Dog Boots Made Simple...And CHEAP!
by Steve Wagle (Catfishsteve) - October 13, 2008
With the Nebraska grouse season open, the weather so beautiful, and the pheasant and quail season looming in about a month, the weather will soon change, and it will not be so beautiful. Soon we will hunt the cut crop fields and wicked CRP, surrounded with barbed wire, and later, near the end of the season, frozen, crusty snow and ice that comes our way after Christmas. With this in mind, I thought this would be a good time to offer a quick solution to the issue of protecting our hunting dog's feet.
If you hunt a lot, sooner or later you will tear your dog's feet up in a bad spot or nasty day. The feet are the first thing to go, even in a well conditioned dog. Guys that hunt a lot of sandhills, well, you're used to it and you're ready for it with dog boots and tubs of Vasoline which helps keep sand burrs out from between toes. I'm thinking here of guys more like me, who have a chance to put in a good hard weekend of hunting and suddenly we've got crusty snow or you're on wheat or corn stubble all day and your dog is facing not being able to answer the bell because of sore feet.
Sore feet come about from your dog frequently going over or through tough cover. It is worse if the cover, like CRP, is wet or frozen. In these conditions, the skin on the dog's feet gets waterlogged, swollen and soft. The cover , ice and/or rocks can tear up your dog's feet in half a day, even in a dog that is in good shape with good, hunt-hardened feet.
So, here is a quick, cheap fix to help keep your dog's feet protected and dry using a motorcycle tire inner tube and some electrical tape.
First, go out and buy a motorcycle tire inner tube. They come in different diameters. 2.5" is about the right size for most bird dog, unless you've got a real moose of a dog. Then the 2.75" size will fit just about anything that chases pheasants. If that won't fit your dog, then put a saddle on the darn thing and just ride him around the CRP!! He needs shoes, not boots, if he's that big! The inner tubes run about $15 and that is way cheaper than $50 or so for commercial dog boots that you might not even use once a year. One tube should give you enough material for a nice set of 4 boots with enough left over for some spares.
Go out and get your inner tube before the season and a roll of electrical tape and just throw them in your bag or truck. You may thank me later!!
You can actually prepare the boots for your dog ahead of time and I'll describe how you do that below.
It doesn't take long to do, especially if you have done it once and that is part of the beauty of this whole deal if you have to do it in a pinch.
 First measure your dog's foot from right below the "ankle" to about a half-inch longer than their toes. Cut your tube to that length. Cut one section of tube to that length for your first try at this and you can adjust the others as you make the other 3 boots from this inner tube. Remember, you can always trim it back if it's a hair too long, but if you've cut it short to start with, you're hosed! The boot should not go over the ankle at the top and should be just a bit over the toenails at the end.
Next, lay the cut section of inner tube down so you can  see it's natural curve, which we're going to match to the dog's foot. Makes sense right? We need to make two cuts at the top of our inner tube boot, one down on each side of the boot, to make this work really slick. We're going to make a boot with sort of a tongue at the top. Got it?
Cut down about an inch and half on either side of the boot, as shown. The cuts should be pretty much exactly right across from each other so you've made two equal flaps, front and back of your boot.
 The front of the boot will be along the side that curves in, just like the dog's foot curves in when it's on the ground, see? Now take and cut off the top half-inch of the flap at the top of the front of the boot, as shown.
The flap at the front of the boot is now about half as tall as the flap at the back of the boot. This ends the technical part of this operation. Now we just have to get the boot on the dog. Fit the boot up to that "ankle" joint there so that the long rear flap is just about all the way up to the dog's ankle in the back.
 Fold down the flap at the back of the boot, all the way down and run just about two wraps of electrical tape around the top of front flap (now very much the "tongue" of this boot) and the back of dog's foot. DO NOT pull the tape very tight! Just stretch the tape only a wee little bit. This is your dog's foot here, not a leaky engine hose! You don't want to cut off the circulation of blood in the foot.
Now, unfold the back of the boot back up to it's full height. Over the tape you just laid down around the back of the foot and starting at the very top of the back flap, run another turn or three of electrical tape around that back flap and over the front of the foot, as shown.
 That's it. Mission accomplished! Now you only have to do this three more times! This is a good, temporary dog boot that is easy to put on and take off and it keeps dog's foot protected from all the rough, nasty stuff while still allowing sand, snow and dirt to fall out at the front while he's hunting. A major complaint with some commercial dog boots is that they fill up with dirt, chaff and sand and rub the dog's foot anyway. With this design, that will not happen as the toe is open.
 As I said at the beginning, if you're hunting in deserts or sand hills all season, yes, go find a good pair of boots and use them on your dog. It's money well spent. But if you find yourself in nasty conditions where you need some dog boots, this is a cheap, simple fix that just may save your weekend of hunting by making sure that Duchess or Yogi or whoever doesn't get a flat tire and get put on the injured reserve list!
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