How to Trim a Dog's Toenails

All dogs should have their nails trimmed on a regular basis, especially if they are "indoor dogs", to keep their nails from growing too long and damaging their feet. The Trick is to not cut through the "quick", which causes a LOT of bleeding and pain to the dog.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• a dog
• a pair of nail trimmers
• for small dogs, human toenail clippers
• scissors to trim the hair if necessary
• an assistant to help hold the dog if it is squirmy
• treats to give the dog for each nail that is trimmed

1. Trim away excess hair around the toes/pads of the dog's feet if necessary
2. Feel the "hook" on the underside of the nail, there will be a slight indentation where the extra nail has grown out of the "quick" (see illustration). You can feel this indentation by running your fingernail just on the undersides of the dog's toenails, there is a slight "bump" you will hit, beyond the "bump" is the excess toenail where there is no "quick". ("Quick" is the term for where there is a blood supply to the toenail.)
3. Feel EACH nail before you make the cut. It is likely that each nail will have approximately the same amount of excess nail to be trimmed. Using the nail clippers, make a straight across snip of the nail just on the outside edge of the "hook". You will be cutting the excess nail only, and not through the "quick".
4. Give the dog praise and a "cookie" or treat for the successful trimming of each nail. In the end you will have a dog that will not be so unwilling to have it's nails trimmed.
5. Continue on and trim each nail in the same manner. If your dog is really difficult, do one nail and then aftrer while, do the next, and so on. Let the dog get used to this process gradually.
6. If your dog is a small breed or a puppy, you can use the human toe nail clippers rather than dog nail clippers.

Tips & Warnings

• If your dog has pink toenails, then it is easy to see where to trim, the excess part of the nail will be white, (there will be no blood supply to it)
• if the dog is squirmy, use an assistant to help hold the dog.
• Don't forget the "dewclaws" . If your dog has not had it's "dewclaws" removed, then they will also need trimming. The "dewclaw" grows out of what appears to be an extra toe,higher up on the leg than the feet. The dewclaws will be on the inside of the front and back legs three or four inches above the actual foot. This is not for all breeds of dogs, but many breeds have dewclaws. Many breeders will remove the dewclaws at birth because they are such a nuisance to trim and can grow completely around and into the toe.
• If you should trim into the "quick" by accident, it will bleed profusely. This can be stopped by simply dipping the nail into flour briefly and then pressing HARD with your finger directly on the nail. What you will be doing is simply applying pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding. The flour helps to create a base for the blood to coagulate. Hold your finger there for at least one full minute. The bleeding should stop.
• If you do have blood stop (any product intended to stop bleeding, such as a man's shaving product) you may use a small amount on the quick of the nail to stop the bleeding.
• Read the instructions for the nail clippers that you are using, different nail clippers have different instructions as to which way the clippers should be held for clipping the nails.