Deborah,
I'm sorry to hear you had such nasty experience with dogs. By the sounds of it, the dogs you encountered had a lack of training and believed they were the alpha members of their human pack and displayed uncontrollable behaviour.
Have you read up on huskies? They are bred as working dogs and pull 200kg sleds for 100km a day during snow storm blizzards for 11 days in minus 50deg. And this is running.. not walking! They do safaris on all sorts of terrain. Have a look at
http://www.husky-holiday.com for some interesting facts as well as
http://www.iditarod.com. They are extremely strong physically and mentally, and because they have to work in teams, they are non aggressive and very human friendly.
As for the paws, there are special products available called paw wax, a protective wax as well as dog shoes. These are specially made as part of dog backpacking/mushing equipment to protect the paws in harsh conditions. Dakota regularly hikes with me on all sorts of terrain.
I hope you won't have any further nasty experiences with dogs... The dog that attacked you tried to protect its territory, as it believed it was the alpha of its human pack. This is obviously not your fault, and can be rectified with proper training the owners and the dog. Unfortunately most people don't take the trouble of understanding animal/dog psychology and cause their dogs to "misbehave".
You really can't judge future situations involving dogs on your own bad experiences of the past. The world can't come to a halt because of your personal wishes. Not all dogs misbehave and some people take great care and effort to train themselves and their canine companions and looking after them. My point being, if you love your "child" would you really abandon her at home for a month for an experience you could have shared with her? For you the answer might be yes, but for me it is a sure definate no.
You will be sharing the camino with many people and their issues and hassles. You will have to put up with whatever you come across. Whether it be noisy and smelly pilgrims or dogs or whatever..
Perhaps this book might help to take away some of your anxiety towards dogs, it's really great book. The Dog Listener, by Jan Fennell.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006008 ... oding=UTF8
ps. Fortunately Huskies don't bark and Dakota sleeps by my side like a baby all night