how do i know if my dogs nails need cutting?
Dogs nails are like human nails, and are continuously growing. If your dog has regular exercise on hard surfaces, or does a reasonable amount of road / pavement walking, then their nails will wear down naturally and will probably not need cutting. If, however, they exercise mainly on softer surfaces e.g. woodland, the park, fields etc. then their nails may need to be trimmed to keep their paws and bone structure healthy. One way to tell if the nails are ok or need trimming is to stand the dog on a hard surface, and try to slide a credit card (or similar) between the dogs claws and the surface. If you can slide a credit card into the gap, then the nails are fine. If not, then the nails need to be trimmed.
how can i trim my dogs nails safely?
In general a dogs nails only need to be lightly trimmed. It is best to trim small amounts off carefully, and keep trying the ‘credit card test’ to see if any more is needed. Each nail has a blood vessel which runs through it called the ‘quick’. It is important to try to avoid cutting the quick and causing the nail to bleed, as this is painful for the dog. If the nail is clear or white, then the quick is visible as a red line inside the nail. Use dog nail clippers to cut the tip of the nail, below where the quick is visible. If your dogs nail is black, then it is more difficult to know where to cut. I would advise to cut tiny bits off the nail, in order to try to avoid the quick. if you begin to squeeze the nail clippers around the nail and the dog flinches, this is often an indication that you are close to the quick, and should not cut. if you accidentally cut the quick and the nail bleeds, you should use a blood clotting agent such as ‘Trimmex’ powder, to aid clotting and stop the bleed. If you don’t have any Trimmex, corn flour is a good alternative, or pressing the cut nail into a bar of soap. The nail will stop bleeding on its own after a short time, even if you don’t have any of these.
The quick continues to grow down towards the end of the nail, so the more overgrown the nail is, the longer the quick will be. Because of this, you often find that you can only take small bits from the end of the nail without catching the quick and making the nail bleed. Each time you cut the end of the nail, the quick will gradually recede back up into the nail. Therefore, for overgrown nails, you will need to clip them in stages – cut the end off as far as the quick, wait a couple of weeks for the quick to recede, and then trim again. You may need to repeat this process over many weeks to get them to the required length.