Clipping nails...

[Lil'Paws]

How often do you clip your dogs nails? Is once a week to often?

[Global Paw]

Quincy has never had his nails cut...he wears them down enough on walks.

[Carrie]

I use a Dremel tool rather than clippers, but I do it once a week. If I weren't such a procrastinator, I'd do it twice a week. That way, I'd only have to do a teensy bit. The more often you do it, the more the quick will recede, making it easier to get the nails back shorter. You don't want to cut them way back all at once. And with clipping, you have to be extra careful not to knick the quick. You could maybe clip one day and use a file (emory board) 3 or 4 days later if you're not using a Dremel. That makes them nice and smooth and blunt. Good luck.

Carrie

[Pugdawg1]

During the summer, I clip their nails once a week, they grow like weeds, and they are not out as much because of the summer heat. During the winter, we are out a whole lot more and wear them down themselves. The new black pug, Bentley - I can see he gets very stressed when I have tried here and there to clip a nail. He is like Oscar used to be. Ah well, we'll get through it.

[FROGSnDOGS]

When ever you notice they are long. It can be painful to dogs if there nails are to long. But like Quincy's dog walking can trim them! My mom just uses nail clippers!

[Lil'Paws]

Thanks all.. I never had to worry about Baileys either he always keep his wore down. But, Mias inside all the time except for potty breaks.. Til shes potty trained. So I guess I'll be clipping them ever week.. Thanks again...

[Pugdawg1]

My mother has a toy manchester terrier that she walks miles and miles and miles with. Every day. I guess the dog walks in a way or her nails grow in a way that they NEVER get wore down from that. If they aren't clipped regularly, they get very long. Grow like weeds. The walking has no affect. Hum!

[Rip's Girl]

I clip Ripley's every 2-3 weeks. He has the typical papillon "Hare feet", and something about them makes the nails grow straighter instead of curling underneath the feet like a Chihuahua's can. When they're trimmed, the nails don't even touch the ground, which makes for STEALTH DOG. (Which I HATE! It makes me want to put a bell on his collar)

[kjm]

Oh, this is good. I tried to clip Boone's nails a few nights ago and he fought me so bad. I had to have extra help just to keep him still. He hated it. I only got his two front feet done. Do any of you have this problem and what do you do to calm your dogs down long enough to clip the little rascals?

[Barrett]

When training our dogs we start out very slow. First, you should be playing with his feet and toes everyday so he gets used to it. (I play This Little Piggy) When he no longer struggles with that and stays relaxed start showing him the clippers everyday so he can smell them and give him treats and praise for a day or two. Then clip one nail and give him treats and put the clippers away. The next day play with his feet, let him sniff the clippers, and cut two nails, give treats, and put the clippers away. The next day cut 3 nails and so on. Keep doing this over a few days until all the nails are cut. Always give yummy treats and praise when he is good. Pretty soon you should be able to cut all of his nails at once, but take it slow, if he seems stressed out, put the clippers away and do more tomorrow.
My mom always cut our dogs nails and they would get excited and fight to be first because she would give them a treat after each nail, no wonder they were all over weight!
My dachshund has black nails and I can't see the quick. She wears them down on her walks and I take her to petsMart once a month for a trimming. If I hold her she lets them do it and its done in about 3 minutes.

[Carrie]

Pug dog, Does your Mom's Manchester Terrier have feet like a Doberman? Lyric has very high toes like a hound. His nails would have to get extremely long before they'd even touch the ground. It's kind of nice.

I ask because the Manchester Terrier is one of the several breeds that was used in the development of the Doberman. In fact that is the only common ancestor of both the Dobe and the Miniature Pinscher.

Carrie

[doberkim]

if a dogs nails wear down when walking does have a lot to do with the dog in question and their foot structure. like carrie said, bowie (doberman) would have to have gigantor nails to have them hit the ground and wear down even a little bit. on the other hand, a dog that seems to have a good shot at wearing when walking is a lab.
seriously, if you want to get the dogs nails cut, you can dremel - its how i got and keep bowie short.

just a little excerpt from our dremeling sessions.

an example of the nail before we start - this is not the same nail as the rest of the pictures, this is the other foot (P5) while the rest of the pics are P2 (inner toe on other foot)


the nail with the basic grind - i do the front (perpendicular to the ground) and the bottoms (parallel)


after the grind is done - more taken back, and edges, etc smoothed out. i have bowies nail pushed to full extension here.



and entire foot done

[Carrie]

Great picutres Doberkim. Thanks for showing everyone such good looking Dobernails. LOL. The Dremel is such a handy tool for that.

I think I do it a little differently. I do the fronts/ends of the nails perpendicular to the ground like you say, but I don't do much underneath other than what it takes to round off or smooth off the edges a little bit. It's basically done squarely I guess you could say.

At any rate, true, like you say....some dogs wear their own nails down fine. My Lab use to where we use to live, but here there's snow all winter and she stays mainly on grass and other soft surfaces in summer, so there's not much friction for her anymore.

[dollface]

Tried to dremel my dogs and well no go unless I hold them and hubby does it, and Taz well try to hold down a 158-161 lb dog when he hears that noise, no go. So I can only clip them which I don't mind, I even file them down too. The dremel would be so much easier

[doberkim]

thats why, like clipping, you have to train them to accept the dremel

click treat!