In keeping with my “it’s ridiculously cold outside, this totally sucks” theme, I got to watching my dog lately as he goes about his business outside in the harsh cold. Here he is, by my bedroom door, whining and surely bored as I write this:
His name is Hero. He’s a 1.5 year old Border Collie with energy like I’ve never seen before. If only somebody had fully explained to me that Border Collies had boundless energy, that they never stop, and will drive you crazy to play ball even when it well past time for bed, I might have reconsidered. But he is my dog, so I put up with it.
Back to the point. My dog doesn’t seem to mind running around in the snow much when the weather isn’t horribly cold. It’s when the temperatures get down into the teens or lower that he seems to have trouble. I can see that the cold bothers his paws specifically. It’s bad enough at times that, even after only a few minutes, he’ll stop running about and try to lay down right there in the snow. That’s when I make him get up and go inside.
So, I got to thinking: what would I do with my dog–because I’m surely not leaving him–if we had to bug out on foot? He’s big enough that I couldn’t carry him far (not with a bug out bag, at least) and, although my preference is to evacuate in a vehicle, there are instances where that might not be possible. In this case, we might not get very far in the wrong conditions if he had to walk.
But it’s not only about the bitter cold and dog paws. About four years ago, when we still lived in Washington state, we bought some dog booties for our older dog when the pavement got so hot that he wouldn’t go on walks. We didn’t notice how hot the pavement was because we had shoes on, but the dog clearly did.
The problem was that he (my wife’s dog) wouldn’t wear the booties without considerable effort on our part. Eventually, we gave up and did our best to keep his little paws from frying on the hot pavement by varying our routes and shortening his walks.
From what my wife says, dogs need to be trained when they’re young to wear booties if you expect them to do so when they’re older. My guess is that neither dog would wear them even if their paws were freezing (or frying). And the odds of us actually needing dog booties are admittedly slim. But I do like to be prepared, so dog booties for Hero are on my list.
I haven’t bought any yet because, in part, my wife is probably correctly, but Heaven forbid, don’t tell her! That and because my bank account suggests I overdid it the past few months, which means it’s only the essential purchases for a while. And I can’t quite justify dog booties yet, not even to myself.
What do you think? Worth is or not at this point?
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