I was out walking by the riverbank the other day and I met a man walking his 2 golden retrievers. During the course of our conversation he mentioned that I should trim / cut the hair between Jasper's toes / paw pads in the winter so that snow and mud don't build-up and hurt him. Apparently he does this with his golden retrievers as, according to him, there's a risk that the build-up can eventually lead to broken toes! I'd never heard of this before and, seeing that wolves have very well-furred, webbed feet for traversing snowy terrain, I was slightly skeptical. Has anyone else heard about this or perhaps follows this practice? I did a quick Google search and found some rather interesting sites, including this slightly

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... lolz

I cut the hair between the toes of our Lhasa Apsos otherwise it will become knotted and uncomfortable.
When we lived in Finland the Apso's did suffer with the snow between the toes, I have never heard of it leading to broken toes though, but it can be uncomfortable for the long haired breeds, even the Deerhounds didn't have the right coat for tramping through deep snow.
We never had a problem with the Huskies, Mals or Tams and they all lived outside.

Obviously that link is a skit as the term mush is not used as it says. i.e. men mush poodles!! Mush is a term used in films only and those who dont know any better. Musher is the driver of the sled team.

I trim the hair between Wyatt's paws, however for different reasons. We have entirely hardwood/tile floors in our home, and it gives him much surer footing around the house. Especially as they get bigger, it's very bad for their joints to slip and overextend or fall. I just use a cheap little beard trimmer, works great!
Mike

I don't trim the hair between their paws. There is a big difference in fur between a golden retriever and a tamaskan. Some dogs have such "soft" fur that everything gets stuck in it, like mud and snow. I never had any problems with my current dogs, so I don't cut it. But my former Belgium Shepherd did have that problem, mostly in winters, so I cut away just a little bit and put vaseline between the paws for the rest.

Makes it hard for snow and ice to get stuck between the paws.