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I know of an old fellow up here who use to own a greyhound track. He would mix boiled barley chop in his dog food to help harden his dogs feet. I started doing the same around 12 years ago and found that it made a difference. They still will get cut up and sore a bit, ecspecially in the counrty you're running but maybe not as bad. I put 1/2 cup a day in their food and seems to help.

i mix Iodine or bedidine with tuff foot 50/50 and start putting it on the dogs feet a month before season after every time i road them witch is about 2-3 times a week... then after every hard race during bear season, this will harden pads and help fix any cuts and hot spots and will even fix your own feet if u run your pads off!!! be shure that u have lots of in ya because it is 50% alcohol and will burn like hell if you got a blister...

that pic looks like lion country to me!! Get some smaller dogs and road the crap out of them in the off season. Ive had alot better luck with 35-45# dogs. They just seem to hold up better. And actually seem to live a longer useful life.

Funny you mentioned the size thing Ranger, out of the 4 dogs the only one who held up worth a darn is my little Buzz Anderson bred blue, by far the smallest dog I have, maybe 40lbs. He was beat up pretty good but still mobile and and refused to quit. And you are correct, it is lion country just not many lions is all, but it attracts me all the time cause not many guys are willing to hunt that area, Come to think of it maybe they are on to something Ken

I just assumed they were bigger dogs cause of the problems ur havin. That kind of country always attacts me. If you can catch lions in the roughest country u can find it makes better and harder dogs. If you are lookin for a tuff little pup I got two left. Good luck!

Ranger, I think we have a failure to communicate here, I was basicily in agreement with you as far as the size thing goes, but only in my particular case, I have seen some tough hard dogs of a larger size that did just fine, My dogs are pretty hard overall but now and again a person gets into a situation that either the dogs or himself arent quite hard enough for the task at hand, The pads are looking much better now so I figure to take them to a different easier spot this weekend, when they heal completely and they get toned back up guess where I will be going!! Take care Ken

Here is a quick pic of one my over sized lazy dogs on the run, not the same hunt but the same area