Do it at the trailhead, before the dog gets in the truck. Sit the dog down, take one foot at a time, and work through four things in the same order every time: between the toes, the pads, the nails and dewclaws, the webbing. Two minutes a foot. The whole point of a fixed order is that you stop relying on noticing something — you find it because you looked there.
Most of what you find is nothing. Grit, a burr, a little wear. But the two injuries that ruin a week — a migrating foxtail and a torn pad that got dirt ground into it — are both cheap to catch at the trailhead and expensive to catch at home on Sunday night.
Between the toes
Spread each pair of toes and look at the skin down in the crease, not just the fur on top. You're looking for packed grit, plant awns, sand clumped into a hard pellet, ice balls in winter, and any spot that looks wet, red, or swollen when the others don't.
Run a thumb through the fur between the pads. Long-coated dogs collect a startling amount in there, and matted fur between the pads holds debris against skin for miles. If a dog is licking one foot obsessively in the car, that foot gets looked at again under better light.
Foxtails are the one that can't wait. A foxtail — the barbed grass awn that shows up dry and pale in late spring and summer across most of the West and plenty of the East — is shaped to move one direction only. It works into the soft skin between the toes and keeps going. It does not come out on its own and it does not stay put. Left alone it travels into tissue and abscesses, and once it's under the skin it becomes a surgical problem rather than a tweezers problem.
If the awn is sitting on the surface or barely started, pull it straight out with tweezers, clean the spot, and watch it. If you see a small swollen bump between the toes with a weeping hole in the center, or a dog that will not stop chewing one specific spot, assume there's an awn under the skin and call your vet. Do not dig for it.
The pads
Look for three things.
- Cuts and punctures. Any split you can see into. Bleeding pads bleed a lot and look worse than they usually are, but depth matters more than blood.
- Abrasion. A pad that's been scoured by granite, sand, or hot asphalt goes rough, then raw. It looks like a scrape and it is one.
- The shiny pad. This is the one people miss. A pad that has worn down goes smooth and glossy, sometimes slightly pink or pale, and the normal rough texture disappears. That is the layer before a blister. A dog with shiny pads is not lame yet and will keep going if you let it. Don't. That's the day to turn around or carry the dog out.
Compare left to right. Asymmetry tells you more than any single foot does.
Nails and dewclaws
Check each nail for a crack running lengthwise, a split at the tip, or a nail that's been peeled back at the base. Dewclaws take the worst of it because they sit high, catch on brush and roots, and don't wear down against the ground. A partially torn dewclaw hanging by tissue is painful, bleeds, and needs a vet — not a home trim.
Nails that are too long change how a dog loads its toes and make a torn nail far more likely. Keep them short before hiking season, not after.
The webbing
Spread the toes wide and look at the skin stretched between them. Splits in the webbing happen on abrasive rock and in crusted snow, and they're easy to overlook because the skin closes when the foot relaxes. A webbing split is slow to heal because it reopens every time the dog spreads its toes.
Vet or home care
Clean and cover at home when the wound is superficial, bleeding stops with a few minutes of pressure, and the dog bears weight normally. Rinse with clean water, no hydrogen peroxide, dry it, cover with a nonstick pad and light vet wrap, and keep the dog off dirt and pavement for a couple of days. Change the dressing daily and look at it every time.
Call a vet for: a cut deep enough to see into or that gapes, bleeding that keeps restarting, anything embedded that doesn't slide straight out, a torn or hanging nail, a puncture wound of any depth, a swollen foot, a dog that won't put weight on the foot after resting, or heat and pus at any point in the days after. Foot punctures seal at the surface and infect underneath. That's why they get taken seriously.
Preventing it in the first place
Pads condition like any other tissue — gradually, over weeks of increasing mileage on the surface you actually hike. A dog conditioned on grass has soft pads on granite. Build up.
Avoid midday heat on rock, sand, and asphalt. If the back of your hand can't stay on the surface for seven seconds, it will cook a pad. Hike early, hike late, or stay on dirt and shade.
Boots work, with a real caveat: boots need their own break-in period, for the dog and for the fit. A dog put in boots for the first time on a hard 10-mile day will either walk strangely and strain something, or lose a boot at mile three and finish barefoot on the one surface you bought boots for. Fit them at home, walk short distances, and check for rub points at the top of the boot and between the toes.
Trim the fur between the pads flush with the pad surface before a trip. Less to catch, less to hold grit.
Gear that makes the check easier
None of this needs much. Good light, tweezers, a small first aid kit with nonstick pads and vet wrap, and water to rinse with. Our Canteen Trail Bottle puts water and a fold-out trough in one hand, which means you can flush a foot at the trailhead without opening a pack — though it holds a trail-day volume, not enough to be your only water source on a long, hot route.
If your dog carries its own kit, a vest-style harness with webbing panels lets the first aid pouch ride on the dog instead of your shoulders — see the Tactical & Trail collection for harnesses and leads, or more Field Guide articles for hot-weather and conditioning topics. The paw check itself is free. It just has to happen every time.