Do You Cut Your Dogs Nails?

[~Anne~]

The groomer does my dog's nails when she baths them. She doesn;t trim nails every bath as they are bathed fornightly, but I'd say probably every other bath. I know because they leave little blood spots everywhere.... I must remember to tell her to use soap to stop it.

[HazyWal]

Stan's nails are black except for one white toe!His seem to wear down fine but Maddie's front nails are really long.Her back ones are short but the front have very long quicks.Someone here a while ago(apologise for not remembering your name)suggested to clip off a slither regularly and the quick should recede.Seems to be working so I'm really pleased.

[Boronia]

After reading this I decided to have another go at Mac's nails, I was going to take him to the vet so he could be sedated, he has had a phobia about his feet ever since I got him at around 7 y/o. I sat him on a towel on the veranda table and gave him a tiny dry kibble every time he didn't squeak or go huuuuh huuuuh, and managed to clip and dremel all his toes. I used 1 & 1/2 cups of tiny kibble to do the job, Mac upchucked the lot shortly after (well it had to happen)...Penny helped him re-eat it.

Anyway, it wasn't too much of a trauma after all, thank goodness for food-driven dogs.

[raineth]

Haven't done our pup yet, though he doesn't need it yet, and doesn't have dew claws. But I'm very nervous about it so think I will get the vet to do it.

Just bought some clippers so I can groom him myself, not sure why I'm so nervous about the nails. But then I hate doing my kids nails too so I guess it's no surprise about the puppy really!

hey there I think I was a bit worried about it too the first time, not 100% sure I was foing the right thing

But I really reccommend you don't take him to the vet for it. The vets will most likely aim to just get it all done quickly and its usually not a great experience for the dog and there is a good chance it will make him very afraid of it.

There are lots of good clips on youtube that show you how to introduce your dog or puppy to having its nails trimmed and how to do it.

You want to start off nice and slowly This is a quick run through of what I do (on adults and puppies):

Firstly make sure puppy is very happy about having his paws and toes handled. Practice holding his paws in the way you would hold them to cut his nails. Use treats to make it something he enjoys.

If he is really fussy about it make sure you take it slowly. You want to go to the level before he starts to get unhappy and give him a treat. Bridge words work well for this

Once he is happy having all paws and toes being handled introduce the clippers. Let him sniff them (but not play with them). Then take the clippers and hold them near each nail and give him a treat when you do. When he's happy with this, hold his paw like you will be when clipping his nails and then also put the clippers to each nail and reward each time. This part should really take hardly any time for him to be happy about

Once he's happy with the above... its time to clip a nail

I just do one nail. Clip it give him a treat tell him what a good boy he is, and leave it at that until the next day when you clip another nail.

If he is relaxed about the whole thing you can do two nails at a time

Just keep building it up until he is relaxed with you doing them all. You gradually phase out the treats but you can still give one at the end when you've done them all. But in the beginning one treat for one clip is a good ratio

[Sydoo]

Billie had hers trimmed by our vet this morning (for $20). She seems to think going to the vet surgery is a very exciting outing so I'm happy to take her in...not sure she even noticed her nails being done.

[Jarvis]

Thanks raineth sounds like excellent advice.

The vet told me they clip nails for free and seeing as I took him for his vaccinations this week I got them done. She just took a little bit off each one and he was fine with it.

I will get over my fear though and attempt it...sometime!