THE BEAR'S PAUSE:
Being FINALLY able to cross country ski again, I was in heaven today... not too cold, and the skiing was great... at least up to the lake. Poor Bear has problems with ice clinging between his toes. He's usually good until we get up to Cranberry Lake, and once I see him pulling the ice from his paws, I yell at him, "Don't chew! Get a stick!" If he keeps a stick in his mouth then he can't get his paws wet chewing out the ice, which of course makes matters worse. So today was no different in that way.
To get the dogs to hurry home I promise dog bones. BUT, Bear kept pausing on the path, making it difficult for me to ski without skiing into him. I'd have to part my skis and go over him. So I'd yell, "Watch out!" as soon as he'd pause to clean the ice from between his toes. This happens over and over when we're walking or I'm skiing and I try to him moving.
Then, when the last stretch was all downhill, and he was way ahead, he settled at the bottom of the hill to chew out the ice. I yelled, and yelled, but he continued to chew until before he knew it I had skied over him, my skis astride, only, OOPS, I fell into the fluffy snow, which actually felt great... like falling back into feathers. It was a good thing I hadn't fallen ON Bear, but he seemed concerned more about me. While in the process of getting up to standing position again, I find myself asking him, "Why do you have to stay on the trail--the snow isn't that deep?"
He just licked my face, and then went back to de-icing his paws.
Being FINALLY able to cross country ski again, I was in heaven today... not too cold, and the skiing was great... at least up to the lake. Poor Bear has problems with ice clinging between his toes. He's usually good until we get up to Cranberry Lake, and once I see him pulling the ice from his paws, I yell at him, "Don't chew! Get a stick!" If he keeps a stick in his mouth then he can't get his paws wet chewing out the ice, which of course makes matters worse. So today was no different in that way.
To get the dogs to hurry home I promise dog bones. BUT, Bear kept pausing on the path, making it difficult for me to ski without skiing into him. I'd have to part my skis and go over him. So I'd yell, "Watch out!" as soon as he'd pause to clean the ice from between his toes. This happens over and over when we're walking or I'm skiing and I try to him moving.
Then, when the last stretch was all downhill, and he was way ahead, he settled at the bottom of the hill to chew out the ice. I yelled, and yelled, but he continued to chew until before he knew it I had skied over him, my skis astride, only, OOPS, I fell into the fluffy snow, which actually felt great... like falling back into feathers. It was a good thing I hadn't fallen ON Bear, but he seemed concerned more about me. While in the process of getting up to standing position again, I find myself asking him, "Why do you have to stay on the trail--the snow isn't that deep?"
He just licked my face, and then went back to de-icing his paws.
posted by Cranberry Jo @ 1/11/2009 07:17:00 PM
2 Comments:
At 11:48 PM,
Anonymous said…
A neighbor was recently talking to me about her dog's paws getting all caked with snow and ice and we were trying to figure a way to prevent it (since her dog doesn't do booties either), so I did a tiny bit of online research. One suggestion is to trim the hair of the paws so that it is just flush with the pawpads (if it's cut too short the feet won't be adequately protected from the cold). You can then apply a small amount of olive oil to the bottoms of the paws to help prevent ice caking. There is also some sort of spray-on paw pad deicer stuff that has several kinds of nontoxic stuff (including sunflower oil and lanolin) that can be applied to feet and underbelly to prevent iceballs from forming.
At 3:16 PM,
Cranberry Jo said…
Because of Bear's temperament it would be impossible for me to trim his paws. He doesn't trust me ever since a bad summer of fleas that led to mange before we got it under control... and he blamed ME for the itching-as if I caused it.
Next winter I'll try that nontoxic spray.
He gets groomed three times a year, removing most of his curly locks and hair around and between his toes. He's due this week [last week of March]. [I'm really late at replying to the comments. BTW Thanks for the comments.
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