Foot injuries are painful, often difficult to treat, hard to keep clean, and are just an all-around pain for both the dog and owner to deal with. Having dealt with multiple foot injuries with my working and sport dogs, I want to share a little bit of helpful info on how to prevent these types of injuries. It all starts with basic nail and foot maintenance.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep your puppy's nails trimmed. I handle all my puppies’ paws and toes from an early age to prepare them for regular trims. With the dogs I breed, nail trimming starts as early as 2 weeks. From there, I trim every few days to every week depending on how fast my dogs’ nails grow. Every dog is different. The general rule of thumb is to keep nails short enough that you can’t hear them walking on hard surfaces. If you hear a “click click” whenever your dog walks across your hardwood floors... his nails are too long!
When nails are too long, dogs have a harder time gripping on slippery surfaces, their toes splay outward (which greatly damages joints), their nails are prone to splitting open, and it can cause painful arthritis and even skeletal damage!
So what happens if you have a dog whose nails are already too long and he doesn’t want them trimmed? There are two ways you can handle this… strap him to a grooming table, have a friend wrestle him down, hold his paws tightly, and cut; OR slowly desensitize him to the clippers, trimming maybe one or two toes at a time for a few weeks. I’ve done it both ways, and both the dog and I much prefer the later.
The trick to getting your dog to let you trim his nails is making it a pleasant experience. Seems simple, but if your pup hates having his feet touched then we will have to go a few steps back...
Remember… SLOW IS FAST!!!
1) Try teaching your dog a “paw” command and rewarding for how long he will keep his paw in your hand. You want him to understand that him having his paw in your hand is the best thing ever!
2) Start fiddling gently with the paw and rewarding. Pinch his toes (gently) and in between his paw pads. This is also a good opportunity for you to inspect your dog’s paw pads and nails to check for any injuries and damages. Do this weekly if you have pets, and every few days if you have active dogs, working dogs, or sport dogs.
3) Once your dog is comfortable with you messing with his feet and toes, bring out the nail clipper. At first, simply reward him for letting you touch the clipper to his toes. Don’t actually trim yet. Do this as many times as possible, and remember to keep things POSITIVE!
4) If you and your dog are ready to move forward, make a very small cut just on the edge of his nail. Immediately reward and try again on a different paw. If your dog is feeling stressed, end things on a high note and try again the next day, this time doing more than one nail, and gradually going deeper towards the quick. Make a goal for trimming one paw per day. If this is too much, break it down by toes. At breakfast, call him over and trim one of his toes. Reward! If you are sitting watching TV on the couch, call him over and trim another. Reward! At dinner, do another. Reward! At bedtime… you get the idea :)
5) After he is comfortable with this schedule, move to trimming only the front/back, and eventually to all four paws in one session. If ever your dog starts getting stressed, start the process over and take things slower. Even dogs who are terrified of having their nails done can learn that nail time is a great experience.
NOTE: If your dog has a preexisting fear of the nail clippers (as many dogs do), start bringing them out and treating whenever they come out. Pull the nail clippers out, drop a treat. Eventually, encourage your dog to interact with you while you have them in your hand. Plenty of treats and praise. Once he learns that nail clippers are not a scary thing, start over with the steps above.
It’s so important to frequently mess around with your dog's paws, and reward for doing so! You can also bring out the trimmers while you mess with his paws so he doesn’t associate the trimmers with solely nail time. Frequently touch the trimmer to his nail without cutting to remind him that it's okay.
How to cut their nails...
Okay, but my dog has super long quicks. What can I do about it?
ALL quicks can recede. It will take time. It will take patience. However, they WILL recede eventually. As your dog gets more comfortable with you trimming his nails regularly, start carefully shaving the nail away from the quick like the image below shows. Do not actually cut the quick! The goal here is to cut part of the nail away, exposing the tissue of the quick. This will cause it to dry up and die.
Over time, you’ll notice your dogs' nails are getting shorter and shorter without you ever needing to cut into their quick. If your dog is comfortable with a Dremel or file, those are two other easy mechanisms for exposing the quick. I like Dremels because they work faster than shaving away the nail with a nail clipper, and they also provide more accurate results. To desensitize your dog to the Dremel, follow the same steps as you would for desensitizing to the nail clippers.
HARD WORK PAYS OFF!! Examples of beautifully maintained nails...
