April 18, 2023 • 12 mins
The most important way I’ve kept my house clean (with multiple dogs) is by cleaning my dog’s paws after each walk.
While it may sound like a lot of work, it takes just a couple of minutes and can significantly reduce the amount of dirt, germs, and bacteria that enter your home!
Plus, by handling your dog’s paws after each walk you get the chance to check for any issues like thorns, cracking, or other paw concerns.
Here’s what we will cover in this video:
-Why cleaning your dog’s paws is important
-5 ways to clean your dog’s paws
-Extra paw care ideas & tips
Here are 5 ways to clean a dog’s paws:
-MudBuster
-A wet rag with soap
-Dog cleaning wipes
-Teaching your dog to wipe paws
-Using the bath (not a full bath)
My recommendation is to read the article, try out different methods with your dog and see what works best. Remember to raise, train, and love the individual dog in front of you. Every dog is unique!
Our dogs' paws can get seriously gross after walks, hiking, and exploring the world around them.
By washing your dog’s paws you can reduce dirt in your home, protect their paws, and have an overall happier pup (and home).
Here’s a recap of 5 ways to clean your dog’s paws:
-A wet rag with soap
-Dog cleaning wipes
-Teaching your dog to wipe paws
-Using the bath (not a full bath)
By far, the most effective way is the MudBuster. Be sure to check it out here!
And don’t forget to proactively moisturize and protect your dog’s paws with Butter Up. Shop here!
Do you clean your dog’s paws after walks? How do you do it? Tell us in the comments below.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pup furred.
Hello, pup parents and welcome to today's episode of the
perfect pup podcast. My name is Devin in this
episode. We are going to dive into all
things. Cleaning your dog's Paws, we're
going to talk about why it's important.
(00:21):
I'm going to give you five different ways to do it, one of
which is by far the best way. And I'm also going to give you a
special tip for helping your dog.
Get smooth Soft Paws. So, let's get right into it.
You might be thinking, well, my dog just goes out into the
backyard. Yard, go to the bathroom or, you
know, we live in a clean area and that's all well and good.
(00:42):
But the truth is your dog is likely stepping in things that
you probably don't want in your house.
There's dirt, there's Grime, there's poop.
There's sometimes, we don't evenwant to know what it is, and we
don't want our dogs bringing that into our home.
I talked a lot about different ways to keep your house clean.
We've talked about the debate ofshould you let your dog sleep in
(01:03):
your bed? And of course some of these
different factors are going to How frequently you should clean
your dog's Paws, but especially if they're going on to any of
your furniture. You're going to do it relatively
frequently. Some people will clean their
dog's Paws. After every walk, sometimes
people will clean it. Just if it looks dirty or if
it's muddy and others will cleanit specifically in the
(01:23):
springtime and we're going to talk about why that is.
So I want to give you three reasons first, as to why you
should clean your dog's Paws. The first one we kind of talked
about is cleanliness, there was actually a study done recently
and York City, which is where I live.
And I recognize that New York City is notoriously much dirtier
(01:44):
than the vast majority of places, but I think the
information found is still relevant for everybody, but they
conducted a study. They were basically trying to
determine how much fecal matter or poop was ending up in number
one. The main commonplaces of
buildings on sidewalks and on the soles of people's shoes.
(02:05):
And basically what they found isthat Sidewalks had the highest
concentration, common areas of buildings.
Had almost similarly, High concentration and The Souls of
people shoes. Had a disgustingly high amount
of poop on them as well. Your dog doesn't wear shoes or
likely doesn't wear shoes. I know a lot of people will use
dog booties or shoes for their dogs, on every walk.
(02:28):
But the vast majority of people don't.
So when you come in and you takeyour shoes off and you have your
guests, remove their shoes to come into your home, possibly,
what about? R dog.
If you're tracking things like dirt, and potentially fecal
matter. And of course, your dog is as
well. Another reason it's important to
clean your dog's Paws is allergies both for you and your
(02:50):
dog, dogs can get seasonal and spring allergies just like we
can. And often times you'll see that
as them pitching a lot licking their paws, sneezing those types
of things and by cleaning your dog's Paws frequently, you
reduce the amount of pollen And dander and other allergens that
are being tracked into your homewhich is not only going to help
(03:11):
your dog's potential skin allergies.
But even yours because if you have spring allergies, your dog
tracks, those allergens in, they're going to have end up in
your home and eventually in yournose, making you sneeze and feel
miserable, the third reason. And this might be the most
important actually is to just check the status of your dog's
(03:32):
Paws. We look at our dog's a lot, we
see them were petting them. We have the opportunity to To
handle them. Give them belly rubs and kind of
no check for abnormalities. See if anything is changing your
different. But how often are you?
Looking at the bottom of your dog's paws, at their paw pads,
probably not very frequently. So by washing your dog's Paws,
you have the opportunity to handle their paws.
(03:53):
Check their paw pads for things like cracking even potentially
bleeding. Maybe they got a thorn stuck in
there. Whatever it might be.
It gives you a chance to take inventory of your dog's paw pad
health. So now that we know why I'm
going. If you five reasons and there's
one that is by far the best. I'm going to save it for last.
The first one is using like a wet rag with soap.
(04:15):
I mean, this is pretty self-explanatory.
We have been cleaning things with wet Rags, with soap, since
like, the dawn of wet rags and while it is efficient way to get
into the nooks and crannies of your dog's Paws.
You'll end up having a lot of dirty towels and dirty rags and
just never really loved this route.
The second way is to use dog, cleaning wipes.
(04:37):
Oops, they are sold and the reason that they're sold dog
cleaning wipes and not just normal cleaning wipes and why
you shouldn't use those is that these dog cleaning wipes?
Have a different pH for our dog's skin and pause and pads.
Specifically just like you shouldn't use normal shampoo on
your dog. You don't want to use normal
(04:58):
wipes on your dog. So, dog, cleaning wipes can be a
great option, especially for on-the-go.
Keeping them in a backpack or ifyou're traveling the It can be
pretty expensive especially if you're using them frequent.
Another way you can do this. This is a more fun way although
a not as efficient way would be to teach your dog to wipe their
paws. This is great for getting off,
(05:18):
just general dirt and grime. It's not really good for
thorough, deep cleaning. It's, you know, if you have a
nice, welcome mat is probably fun to teach your dog to wipe
their paws on that before they come in.
But if your dog is really muddy or what, you know, they have
really dirty paws, this isn't going to be the best thing and
if you want to Learn how to teach your dog to wipe their
paws. I'll add a link in the
(05:39):
description to go. Check out our trick training
course that's taught by Amber a car and she provides some
awesome Insight how to teach this trick as well as 19 other
tricks. So be sure to check that out.
Another way you can clean your dog's paws.
As what we call, a paw bath, basically seal up your bathtub,
and fill it up with just like aninch or two of water.
(06:00):
You really don't need much put in a tiny splash of dog shampoo,
or you can put in a little sudsyin there, which is our shampoo.
Our and just kind of get it to have some Bubbles and then just
have your dog walk around on it.You don't want them to lay down
because then you're having to give more of a full bath, but
just getting their paws wet. And then you can drive there,
you can drain the bath tub dry, their paws and you'll have a
(06:23):
much cleaner pie. You can also do this easily with
a showerhead if you have the wand attachment, it's really
easy to just get your dog's Pawswet and not the rest of their
body. So again, just kind of getting
it wet a little soapy and rinsing it off.
Off and dry but by far the best way and the easiest way is to
use a mud Buster and for this next section if you're
(06:44):
listening, you're just going to hear the audio.
But if you're watching, you're going to see a video right now
of me, showing how to use the mud Buster.
All right, I'm going to show youhow to clean your dog's Paws
with the mud Buster. It's just this little
cylindrical thing that has soft,kind of silicone like brush
bristles on the inside that, help get dirt and grime and mud
(07:06):
off your dog's paws. So, for the back Paws, you can
just kind of lift straight back and you're just dipping it in
and kind of giving it a little bit of a scrape on those
bristles. You can kind of twist it around.
I like to have a little towel here to just kind of dry them
off so that they're not trackingwater inside.
And then for the front paws, thekey is you want to go just kind
(07:27):
of straight up and back and not out if you out it's going to
make them off balance. So again you're just lifting
straight up. Dipping.
The Paw it's not always perfect.It's hard to help a dog stay
balanced with one pot and then you're just gonna dry it off.
Of course if your dog hasn't done this before, you want to
take it slowly, give them treats, make sure that they
(07:49):
aren't feeling nervous or overwhelmed by the process, but
it's super easy. And then all you have to do with
the water is just dump it out and it's a lot easier cleanup
than using something like a rag or something similar like that
without No doubt the mud Buster,it's the easiest way.
I wash my dog's Paws after everysingle walk.
Again, I live in New York. It's gross.
(08:11):
They walk in all kinds of nastiness that I don't want in
my home. So, every walk we come home, we
use the mud Buster and dry theirpaws.
And I'll tell you what, it definitely reduces the amount of
dirt and grime that ends up in our home.
So those are five good ways to clean your dog's Paws and
truthfully, I think if you're going to go for one the mud
Buster man it is a lifesaver. I love That tool, it's so
(08:34):
useful. I use it every single day but
now let's shift gears and talk about Paw care because at the
end of the day our dog's Paws, they do take a beating.
So there's a few things that youcan do to make sure that your
dog's paw pads. In their paws, generally are
healthy. The first thing would be
frequent nail trimmings. Whether you have a groomer do
that, or you do it on your own. It's important to keep your dogs
(08:55):
nails trimmed. Because if not, they can
actually curl in and grow into your dog's Paws, and into the
pads. And it's Extremely painful.
And can it can make it hard for your dog to walk.
So make sure that your dog has their nails trimmed frequently.
Another thing to think about with your dog's paw pads is
being careful in extreme weather.
So that's extreme cold and extreme heat and extreme cold
(09:19):
things like ice and snow. It can be tough on your dog's
paw pads. But more specifically a lot of
ice melt that people will use inthe winter can actually have
really damaging effects to your dog's Paws and cause them pain
and cracking. So, I think it's really
important when it's been snowy. If there's ice, melt out to make
sure that you give your dog's Paws a good cleaning.
(09:41):
And in the summer, the heat, if it's roughly 80 degrees outside,
that means the asphalt or pavement or concrete can be up
to 20 to 35 40 degrees hotter. So you're talking 102 like 120
degrees. And again, your dog may not have
shoes on and so, you need to be cognizant of that and not go
(10:02):
walking in the hottest parts of the day.
A day to make sure it's safe foryour dog.
You can put the back of your hand on the concrete for 7
seconds and if it's too hot for the back of your hand, it's
definitely too hot for your dog's Paws, Of course, in this
instance. And in the winter instance, you
can also use dog boots, or dog shoes.
A lot of people do this. My dogs personally, don't really
like them. And I've never used them, but
(10:24):
many people do like them and thekind of last tip and really, I
think it's this kind of secret weapon to making sure your dog
has nice and soft and smooth. Ads is to use a moisturizing and
conditioning, paw bomb at pugford.
We offer butter up. Butter up is phenomenal.
It is a all natural, moisturizing and conditioning.
(10:47):
Paul balm for your dog's Paws. You can also use it on their
nose. If they get dry nose, you can
use it where they get hot spots,it has a lot of different
things. And what I love the most about
butter up is that it's just a Twist up applicator.
So you're not having to dip yourhand in it and the Put on your
dog's Paws, you just twist it up, put it on your dog's Paws,
you can rub it in a little bit, but it just is going to soak in,
(11:10):
and it's so much less messy. So this is a quick episode on
how to clean your dog's Paws. Why you should do it and how to
take care of your dog's Paws. Many people wonder how can I
support this podcast? Or if you do like it you might
be thinking, how do I spread theword or help this podcast get
more recognition? First off, I appreciate all my
listeners. I truly truly do the top few
(11:31):
ways to pursue Port this podcast.
If you Like to would be to follow or subscribe on places
like Spotify, YouTube Apple podcast, on Apple podcast.
Leaving reviews is extremely helpful.
It is a huge indicator for helping the podcast platform,
serve this podcast to other parents, and of course, sending
(11:52):
episodes to friends and the last.
But definitely not. The least, is supporting pup
food products. I work for Pub furred and so
therefore by you supporting buffered products use of port,
Art this podcast and even outside of supporting this
podcast, check out pub food products.
There are some amazing treats training tools courses, and of
(12:14):
course, even grooming products like we talked about.
So, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you learned some things about cleaning, your dog's Paws.
And other than that, we'll catchyou on the next episode.
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pup furred.
Hello, pup parents and welcome to today's episode of the
perfect pup podcast. My name is Devin in this
episode. We are going to dive into all
things. Cleaning your dog's Paws, we're
going to talk about why it's important.
(00:21):
I'm going to give you five different ways to do it, one of
which is by far the best way. And I'm also going to give you a
special tip for helping your dog.
Get smooth Soft Paws. So, let's get right into it.
You might be thinking, well, my dog just goes out into the
backyard. Yard, go to the bathroom or, you
know, we live in a clean area and that's all well and good.
(00:42):
But the truth is your dog is likely stepping in things that
you probably don't want in your house.
There's dirt, there's Grime, there's poop.
There's sometimes, we don't evenwant to know what it is, and we
don't want our dogs bringing that into our home.
I talked a lot about different ways to keep your house clean.
We've talked about the debate ofshould you let your dog sleep in
(01:03):
your bed? And of course some of these
different factors are going to How frequently you should clean
your dog's Paws, but especially if they're going on to any of
your furniture. You're going to do it relatively
frequently. Some people will clean their
dog's Paws. After every walk, sometimes
people will clean it. Just if it looks dirty or if
it's muddy and others will cleanit specifically in the
(01:23):
springtime and we're going to talk about why that is.
So I want to give you three reasons first, as to why you
should clean your dog's Paws. The first one we kind of talked
about is cleanliness, there was actually a study done recently
and York City, which is where I live.
And I recognize that New York City is notoriously much dirtier
(01:44):
than the vast majority of places, but I think the
information found is still relevant for everybody, but they
conducted a study. They were basically trying to
determine how much fecal matter or poop was ending up in number
one. The main commonplaces of
buildings on sidewalks and on the soles of people's shoes.
(02:05):
And basically what they found isthat Sidewalks had the highest
concentration, common areas of buildings.
Had almost similarly, High concentration and The Souls of
people shoes. Had a disgustingly high amount
of poop on them as well. Your dog doesn't wear shoes or
likely doesn't wear shoes. I know a lot of people will use
dog booties or shoes for their dogs, on every walk.
(02:28):
But the vast majority of people don't.
So when you come in and you takeyour shoes off and you have your
guests, remove their shoes to come into your home, possibly,
what about? R dog.
If you're tracking things like dirt, and potentially fecal
matter. And of course, your dog is as
well. Another reason it's important to
clean your dog's Paws is allergies both for you and your
(02:50):
dog, dogs can get seasonal and spring allergies just like we
can. And often times you'll see that
as them pitching a lot licking their paws, sneezing those types
of things and by cleaning your dog's Paws frequently, you
reduce the amount of pollen And dander and other allergens that
are being tracked into your homewhich is not only going to help
(03:11):
your dog's potential skin allergies.
But even yours because if you have spring allergies, your dog
tracks, those allergens in, they're going to have end up in
your home and eventually in yournose, making you sneeze and feel
miserable, the third reason. And this might be the most
important actually is to just check the status of your dog's
(03:32):
Paws. We look at our dog's a lot, we
see them were petting them. We have the opportunity to To
handle them. Give them belly rubs and kind of
no check for abnormalities. See if anything is changing your
different. But how often are you?
Looking at the bottom of your dog's paws, at their paw pads,
probably not very frequently. So by washing your dog's Paws,
you have the opportunity to handle their paws.
(03:53):
Check their paw pads for things like cracking even potentially
bleeding. Maybe they got a thorn stuck in
there. Whatever it might be.
It gives you a chance to take inventory of your dog's paw pad
health. So now that we know why I'm
going. If you five reasons and there's
one that is by far the best. I'm going to save it for last.
The first one is using like a wet rag with soap.
(04:15):
I mean, this is pretty self-explanatory.
We have been cleaning things with wet Rags, with soap, since
like, the dawn of wet rags and while it is efficient way to get
into the nooks and crannies of your dog's Paws.
You'll end up having a lot of dirty towels and dirty rags and
just never really loved this route.
The second way is to use dog, cleaning wipes.
(04:37):
Oops, they are sold and the reason that they're sold dog
cleaning wipes and not just normal cleaning wipes and why
you shouldn't use those is that these dog cleaning wipes?
Have a different pH for our dog's skin and pause and pads.
Specifically just like you shouldn't use normal shampoo on
your dog. You don't want to use normal
(04:58):
wipes on your dog. So, dog, cleaning wipes can be a
great option, especially for on-the-go.
Keeping them in a backpack or ifyou're traveling the It can be
pretty expensive especially if you're using them frequent.
Another way you can do this. This is a more fun way although
a not as efficient way would be to teach your dog to wipe their
paws. This is great for getting off,
(05:18):
just general dirt and grime. It's not really good for
thorough, deep cleaning. It's, you know, if you have a
nice, welcome mat is probably fun to teach your dog to wipe
their paws on that before they come in.
But if your dog is really muddy or what, you know, they have
really dirty paws, this isn't going to be the best thing and
if you want to Learn how to teach your dog to wipe their
paws. I'll add a link in the
(05:39):
description to go. Check out our trick training
course that's taught by Amber a car and she provides some
awesome Insight how to teach this trick as well as 19 other
tricks. So be sure to check that out.
Another way you can clean your dog's paws.
As what we call, a paw bath, basically seal up your bathtub,
and fill it up with just like aninch or two of water.
(06:00):
You really don't need much put in a tiny splash of dog shampoo,
or you can put in a little sudsyin there, which is our shampoo.
Our and just kind of get it to have some Bubbles and then just
have your dog walk around on it.You don't want them to lay down
because then you're having to give more of a full bath, but
just getting their paws wet. And then you can drive there,
you can drain the bath tub dry, their paws and you'll have a
(06:23):
much cleaner pie. You can also do this easily with
a showerhead if you have the wand attachment, it's really
easy to just get your dog's Pawswet and not the rest of their
body. So again, just kind of getting
it wet a little soapy and rinsing it off.
Off and dry but by far the best way and the easiest way is to
use a mud Buster and for this next section if you're
(06:44):
listening, you're just going to hear the audio.
But if you're watching, you're going to see a video right now
of me, showing how to use the mud Buster.
All right, I'm going to show youhow to clean your dog's Paws
with the mud Buster. It's just this little
cylindrical thing that has soft,kind of silicone like brush
bristles on the inside that, help get dirt and grime and mud
(07:06):
off your dog's paws. So, for the back Paws, you can
just kind of lift straight back and you're just dipping it in
and kind of giving it a little bit of a scrape on those
bristles. You can kind of twist it around.
I like to have a little towel here to just kind of dry them
off so that they're not trackingwater inside.
And then for the front paws, thekey is you want to go just kind
(07:27):
of straight up and back and not out if you out it's going to
make them off balance. So again you're just lifting
straight up. Dipping.
The Paw it's not always perfect.It's hard to help a dog stay
balanced with one pot and then you're just gonna dry it off.
Of course if your dog hasn't done this before, you want to
take it slowly, give them treats, make sure that they
(07:49):
aren't feeling nervous or overwhelmed by the process, but
it's super easy. And then all you have to do with
the water is just dump it out and it's a lot easier cleanup
than using something like a rag or something similar like that
without No doubt the mud Buster,it's the easiest way.
I wash my dog's Paws after everysingle walk.
Again, I live in New York. It's gross.
(08:11):
They walk in all kinds of nastiness that I don't want in
my home. So, every walk we come home, we
use the mud Buster and dry theirpaws.
And I'll tell you what, it definitely reduces the amount of
dirt and grime that ends up in our home.
So those are five good ways to clean your dog's Paws and
truthfully, I think if you're going to go for one the mud
Buster man it is a lifesaver. I love That tool, it's so
(08:34):
useful. I use it every single day but
now let's shift gears and talk about Paw care because at the
end of the day our dog's Paws, they do take a beating.
So there's a few things that youcan do to make sure that your
dog's paw pads. In their paws, generally are
healthy. The first thing would be
frequent nail trimmings. Whether you have a groomer do
that, or you do it on your own. It's important to keep your dogs
(08:55):
nails trimmed. Because if not, they can
actually curl in and grow into your dog's Paws, and into the
pads. And it's Extremely painful.
And can it can make it hard for your dog to walk.
So make sure that your dog has their nails trimmed frequently.
Another thing to think about with your dog's paw pads is
being careful in extreme weather.
So that's extreme cold and extreme heat and extreme cold
(09:19):
things like ice and snow. It can be tough on your dog's
paw pads. But more specifically a lot of
ice melt that people will use inthe winter can actually have
really damaging effects to your dog's Paws and cause them pain
and cracking. So, I think it's really
important when it's been snowy. If there's ice, melt out to make
sure that you give your dog's Paws a good cleaning.
(09:41):
And in the summer, the heat, if it's roughly 80 degrees outside,
that means the asphalt or pavement or concrete can be up
to 20 to 35 40 degrees hotter. So you're talking 102 like 120
degrees. And again, your dog may not have
shoes on and so, you need to be cognizant of that and not go
(10:02):
walking in the hottest parts of the day.
A day to make sure it's safe foryour dog.
You can put the back of your hand on the concrete for 7
seconds and if it's too hot for the back of your hand, it's
definitely too hot for your dog's Paws, Of course, in this
instance. And in the winter instance, you
can also use dog boots, or dog shoes.
A lot of people do this. My dogs personally, don't really
like them. And I've never used them, but
(10:24):
many people do like them and thekind of last tip and really, I
think it's this kind of secret weapon to making sure your dog
has nice and soft and smooth. Ads is to use a moisturizing and
conditioning, paw bomb at pugford.
We offer butter up. Butter up is phenomenal.
It is a all natural, moisturizing and conditioning.
(10:47):
Paul balm for your dog's Paws. You can also use it on their
nose. If they get dry nose, you can
use it where they get hot spots,it has a lot of different
things. And what I love the most about
butter up is that it's just a Twist up applicator.
So you're not having to dip yourhand in it and the Put on your
dog's Paws, you just twist it up, put it on your dog's Paws,
you can rub it in a little bit, but it just is going to soak in,
(11:10):
and it's so much less messy. So this is a quick episode on
how to clean your dog's Paws. Why you should do it and how to
take care of your dog's Paws. Many people wonder how can I
support this podcast? Or if you do like it you might
be thinking, how do I spread theword or help this podcast get
more recognition? First off, I appreciate all my
listeners. I truly truly do the top few
(11:31):
ways to pursue Port this podcast.
If you Like to would be to follow or subscribe on places
like Spotify, YouTube Apple podcast, on Apple podcast.
Leaving reviews is extremely helpful.
It is a huge indicator for helping the podcast platform,
serve this podcast to other parents, and of course, sending
(11:52):
episodes to friends and the last.
But definitely not. The least, is supporting pup
food products. I work for Pub furred and so
therefore by you supporting buffered products use of port,
Art this podcast and even outside of supporting this
podcast, check out pub food products.
There are some amazing treats training tools courses, and of
(12:14):
course, even grooming products like we talked about.
So, I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you learned some things about cleaning, your dog's Paws.
And other than that, we'll catchyou on the next episode.
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