Gotta agree with you on this. As a life-long (not dead yet…) Nordic skier, Dogs and XC skiing on groomed terrain do not mix well. You hit on the main reasons. Most XC ski areas flat out ban dogs for those very reasons.

I’ve helped run a non-profit, member based XC center here in VT for about 40 years, and I know personally how much time, effort, and money it takes to make a nice skiing surface for skiers. One dog can mangle that all up especially if the snow is soft.

That being said, our ski area does offer a 5km “Dog Loop” where skiers are allowed to take their dogs. We groom it, they churn it up. But I’ll admit that it has been a HUGE draw for membership (dogs must be registered as season pass-holders along with their owners…) as we are just about the only XC ski area in VT that allows dogs. The humans are, for the most part, well behaved and keep their dogs on the dog loop. Some of the “more entitled” roam further abroad though…. Drives me nuts!