nuisance to put on but a necessity to ensure they could walk through a forest trail without pain. In fact, if we hadn't bothered to put their boots on thinking it wasn't cold enough to warrant them, they would occasionally just stop and refuse to go on, lifting their paws in agony, so we'd lift them and carry them until they warmed up.

People may not realize that when their companion pets walk in urban areas where the roads have been salted and the salt spray goes over all surfaces, the tender pads of dogs pick up the salt which exacerbates the cold. Their pads become cracked and swollen and cut and they bleed. An obvious signal that requires a remedy.

I didn't enjoy making the boots, they were fiddly work. I used fleece for the legging portion and leather for the pads, and sewing them up was fairly difficult, requiring patience. You wanted them to be both comfortable and efficient at keeping paws warm. We went through quite a few sets. Eventually we decided we'd buy commercial boots, better designed and produced, we figured. They would do the job better and would be less likely to fall off. Wrong. They're no more efficient than those I used to make, even more difficult to fit onto those little feet, and they do fall off.

Yesterday on our ravine walk, Jackie and Jillie scrambled excitedly about, racing here and there and into deep snow in an ecstasy of enthusiasm. Each lost a boot. Instead of refitting them we just pocketed them and they didn't seem to suffer because of that. It was minus-ten C, not much wind with fresh-fallen snow. Enough wind to help the cold penetrate. We shorten our circuit under those circumstances, something we would never have done years ago. But it's a struggle to cope with the snow and the cold; takes more energy altogether.

We came across Sheila walking her three wonderfully disciplined dogs, all from the same litter, two males and a female. Border collies are medium-sized dogs and quite a bit larger than our two. Sheila equips her three dogs with boots she makes herself. They never lose them, she told us. And the dogs seemed just as comfortable with their boots as ours are with theirs. They learn to accept them, and then forget they're wearing them, but because they're being worn the dogs are enabled to disport themselves in comfort in the excruciating cold conditions. Reason enough to use them.