Shelties and Temperature

[pomshe]

My 2 shelties love it cold, and if it is windy then all the better. They have more energy when it is cold outside. They love to put their faces in the wind.

 

[Piper's mom]

For your winter loving shelties do you put foot coverings/booties on them for walks? does the ice and salt on the sidewalks unset their pads?

When my boy Piper was just a pup we were out walking on the public sidewalk (it was a beautiful winter day) when I saw Piper suddenly lifting his paws like he was in pain! That's when it occurred to me that we'd gone from a snow covered sidewalk to a sidewalk that had melted snow. Ice melt!!! And his paws were burning! I quickly got him into the snow and cleaned off his paws and avoided the sidewalk as we headed home. I called our local city department because a homeowner had put the ice melt down on a public walkway and later bought some boots for Piper.
Our city doesn't typically use salt because the temperatures are too cold (sand is much more common here) so I thought we were safe but found out the hard way we weren't.
I use Pawz, they're almost like a second skin and they help to keep the snow from clumping up between the pads and even better, they stay on good.