The Manual: Winterize Your Dog

I hike with my dog all the time, the longest hike he has endured is 43 miles from garden of the gods to lusk creek canyon in southern Illinois. And I gotta say I use mushers secret on his paws every hike hot or cold, I haven't used the boots on him yet, but I run with him a lot of asphalt and concrete so his pads are conditioned for rough terrain and he will still get nicks and cuts on his pads. He def needs a dog coat in the winter there is no shelter for him to get out of the cold, unless he goes in the tent and sleeps in the sleeping bag, but he likes to be by the fire too! So it's not bad to get some gear for your dog, especially their feet. Carrying a large dog back to the vehicle plus your other gear sounds dangerous and avoidable. If you love them you want them to be as comfortable as possible in the back woods. Your dog doesn't require much to be safe on the trail take care of them!

To meanolddog. We have made our dogs pets. Their pads aren't concrete hard and they don't have layers of fat to protect them from the cold. So we have a responsibility to protect them from harm.

Gee I wonder how we dogs survived before all this marketing of dog gear came about..We must have suffered horribly in our fur coats and concret hard pads...Those poor Coyotes and Wolves that run about the forest everyday must be suffering a horrible life maybe we should start a Foundation for Cold dogs....And those poor Country dogs whose masters leave them out in the Kennel all winter maybe we should get PETA after them and those Alaskan sled dogs as well..Well I guess it just goes to show, like Metro Humans, Metro Dogs have special needs too....Lols

Be careful skiing with dogs, have seen several sliced dog tendons from sharp ski edges. Not good.