Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My first set of dog booties. The reason I got them is because I took him to a dog park with deep gravel, and he tore up all his pads and was laid up for a week. Imagine a two-year-old border collie laid up. It means he was in serious pain! Reading all these reviews and talking to friends guided my expectations as well as how I tried out these booties. Also, I read reviews on booties for actual mushing dogs, and it sounds like: a) They can fall off if not strapped on tight; B) They do wear out, especially if you're running/walking your dog a lot. (One musher dude said he brings like 3,000 dog booties with him on the Iditarod). So if you're walking your dog in them every single day, expect them to wear out fairly quickly. C) I heard from a friend that her dogs' paws swelled up after wearing them, so I watched for this. D) Be sure you clip all your dogs nails, including dew claws! Or else they rub and hurt your dog (blood!) and tear through the booties So - got the booties - put em on the dog, and let him play around our house. Immediately one fell off. Called him back, strapped em on a bit tighter, pulling on them to make sure they wouldn't slide off, and set him free again. It's adorable the first time, by the way. The feel so weird to them, that they high-step around like a clydesdale, clopping around the house. We left them on him for ~30 minutes, throwing the ball around. They stayed on. He didn't mind them. No swollen paws. Next night: it snowed! So we let him out in the snow. He played for ~45 mins around our yard, bounding through the snow. Chased us on the sled, bounded after a tennis ball. Booties stayed on. No swelling. Next day: More snow! Took him outside and played dog snow frisbee for about an hour. Also played shovel-the-front-path-and-throw-all-the-snow-in-dog's-face. He loved it. Was adorable in his booties. None fell off. No swelling. Yesterday: Played some more just around the house. Noticed a little blood in the snow, and he kept lifting up his right paw as though to lick it. Got inside, checked the paw.... his dew claw was too long, and it rubbed and rubbed on the bootie till it bled. So we clipped all his nails short, including dew claw. Today: Still trying the booties out to make sure they don''t hurt him and we don't screw anything up. Took him on a 15 minute walk + 30 mins of snow frisbee. One bootie fell off because I did not strap it on tight enough. Put it back on, strapped tighter, oilá! No problems. At this point, I think they are great and do their job. I expect them to wear out if I take him walking in them every day. I expect them to get lost if I don't put them on tight enough. From the 10 or so negative or less-than-perfect reviews I have read, I think people are expecting too much. Dogs probably take a zillion more steps than we do per walk, hence, the booties wear out fast. LIke I said, Iditarod dude carries 3,000+ booties. Their claws need to be trimmed just like ours do so we don't poke holes in our socks or get black or bloody toe nails. And they gotta be strapped on tighter than you think. Then, START SMALL! 5 mins, ten mins... try em out to make sure you don't 'have any kinda user error. NOTE: I mis-read the questions and thought i had to order a quantity of TWO items in order to cover four paws. But ordering TWO gave me two sets of four. I think I will keep them, since I expect the first pair to wear out. Thank you My Busy Pet!