How To Cut A Dogs Nails
With years of experience in breeding, training and handling dogs, Marion Herbertson is first and foremost a dog lover. Visit Advice-on-Pet-Care-and-Pet-Product-Supplies.Com - for more of her practical, sometimes humourous advice on pet care.
Knowing how to cut a dogs nails is so important and if youre wondering how to trim a dogs nails - you need look no further. As usual, weve done all the research for you and presented you with a step by step guide on this delicate procedure.
Your Dogs Nails
Knowing not only how, but also when to cut a dogs nails is so important. Your dogs nails grow constantly and how often they need to be clipped will depend on your dogs lifestyle. If you dog does a lot of his walking on hard surfaces, he may very well need little or no extra help in keeping his nails short as his nails will be naturally worn away through friction.
However, if like our dogs, your dog mainly stays on grass, sea sand and woodland tracks, clipping dog nails becomes an essential part of his or her grooming and it becomes important that you know how to clip dog nails.
Not knowing how to cut a dogs nails and failure in clipping dog nails will lead to crippling pain in your dogs paws and could lead to permanent damage and malformation.
If clipping dog nails is really not your strong point, take your dog along to your vet or groomer. They know how to cut a dogs nails - and it is amazing how much less of a prima donna your dog will be with total strangers!
When To Start
Dogs are often reluctant to have their nails clipped, therefore, starting the process at a very young age is a good idea.
Initially, get your dog accustomed to you simply holding and stroking their paws. Then progress to applying light pressure on their paws and nails - lightly pinching their nails between your finger and thumb. Reward them for allowing this.
Then, after a lesson from your vets in how to cut a dogs nails, lightly trim a couple of nails a day. Just trim off the tips - this lessens the chances of you cutting too deep and frightening your dog off.
Talk to your dog in a soothing voice all the time and reward him with his favorite treat and a romp straight after. He will gradually grow accustomed to this unpleasant procedure and learn to at least put up with it.
Tools You Will Need
When youre wondering about how to cut a dogs nails, there are a variety of nail clippers and trimmers on the market. The guillotine type is my favourite tool when trimming dog nails, though a strong claw cutter may be required for the bigger breeds and basset hounds - they have incredibly large claws!
Sometimes you may want to use a small file or a dremel tool to file down any jagged edges after trimming a dog nails, but frankly, my dogs cant wait to get away from me, so Im happy to let them round off any rough edges in the normal course of their everyday walks.
It is also advisable to keep a styptic pen handy just in case you clip into your dogs quick - but well discuss this later.
Anatomy Of A Dogs Nail
Knowing how to cut dogs nails is easier when you know the anatomy of a dogs nail.
A dogs nail is constructed of a hard outer cover, which protects the quick which is the inner soft part containing blood vessels and tender nerve endings. In dogs with light coloured nails, the quick can often been seen as being faintly pinkish in color and is thus easy to avoid cutting into.
In the more common black nailed variety, the quick it totally invisible. Therefore, knowing exactly how to cut a dogs nails in this case is imperative. In these cases, trimming off little nibbles instead of large slices is more advisable.
Keep checking the clipped part of your dogs nail and look out for a dark spot in the middle of the newly clipped area - this shows the start of the quick - do not cut too far into this. Taking just tiny nibbles, you will then start to see a pale third inner circle. Stop there - or else you are likely to hurt your dog.
Also, dont forget your dogs dew claws. Growing on the inside of his legs and not in contact with the floor, these do not get worn away and will sometimes curl completely over causing your dog to get snagged in undergrowth, his bedding, etc. This can be very painful, so do keep those neatly trimmed too.
Continued : The Best Way Of Clipping Dog Nails
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