DOG BOOTIES

Below are a few style of dog booties that don’t fall off like many of the commercial dog booties out there. They are comfortable on the dog because they are soft and mold to the dogs’ paw shapes, allowing the dogs to feel the ground with their paws.

We’d greatly appreciate donated booties for our dog teams, but we also wanted to created this page as a resource for all working dogs and pet dogs. The first four listed below will work in rough terrain, and the others are for protection from the snow and hot surfaces.

The Dog Mocs below are made entirely of leather, including the laces. They are very soft and comfortable on the dog’s paws. There are some slits on the sides that could potentially take in debris in certain environments, but you can wrap self-adhesive bandage around the ankles to cover the slits.

The Rocky Mountain booties below are also made of leather, but instead of securing to the dog’s paws with a leather ankle lace, it has a wide neoprene band.

The booties from Mountain Ridge LLC come in different materials depending on your needs. Some dogs may need protection from the hot ground while other dogs may need to keep their paws safe from sharp terrain. They’re all made of flexible or semi-flexible material so the dogs can feel the ground under their paws. The velcro ankle straps keep the booties secure. The “Tough Boots with Grip” is best suited for rough terrain.

The custom booties below are made of motorcycle tire inner tubes. This material is bulletproof and has protected our dogs’ paws from very sharp lava. The bottom end of the bootie, near the paw nails, remains open, so any debris that falls into the booties will fall out of that opening.

Below are links to the materials you’ll need to create and use your own booties.

  • Inner tube – For large breeds such as Labs and Malinois, 3.25/3.50 width works well for the larger front paws, and 3.0/3.25 width works for the narrower back paws. The rim size doesn’t matter since you’ll cut the tube into smaller pieces anyway
  • Cloth tape
  • 1-inch width duct tape (or you can buy regular 1.88-in duct tape and tear them into narrower strips)
  • Scissors and Hole Puncher

The boots below are used by sled dogs and are very easy to put on and take off. This isn’t suitable for sharp rough terrain such as lava, but it will protect your dogs’ paws from snow and hot surfaces.