Many of the streets in my neighborhood were recently chip-sealed, which is cityspeak for "put a bunch of tar and gravel down and let people crunch around for a few weeks."  Because of that, I've had to get creative with my dog-walking route, to avoid having to cross any of the affected streets, which would almost certainly be bad for Jake's paws.  (And my front stairs, and my carpet, and my couch.)

As I looped around yet another unfamiliar block (much to Jake's consternation), it occured to me that just plain old hot cement isn't the best on puppy's paws, either.  A good rule of paw?  If you wouldn't want to walk barefoot on any given surface, your dog probably shouldn't, either.

Jake tends to make frequent "side trips" onto the terrace, so he's not walking on cement the entire time, but I've started checking his paws periodically - the pads are rough, the way they should be to provide traction, but if they start looking dry or cracked I'll need to look for a paw cream (apparently hand lotion made for humans makes the pads too soft and prone to injury).  Any recommendations out there?