Ever wondered how ToeGrips got started? Integrative veterinarian Dr. Julie Buzby tells the captivating and heartwarming story of how she was first introduced to the idea of ToeGrips and experienced the miraculous way they can improve mobility for senior dogs.
I hope you don’t mind that this blog departs from our usual educational content to share a story that is near and dear to my heart. I want to tell you the backstory of how Dr. Buzby’s ToeGrips® went from one man’s creative solution for his slipping dog to a product that has bettered the lives of hundreds of thousands of dogs (and their people) across the globe.
Where it all started
I still vividly remember the day that the trajectory of my life was changed forever. It was December 2011, and I was sipping hot cocoa and chatting with clients at my integrative medicine table at our veterinary clinic’s annual open house. Naturally at this sort of open house, pets are welcome.
I was excited to see Morgan, one of our veterinary technician’s dogs, headed my way across the parking lot. She was sporting a festive bandana as she proudly trotted towards me. Accompanying her was Todd, the technician’s husband. He is the closest thing I’ll ever meet to Leonardo da Vinci—an absolutely brilliant mind. Todd smiled and said, “Look what I did for Morgan,” as he pointed to her feet.
I took one look at her toenails and goosebumps covered my arms. Todd had concocted simple little rubber rings for Morgan’s nails. Immediately I understood these would give her more traction. I was awestruck! A dog’s natural mechanism for traction is to flex the paws and engage the nails, much like soccer cleats digging into the ground. Yet never before had a practical, tangible solution capitalized on traction from the standpoint of the dog’s toenails.
A solution to the slipping dog dilemma
We had moved to South Carolina in 2008, and from that time forward, my practice was limited to chiropractic and acupuncture in dogs. Thus, my patients were mostly senior dogs with mobility challenges. Slipping and struggling on hard surface floors was a big problem for many of my patients. I knew of dozens of different types of dog socks and booties on the market to address these issues. But honestly, I felt they were impractical and unnatural. So up to this point, I had been recommending throw rugs and carpet runners to keep my grey muzzled friends from slipping.
As I looked at these things on Morgan’s toes, my mind was flooded with patients that I knew could benefit from this idea. With unbridled enthusiasm, I begged Todd, “Would you please help me help other senior dogs?” He graciously agreed to meet me at my house the following Saturday.
The preparation phase
Wasting no time, I called one of my clients on the way home to arrange for Hope, her 15-year-old Shepherd mix, to come to my home that next Saturday. In my excitement, I forgot to tell her owner, Kim, why she was coming. I just said I needed Hope to be there. We laughed about this later because Kim sweetly agreed, having no idea what what she was getting herself into. I also arranged for Chandler, a 16-year-old German Shepherd, to be fitted for the devices. He was already scheduled for an acupuncture appointment that day at my house, so the timing was perfect.
In my enthusiasm, I began texting Todd multiple times a day with idea names for the product. I was in my glory. More than once, I had to jump out of the shower and jot down notes on a soggy, wet piece of paper. At this point, I just wanted to help Todd do the “barn raising.” I wanted to support him any way possible in getting this idea into the marketplace for slipping dogs.
Chandler tries the ToeGrips protoype
Saturday came around, and Todd and his wife came at the scheduled time. I introduced Chandler’s owners to Todd, and he began to put on the early prototypes. I really didn’t know what to expect. As I was watching Todd, he was struggling to get them on the nails. They didn’t slide on easily because they were designed to fit snugly and stay on through a natural friction seal. In true McGyver fashion, Todd spat in them to provide lubrication. That did the trick and gave us a good chuckle. Luckily, Chandler’s owners were horse people, so they fully approved of his cowboy creativity.
Sadly, Chandler passed away from hemangiosarcoma very shortly after we applied the prototypes. But I was really excited when his mom went out of her way to tell me that they worked so much better than the adhesive pads she tried that stick to the bottoms of dogs’ paws.
It was news to me that adhesive stickers for paw pads even existed, but it was really good news. It proved that what was true in my own practice had to be true on a bigger scale. The number of ineffective products on the market showed me that slipping was a common problem in need of a relevant solution.
I love that Chandler is a part of the story, because although he passed on, his memory lives in the ToeGrips story. Kim’s dog Hope, however, is the reason we exist as a company today. It’s what I saw in Hope that Saturday that changed my life—and hers—forever…
Hope for Hope and many other dogs
Shortly after Chandler and his family left, Kim and Hope pulled up to the curb in front of my house. Kim got out cheerfully. Sweet, sunny soul that she is, she yelled out to the crowd of us standing in my front yard, “Dr. Julie, you didn’t even tell me why I’m here, but you were so excited and you said it was really important, so here we are!” I laughed but felt bad at the same time because keeping her in suspense was not intentional.
Kim moved around to the back of her SUV to extract Hope from the car. She gently lowered this big dog down until her paws touched the ground, and then declared, “She’s having a bad day.” And this shaggy, gray-muzzled, sweet old girl hobbled pathetically down my driveway as if to prove it.
Years before I met her, Hope suffered a torn ACL on her right hind leg. Unfortunately, she was a bit too active after her TPLO surgery and reinjured her leg. Consequently, it never really healed correctly. This meant she never put much weight on that leg. Whenever she used it to push off in a normal stride, the leg always twisted out from under her.
The true test
Sweet Hope made it down my driveway and flopped down obligingly while Todd started applying the prototype to her nails. After the three minutes it took to get them on, we coaxed her to stand up. Off leash, she gradually meandered back up the driveway to the car. Amazingly, her gait was instantly 75 to 80% improved! My jaw dropped. How in the world could this be possible?
I had seen Hope every three weeks for the prior two years. I knew this dog very very well. I thought back to my very first appointment with Kim and Hope. It had been a tearful one. Kim thought it might be time to let Hope go because she was worried her dog’s mobility issues were causing her to have a poor quality of life. As a last ditch effort, Kim had come to me for an alternative medicine consultation. I remember hugging Kim and praying with her that day as I assured her I held out hope for the dog named Hope.
I felt confident we would be able to improve her pain management. That would translate into her feeling better and moving better. We were aggressive in our treatment protocol, and she responded really well. I had prescribed Western medications, joint supplements for dogs, and Chinese herbs. Plus I treated her every three weeks with acupuncture and acted as a dog chiropractor for her.
Hope was now holding her own and doing much better than when I met her two years prior. But nothing I did could ever improve the way she slipped and her leg twisted when she stepped down on that paw. This was a biomechanical problem, one which no amount of pills or therapies were going to cure. Unfortunately, every time Hope was stepping on this leg and walking abnormally to compensate for her hind leg problems, she was putting stress on her other legs, on her back, and her neck.
Life changing traction
But now, here was Hope, sauntering down my driveway. “Sauntering” is definitely the right word for what she was doing. We watched in amazement as she used both hind legs remarkably well. In a matter of moments, she had gone from barely toe-touching on her bad leg to bearing enough weight on it that she was barely lame.
The only logical explanation that I could conceive with was that now when she bore weight on her bad leg, it didn’t slip out from under her. Previously, when she put pressure on that leg and it twisted, this translated to painful torque up to her knee. So, understandably, she just avoided using it.
But now, with her newfound grip, she was willing to bear much more weight on that leg. I’m sure this is because It didn’t hurt as much thanks to the help and confidence the ToeGrips had given her. In the time it took to apply the ToeGrips prototype, Hope’s posture and gait were instantly revolutionized. And her life, Kim’s life, and my life would never be the same.
Sharing the hope with others
In my driveway that day, as Hope explored my shrubs with a smile on her face, I knew we had to make this device available for other dogs. I wasn’t thinking globally at that time. I was just thinking there were going to be a lot of happy dogs and happy people in the United States if we could pull this off. And as the weeks went on, I just became more and more passionate about the hope this idea provided for senior dogs.
Shortly after this, Todd came to me and said, “Julie, if you think you can help dogs with this, go for it.” He had other major projects he was working on in the art world, so he generously passed the torch to me. And my company—Dr. Buzby’s ToeGrips for Dogs—was born.
Look how far we’ve come
I remain unspeakably grateful for this gift, which has dramatically changed the course of countless dogs’ lives, not to mention my own. Time and time again, I have marveled at the difference ToeGrips can make. So many families have honored us by sharing their dogs’ stories on our ToeGrips reviews page. Each story is different and special. Each life impacted by this product brings me so much joy and affirms the wild ride that began that day in my driveway with Hope.
I hope you have enjoyed reading the story of ToeGrips. It is amazing and humbling to think that something born out of Todd’s creative brilliance and desire to help his senior dog has become a product which has sold in almost 60 countries, is carried by thousands of veterinarians worldwide, and has helped hundreds of thousands of slipping paws turn back the clock and rediscover confident mobility. Yet that is our story. And we’re only just beginning…
How have ToeGrips changed your dog’s life?
Please comment below.
My black lab third toe nail split vertically and then months later one half of the nail was gone so now she has a toe with a half of mail ant the whole cuticle on one side is exposed. She is not in pain and walks normally. We went to our vet and she is on antibiotics and toe soaks with chlorhexidrine twice a day. The cuticle is swollen but not bleeding. The vet said she might need to have her toe removed if we can’t fix it medically. Would these toe grip’s help her?
Hi Theresa,
I am sorry your dog has had so many issues with her toe. What specific issue are you hoping to help with the ToeGrips? Without a nail on the toe, there would be no place to apply the ToeGrips. You could apply the ToeGrips to the other nonaffected toes if your dog is having trouble with traction on slick surfaces. I wouldn’t think the loss of one toe would affect her mobility much, but without examining your dog myself it is hard to say for sure.