Yesterday Reyna and I went down to visit Glenda and Wendy, and Glenda bought these red booties for Reyna. A few weeks ago when we all went up to Murphy's for the weekend to see the Sugarland concert, Reyna ran around in the yard so hard that she ripped two of her pads :( I am not sure if it was the running or if it was the heat from the brand new blacktop that was just put in, but nevertheless, Reyna damaged her pads. They did not bleed, it was more like an abrasion. Reyna walked around for the next few days very slowly and carefully. You could tell her little paws were sore. Poor little girl. Glenda was there when all of this happened, so she thought Reyna needed some booties like Wendy has. Each student that graduates from GDB gets booties for their guide dog. They use them in the extreme weather such as snow and also when it is really hot out so the dogs don’t burn their pads. It certainly got me thinking about why it is that puppy raisers are not given these as well? It is no different for us than for the graduates with the exception that the graduates use the booties when their dogs go on escalators to prevent damage to the dogs pads.
We thought it would be good if Wendy put on her booties when I put them on Reyna for the first time. It is so funny to watch a dog who has never had booties on before. Reyna was great with letting me put them on her feet. We had no problems at all. When she started walking, she was doing this high stepping thing, and it was sooo funny to watch. But after a few minutes, she adjusted just fine. I have a video clip from when Glenda and I were getting use to the booties. This was about 5 minutes after she had them on. Check it out.
After a few minutes, we took Reyna and Wendy into the backyard to explore a little with their booties on. Here is a video clip of that.
Since Reyna doesn’t mind wearing her boots, I will make sure when it is really hot outside or when she is running hard that she has her little boots on to protect her paws. I think she looks pretty darn cute in them, too!
I've always wanted to put booties on my puppies. It get over 110 out here sometimes.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, they don't give us booties (and don't want us using them) because it is something they are acclimated to in training. Puppies can be SO sensitive about wearing booties. If we (raisers) don't do it right, we can hurt their future training. If they can't wear booties, they can't do escalators.
ReplyDeleteSame goes for many things they learn in training - an exact heel, or touching them during relieving, etc.
The theory is, these guys are puppies. If it is too hot for their feet on pavement, we shouldn't have them out on the pavement.
I'd love to use booties (I own more than one set from years past when booties were ok for puppies). We have more mud and yuck than I care to deal with.
Hope her feeties are feeling better! Pad burns/sores can be a real pain to fully heal!
Thanks for the info, although it appears to be a little late, huh? Booties have never come up in our club meetings as something NOT to do, and I have been in the same club for six years or so. I have also never seen anything in the GDB manual prohibiting their use. I can see the point of not having little pups on hot pavement, but when they get to be Reyna's age, I think it is a bit different. Well, the good news is that Reyna acclimated to the booties just fine! As far as future use, I will talk to my leader :) Oh, and her feeties have healed very nicely. I am relieved about that!
ReplyDeleteI tried to look for the Leader Link or EBark that discussed it, but I am not finding it. No idea how long ago it was! A couple years back, a puppy group was selling them at Fun Day. It wasn't too long after that. But, maybe it is regional (so many things are in our world).
ReplyDeleteThank you Cassie for trying to dig that up for me. If it was a couple of years back, I should know about it, but like I said, I have never heard such a thing. I will make sure to ask my leader about it. I don't want to do anything I shouldn't be doing :) I might need to change my blog name to "Ruining Reyna"! LOL.
ReplyDelete