Cutting your dogs nails

I do pedicure of my lab myself about once or twice a month. At this time she's already used to trimming, though it irritates her sometimes. What I do to get her stable enough to cut her toe nails is that I scold her a little for her to behave, then give her some treats to know that what she did was good.

Most dogs do not like having their toenails trimmed. Start trimming toenails in young animals so that they get used to the process. Some dogs will happily sit in your lap or on a table while you trim their nails but many require some form of restraint. place the dog on a table laying on it's belly... One method to restrain the dog is to place her/him on a table. Stand on the side of the table opposite to the nails you are trimming. Drape your arms and upper body over the dog. When trimming the front nails, keep your left forearm over the neck to keep the dog from lifting its head. Hold the paw in your left hand and hold the trimmer in your right hand. If the dog tries to stand, lean your upper body over his/her shoulders to prevent him/her from rising. or on it's side If your dog is too wiggly, try laying him/her on his/her side. Use your right arm and upper body to keep the dog laying on his/her side. Hold the trimmer in your right hand. Use your left arm to keep the head on the table and use the left hand to hold the paw. it is easier if you have a helper It is easier to perform this procedure if you have a helper There are several styles of nail trimmers, including a guillotine type and a scissors type. The guillotine type is the easiest to use in dogs. the dew claw is located on the inner surface of the paw The scissors-type is used to trim a toenail that is so long that it is curling in a circle. Long toenails can grow into the toe-pad. This most often happens to dew claws, the claw on the inner side of the paw. Dew claws do not touch the ground so they are not worn down as the dog walks. The dew claw is attached to the leg by loose skin. The dew claw can usually be bent away from the leg so that you can fit a guillotine type trimmer over the tip of the dew claw. the scissors-style cutter is used to trim dew claws that are growing in a full circle The scissors-type cutter is placed at a right angle to the toenail. Hold the trimmer in your right hand if you are right handed. Close your hand around the clipper to squeeze the handle which will move the cutting blade. use of the guillotine- type trimmer The guillotine type trimmers have stationary ring through which the nail is placed, and a cutting blade that moves up to slice off the nail when the handles of the trimmer are squeezed. nail color is determined by the color of the surrounding skin and hair Unlike cats, dogs do not have retractile toenails. The color of the nail is determined by the color of the surrounding skin and hair. This dog has black nails on the brown paw and a mixture of white and black nails on the white paw. Always remember to trim the dew claws that are located on the inner surface of the paw. nails on the rear feet are usually require less frequent trimming than nails on the front feet The nails on the rear feet are often shorter and require less frequent trimming than those on the front feet. Always remember to trim the dew claws that are located on the inner surface of the paw unless they were removed as a puppy. Some breeds of dogs such as the St. Bernard have 2 sets of dew claws on the rear feet. the quick can be seen on light colored nails Light colored toenails are easier to cut than dark nails as the blood vessels and nerves that supply the toenail, called the quick, is easier to see. leave about 2 mm of nail in front of the quick Cut the toenail to within approximately 2 millimeters of the quick. If you cut into the quick, the toenail will bleed and the dog will experience pain. The tip of the nail is placed in the stationary ring in the trimmer with the clipper perpendicular to the nail (cutting top to bottom). If the trimmer is placed parallel to the nail (cutting from side to side), the nail is crushed and may splinter. The cutting blade should be facing you, NOT the dog. The screws on the handle of the trimmer should be facing the dog. If you turn the trimmer around with the screws toward you, the cutting blade is cutting closer to the quick than if the trimmer is held with the cutting blade toward you. You are less likely to cut into the quick if the cutting blade faces you. The handles of the trimmer can be held pointing toward the floor or ceiling, which ever is more comfortable in your hands. light colored nails can be trimmed with one cut The handles of the trimmer are squeezed to advance the cutting blade through the nail. Light colored nails can be trimmed with one cut on each nail. a correctly trimmed light-colored toenail cut dark colored nails in several small cuts to reduce the chance of cutting into the quick You cannot see the quick on dark colored nails, making them more difficult to trim without cutting into the quick. Cut dark colored nails in several small cuts to reduce the chance of cutting into the quick. As you cut off small pieces of the nail, look at the cut edge of the nail. The light tissue (1) is the curved bottom part of the nail. The mottled light and dark tissue (2) is the top part of the nail. watch for the quick as you trim the nail to prevent pain and bleeding As you cut the nail deeper, you will see a homogeneous gray to pink oval (3) starting to appear at the top of the cut surface of the nail. Stop cutting the nail at this point as additional cutting will cut into the quick. The sharper the trimmer, the cleaner the cut. The cutting blade on guillotine-style cutters can be replaced when it is no longer sharp. You can file the end of the nail to smooth the cut surface. a correctly cut dark-colored nail A correctly cut dark colored nail next to an uncut mixed colored nail. The mixed color nail is darker close to the base of the nail preventing one from seeing the quick. This nail should be trimmed in several small cuts. If the toenail is cut too short, you can use a styptic pencil containing silver nitrate to stop blood flow, although many animals object to the styptic pencil as much, or more, than toenail cutting. The black end of the stick is held to the bleeding nail and gently rotated until bleeding stops. Even without any treatment the nail should stop bleeding in about 5 minutes or less.

My dog very rarely lets me cut his nails. So must of the time I just let them be or have the vet do it on our yearly appointments. But I was able to do it the other night quick and easy. I was so proud of him. lol I never heard about the nail quick thing before though.

I tried to do it myself the first couple of times and cut a little too deep which hurt her, so now I just leave it to the groomers. I haven't heard that about the frequency of cutting nails making the quick shorter...I'll need to remember and ask the groomer next time I see her.

We get our dogs nails cut when she gets a haircut at the grooming place because she doesnt sit still long enough to do it at home. She will get in a bad mood and be bad after if we try to do it, so we figure why not just let the groomers do it, they are trained and now how to do it right anyways.

My husbands grooms my dog, bathing, manicure, pedicure, fur trimming etc. He uses those nail clippers for dogs, make my dog lie down on the floor, hold his paws den quickly cut the nails as my dog does not like his legs being held to for too long. Its easy for him as my dogs LOVES to bath n be groom. On other days when my dog is nottie, my husband will threaten him with harsh words, smack his butt, head, etc to make him lie down quietly. After all the grooming, my husband will definately give my dog his fav treats :) Regarding the quick thing, not sure abt dogs but i know this applies to guinea pig's nails (i have guinea pigs at home). And yes, if the nails are too long, it may get caught onto something, or it may hinder the dog's walking. Means he is unable to place the paw pads on the floor for proper walking. Too long nails may get broken if they accidentally caught it in something n if left alone, it may get infected. So for ur dog, perhaps u can send him to the groomers for a fort-nightly manicure & pedicure?? :P

I do it myself, but the dog is not too fond of it.

I used to have a show dog and we would generally cut his nails at least once a week as he was caged most of the time except when taken for walks. Trained him from young age to stand and deliver his feet one by one. My husband cut one short one time and it bled for at least half an hour. After that I did them myself and no probs. He had to be groomed every day as he had a long coat.So that was all part of his training when he was young. Most dogs as long as you take them for good walks on hard stuff you don't need to cut theres as often. The older a dog gets the faster there nails seem to grow as they don't usually go for such long walks.

Yes, the quick definitely moves up as you cut the nails more. You'll see in neglected animals that they'll have very long quicks (like if their nails are curling). You can see this in humans too. If you don't cut one hand, but cut the nails on the other hand, you'll see that the quicks back up.

i dont cut my dogs nails...should i be??? :-s

i take him to the vet....to get his nails cut...he howls like he is goin mad...

I don't cut my dog's nails but a friend of mine got his cat's claws removed by vets.

The more often you trim the nails the shorter the quick gets and then you can trim the nails shorter. I had a dog that we rescued and his nails were really long. When I sent him in to be neutered, while he was under I asked them to trim his nails all the way back so we could "start over". He was a little tender after he woke up but I kept him on some minor pain meds for a couple of days to ease him and then it was easier to keep them short. I have also had some dogs that have a phobia of having their nails done and have done everything from bribe them to having someone practically sit on them to get the nails done. One vet that I worked with whistled while he cut her nails and she never even flinched! He said that the cutting noise was what was disturbing her and so he whistled to cover up the noise and she was fine. It was a miracle for us!

It takes my hubby and son in law to cut my shepherds toe nails. He hates to have his feet touched. He likes to be brushed though.

Hey RIML :D I've always been afraid to trim my dogs nails b/c I'm scared of hurting them (tried once & chickened out) I have never heard about the thing w/ the quicks of the dogs nails +'s 2 U

Both my hubby and I have to tackle Kai. He hates for anyone messing with his feet. Eddie usually does the task of cutting Kai's nails, and I usually lay on him. I have the pleasure of distracting him and that isn't always easy. Tara's not so bad, she tends to trim her own nails. I've heard that some huskies do this, but I never saw it before we got Tara.

I cut both of my dogs nails and the younger one is more of a pain about the whole grooming procedure. I talked to my vet about giving them something so that I could do the job without injuring either of us and they told me to give my puppies children's liquid benadryl 1ml per pound of dog. (This helps if they get into ants too!!!) But you give them the benadryl and then wait about 15 minutes and put them into the bath wash take them straight to get their nails clipped. By giving them the medicine it calms them so that you will be able to cut their nails without them freaking out and scaring you. When you cut their nails you have to be very careful about cutting the quick and making them bleed. If you continue to cut your dogs nails shorter each time then yes you can cut them shorter each time but you have to be careful how short you are cutting them as they need them to protect the pads of their feet. When you are cutting their nails cut a little bit at a time and then look at the nail. When you start to see a little lighter circle in the middle beware that you need to stop cutting or you will hurt them. If you do y chance cut them, you need to quickly apply a chemical sold at the pet store to stop the bleeding immediately. I recommend that you get the liquid vs. the powder because the powder is harder and it takes longer, whereas the liquid you put a drop on your finger and then on your pup and blow on it until it dries: a couple of seconds.

I usually took my dogs to the vet or groomers. They only charged like $3 to do them. I know that if you cut them to short they get sore and bleed, just like ours do. I had several breeds of dogs growing up. If their nails were white I would clip them myself since I could see the vein (dark area inside the nail) but if their nails were black I wouldn't chance it. I'm a chicken. lol

I have a small Min-Pin and he is so high strung. We bought him when he was 11 months old and he did not have very good habits. Cutting his nails is nearly impossible. I don't have to worry about trimming his nails from spring to automn because he gets lots of nail trimming done with his daily walks and runs, but during the winter period, in which he cannot stay outside very long because of freezing his little paws off, his nails tend to get longer and he seems to chew at them a lot. I must say that cutting his nails is quite the challenge. He constantly bites my hands, not to hurt me, but to warn me, so I decided to buy him a small musle (not sure how to spell that), but he is a real Houdini and gets out of his musle. I probably don't put it tight enough. Nevertheless, I still can't settle him down to cut his nails. I cut one every once in a while when he's really relaxed. We even asked the vet about giving him Gravol to me make him drowsy. She said we could try, but she doubted it would work because of being such a high strung dog. We gave him a Gravol, he got drowsy and wanted to sleep, but as soon as I touched his paws he snapped right out of it. Couldn't believe it!! lol I'm still looking for a way to get this done.

I do cut my dog's nails. He isn't thrilled with it, though. What I tend to do is have the nail clippers at hand throughout the day. I use the heavy kind like the vet uses because my dog is large. At some time when he's sleeping on the floor near me, I will swoop down on my dog once or twice a day and cut two nails. I figure he's got 18 nails so I can do it pretty easily this way in a week to ten days. According to a local groom, the cuticles will recede the more frequently you cut the nails, just be sure you don't clip the cuticle or you'll have a bloody mess[please note I am from the USA and not swearing as I might be if I were in England]. Good luck! Give your dog a pet for me.