Skiing with the dog

It's a blast. Go for it, but be ready for the learning curve on the descents. Metal edges can slice deep. Some dogs take a while to figure out what turns are all about.

Use common sense about whether it's too deep and unconsolidated for your pup - continual deep postholing is pretty tough on any dog, but most will just keep following you anyway w/o apparent complaint. Over time, I've heard this can cause back trouble.

Definitely bring more water than you would for yourself and a way to let the dog drink it as noted above. Watch the amount of fod you give, or at least talk with your vet about your dog and his/her potential for bloat and how you should think about feeding while out on high exertion events like ski tours - we have a friend who lost her malamute to bloat despite being very close to a vet when it happened (not on a tour - she fed the dog after a long car drive and then the dog ran around a bit due to finally not being cooped up in the car). I've been told dogs are better than us at being able to go all day w/o much food as this is kind of what they grew up on evolutionarily, but have not really looked into whether this is true or just bogus folks wisdom. At minimum, a few small treats at breaks can keep the dog's focus on you instead of all the potential critters to go chase.

Spring snow was harder on one of my dogs' paws than on the other dogs' - we needed to do booties for her in spring and she did get used to it (needed to get really good booties and still lost them now and then).

My Husky-x , Telemark, loved snow as much as any creature could. It may have been partially genetic or maybe he was like most of us who get so much joy out of playing the snow. He was very photogenic, as most Huskys are, but all of my photos predate the digital camera age. I would often get requests from strangers who wanted to take pictures of him in the snow. For some reason they didn't want me in the shot,too. I really miss him and will probably get another snow dog some time in the future.

I cannot speak to skinning and skiing w/ loose dogs as I don't do that.

The hydration thing that was mentioned is very important. What we usually do is hydrate the dogs before a run. Ideally two hours before, with a slurry of baited water- water soaked in kibble or canned cat food or dog food- something appetizing since they are usually so amped up on adrenaline, they won't otherwise touch food/ water for two days while out.

Dehydration can be judged by how fast the nape of the neck springs back or by capillary refill after pressing on the gums w/ your finger. Do the control when the dog is hydrated to get a feel for how fast these should be in a hydrated dog.

As noted, booties fall off and get lost. We use the cheap ones found at, for instance, dogbooties.com. Most of our dogs had their dew claws removed a day after they were born. Some of the older dogs and rescues still have them. Booties will rub and irritate the dew claw and leg. Punchy snow can actually rip the claw. You can avoid this by taking one wrap of vetwrap around the leg and underneath the dew claw, then a couple wraps around the outside of both leg and claw. Then the bootie goes on over this. The velcro strap on cheap booties should be fastened as tight as you can get it. You cannot get them tight enough to cause harm. This is not the case with the expensive ruffwear booties because the strap goes through a nylon ring and then back on itself. You have to be careful with these.

Vetwrap is the sticky elastic tape that you wrap horse ankles with. Feed stores or ranch stores usually carry it. You don't often see it in pet stores. By wrapping the top of the bootie and the leg up to the knee, you can fend off ski cuts to the lower leg.

Bootie size is correct when the toes of the paw can splay out naturally when weighted.

Good luck!

Thanks again for all the support. Kelly did well but is still learning how to go down hill. Eventually, she followed the tracks on the steeper sections. What should I bring to keep her comfortable snow camping? Movie link for anyone interested. Thanks again.

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Very nice! Kelley looks like a natural in that video.

For camping, it depends. Mine are outside dogs 100%. They'd eat the cat if we brought them inside. Consequently, they are heavy coated and I just picket them out in the snow. Doesn't faze them a bit.

My lead dog does not run away so she gets to come in the tent and I usually let her curl up on my parka, although that is not necessary.

I'd suggest that for Kelley, in addition to sleeping on your parka, or her own cc foam pad, get a dog coat if she's an indoor dog at home. Get a real insulated dog coat, like from coldspot feeds in AK, or Becky Loveless in Marysville has an awesome dog coat for sale. She is at alpineoutfitters.net. Won't have to pay shipping from AK.

A friend I skied with up at Baker recently sprayed their dog with PAM cooking oil prior to the tour to keep snow from balling up on her fur. Seemed to work great.

My Husky doesn't have that problem but does chew the ice out from between his toes when it gets really cold. They really dig skiing as the other day I was going lift skiing and was loading the skis in the car. When I drove away without him, he spent 15 minutes howling like a wolf until my wife told him to come inside and "talk about Daddy". ???