Little Leather Boots for Rosie the Dog

Winters are cold here in Minneapolis. Cold and icy. When ice accumulates on outdoor stairs and walkways, it creates hazardous conditions. People often scatter rock salt and sand over these surfaces to melt the ice and add traction. Slipping on the ice is no joke. A bad fall can break bones.

My worst recent slip-and-fall happened a few years ago. I was walking slowly down the sidewalk and then suddenly I was falling hard on my back. Beyond a little bruising, I wasn't injured, but the laptop in my backpack was destroyed.

Dogs tend to be tougher than people. They can handle the cold alright but subzero temperatures can be a problem for them. And because they walk around on bare feet, they're exposed to surfaces covered in sharp rock salt crystals, which isn't ideal. Some dogs seem more tolerant of this salt than others.

@amberjyang has a little Bichon Frise named Rosie who definitely does not enjoy walking on salt in subzero temps. As soon as Rosie steps on salt, she immediately begins hopping and limping. @amberjyang got Rosie one set of boots from a popular pet store and they didn't work out at all. So I offered to make Rosie a new set of custom leather boots.

First, I traced Rosie's paws onto a piece of paper and used this as the basis for a simple boot pattern. The leather I used was some white top grain cowhide with a suede-like nubuck finish. The 5oz material was soft but very durable, so it seemed ideal for the project. After tracing the pattern on the leather, I cut everything out and punched all of the stitching holes necessary. Then I sewed the boots together with artificial sinew.

Here you can see the boots in varying stages of completion, along with the tools I used to complete the project. Below shows a closeup of one completed boot. As you can see, I used leather ties rather than trying to do anything fancy for the closures.

In order to secure the ends of the waxed nylon thread, I melted them with a lighter flame. This prevents knots from becoming undone over time, as can happen with nylon as it stretches.

I half expected Rosie to object when the time came to fit the boots to her tiny little paws. But she played along, allowing us to tie the footwear on. Initially, everything looked good. The boots fit and Rosie was able to walk around in them. Her walk was at first slow and clumsy, but it improved quickly as she got used to the new situation.

Here we are outside, about to test the boots. When we walked around the block, the front ones kept coming loose, though the back boots seemed perfectly secure. This was disappointing, because it isn't really practical to stop to re-tie a dog boot with your bare hands when it's freezing out. On the plus side, Rosie did walk through a patch of salt unscathed while wearing the boots. So we're calling it a partial success.

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