Or anywhere people aren’t trying to help him so much.

Sparky doesn’t see the problem with icy paws.  When he goes to piss, if he gets an icy paw, he can hop back to the deck on three legs.  Since finding the right place to poop takes more time, he can just shit in the house.  What’s the problem?

I do not endorse his plan, but hate to see him with a tender paw.

I had failed at making effective snow boots. 

They were more like garter-boots because the top of each boot snapped into his Carhartt jacket.  Getting them on was a problem because dog feet are weird, and he could usually step out of them.

This morning, I tried snow slippers instead.  I cut down his garter-boots to remove the snaps and straps, to make them lighter and less bulky.  Here’s how much material was removed.

Fleece only surrounding the paw, with Velco to snug the slipper on to his leg. 

I cut up a work glove to get a patch of split cowhide for the sole of each slipper so he had some traction in the house.

Yeah, I know, I’m practically a cat lady by now, but I like projects and Sparky is very patient.

Sparky looked like one of them fancy dogs, but it didn’t go great when we got outside.

Sparky only had one slipper left when he got back to the deck, and I can’t tell if he is trying to gnaw off his leg or get the last slipper off.

He seems to have figured out how to pull on the Velcro to loosen it.

I’m going to keep working with the slipper, but neither of us are optimistic.