How To Cut Dogs Nails At Home

The virtually common reasons for avoiding nail trims are that the owner is agape of "quicking" the dog, or that the dog fusses and creates bad feelings around the procedure.

Nail cutting becomes an event surrounded by angst and drama. For very agile dogs who run all day long on varied surfaces, cutting nails may not be necessary. Loftier mileage wears them down naturally.

But amongst city or suburban dogs who are lucky to get a mile or two walk daily, excessively long toenails are more common than not.

Consequences Of Long Toenails

So what'southward the big bargain?

The first consequence of long toenails is painful feet. When a canis familiaris'southward toenails contact hard ground, similar a sidewalk or your kitchen flooring, the hard surface pushes the smash back up into the boom bed. This either puts pressure on all the toe joints or forces the toe to twist to the side.

Either way, those toes go very sore, even arthritic. When the slightest touch is painful to your dog, he volition fuss when you choice up his mitt to cut nails.

The second result of long toenails is more serious. All animals rely on information from nerves in their feet to motion through the world and process gravity accurately.

For millions of years, wild dogs have run long distances while hunting and worn their nails short. The simply time their toenails would touch the footing was when climbing a colina.

So a dog's encephalon is evolutionarily programmed to associate toenail contact with being on a hill, and he shifts his body posture accordingly: leaning forrard over his forelimbs, up the imaginary hill as reported past his toes.

Since the hill is not existent, a secondary compensation with his hind limbs is necessary to avoid a confront plant.

This abnormal compensatory posture can be called "goat on a rock" because it brings his paws closer together nether his body. Normal neutral posture is a nice show domestic dog "stack," with vertical legs like a table.

Recent inquiry shows that standing with limbs "camped-in" is hard work to maintain. These goat-on-a-rock dogs go over-used muscles and somewhen over-used joints, especially in their hind limbs, making information technology difficult to spring in cars, climb stairs and fifty-fifty hard to get up from lying downwardly. Sounds similar a lot of older dogs we know!

Cutting toenails short can be like a miracle cure for your canis familiaris whose hind terminate has get painful, weak and over-used.

That's the "why." At present for the "what and how."

Tools Of The Trade

Image showing technique on how to trim dogs nails

NAIL CLIPPERS

Use just "scissor" type clippers. Guillotine style clippers crush the toe, which is painful. Never put the whole nail in a clipper.
Use small size clippers for amend control. Only giant brood dogs will demand large ones.
Keep your tools abrupt: either replace or sharpen your clippers regularly.
"Pedi-paws" type grinder: Polish out your trim later with a rotating emeryboard.
File only the insensitive smash effectually the pinnacle and sides of the quick: "Acuminate the pencil" where the smash is the wood and the quick is the pb.

IF YOU CUT THE QUICK

Use corn starch to staunch the bleeding if yous make a blast leak. With shallow cuts, this will be rare.
Information technology'due south easiest if you use a small container with tightly packed powder.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Trim nails outside or in a well lit room.

If yous need "cheaters" for reading, use them for toenail clipping too.

Information technology's really easier to see the blast structures on pigmented nails than on white ones.

The insensitive blast will evidence as a chalky ring effectually the sensitive quick.

Continue clipper blades near parallel to the nail – never cut across the finger.

Don't squeeze the toes – that hurts!

Use your fingers to split up the toes for clipping and hold the hand gently.

Use a pair of edgeless edged children's scissors to remove excess toe hair: nix dulls clippers quicker than cutting hair!

Remember, no dog ever died from a quicked toenail. If you "quick" your dog accidentally, give a yummy treat right abroad.

Make nail trimming fun: always associate nail cut with cookies and praise.

For maintenance, cut every two weeks. To shorten, cutting every week.

Once the insensitive nail is thinned out and isn't supporting the quick, the quick will dry up and recede. This will let you to cut your canis familiaris's nails even shorter. Each dog's nails are unlike, but very long toenails often become dry out and croaky, with a clear separation of the living tissue and the insensitive nail. This will make information technology easier to trim back longer nails.

What's inside your dog'due south toenail?

On the left, the interior structures are shown, forth with the suggested angle to remove the "roof" of the blast, while not harming the sensitive quick.

On a blackness claw, the interface betwixt sensitive and insensitive boom is unremarkably chalky and white – very easy to discern. On the right is a shut-upward view of the inside of the nail. On cross section, the sensitive quick will look translucent and glossy, like living mankind.

In untrimmed claws, at that place will often be a "notch" below the tip of the quick. Information technology is usually safe to initiate your angled cutting at the notch. Some dogs act like cutting their nails is their worst nightmare.

This may be a learned behavior from their painful, overstimulated toes, which will slowly dissipate along with the pain once the nails are brusque.

Use all your best restraint and behavior modification tricks to become through the initial stage, whether your canis familiaris is a squirmer or a drama queen. Outset on the hind feet, because the nails tend to be a fiddling shorter and less sensitive than the front.

But call back you can't make an authentic cut on a moving target so get help from your dog trainer or groomer if needed.

Brand nail trimming "quality time" you lot spend with your dog. Lots of kisses, lots of treats and a positive attitude become a long way.

If you lot dread information technology, your canis familiaris will too, so learn how to be a skilful actor until you succeed in assertive information technology tin be a loving experience for you both. If your dog loses patience speedily, try cutting one nail a solar day.

Equally long as you keep the order of toes consistent, this volition exist a good maintenance schedule, giving every toe a trim every xvi days.

Curt toenails are critical to your domestic dog'southward health and soundness. Failure is not an option!

(You lot can follow your dog's boom trim with a calming bath. We have a great article for keeping bathroom time safe for your dog. Check it out here …)

(Illustrations by Michael A Simmons MFA)