Active dog in Maine with cold feet - help!

I am new here - my husband & I recently adopted Mocha, a 2yr-old lab/retriever mix. She is such a good girl, I can't believe how lucky we are to have her! She is great in the house, but she LOVES to go outside and play. We live in a very cold area with lots of snow crusted with ice. My husband clears as much snow/ice as possible with the shovel in the yard, but Mocha still gets very cold feet. We've tried booties but she pulls them right off. I put bag balm on the pads of her feet before we go out but the cold still gets to her every time.

Any suggestions on what I could do to increase her outside playtime in the winter? While she seems content enough to be outside to go potty then come back in, she has tons of fun when we play outdoors. I feel guilty that she spends so much time inside every day. Any suggestions would be great!

I was going to suggest booties- which all my dogs wore in winter (Otherwise, they;d stop and not go too farm it was too cold, brrrr!!) Maybe you co uld have specialized booties made that will stay on?? I had some make make the ones we used, given how inadequate the ones at the Pet Store were.


We tended to have small dogs -except for our Siberian Husky who liked to be outside, booties or no booties - but the little ones did not mind being in. We had a huge basement and what was a bit more hair? My poodle never wanted to go outside too much in winter and I did not blame him. He did not mind booties would but would do his thing and walk maybe 2 blocks and look longingly back home so I gave him to him. If he did not want to freeze, that was fine with me - neither did I and we could play in the house. <g>

Good luck!!

I'd definately suggest getting booties. I bought a set on e bay from this lady in Manitoba that makes them herself, and they're really quite nice :D

If you do get booties (which I would recommend), Muttluks are the best kind... (And "fleece lined" are better for winter than the "all weather" ones... Jemma is wearing the all weather (yellow) and Boo is wearing the fleece lined (blue))

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h213/Princi9009/Jemma%20and%20Boo%20Jan%20Feb%202007/IMG_4254.jpg