Foot Pad Dog Grooming Tips

Video Transcript

"So another part at home foot care is trimming the bottom of the feet, the pads of the feet, the hair that is in the foot pad. So you can see here how the pads of the feet and we've got hair growing right through here. In the winter time, this hair can collect ice balls. It is very uncomfortable for the dogs and in the summertime, it can collect dirt. So we want to take care of this hair here. Also, when you are looking at the feet you are going through the feet seeing how the hair is matted, you might find strange things like this. Looks like a pine needle is stuck in this dog's coat so I am going to take my comb and comb most of the hair out of here. It is fairly sticky. I don't want to just cut it out because I don't want to lose the coat on the dog. So I am going to use the comb to get it out and I am, even though the dog is pulling his leg away, I am holding this down here and I'm trying not to pull the hair. So I got this out and it is a wadded up bit of pine needle with some sap. So if you are going over your dog's feet when doing your at home maintenance you are going to find things like this and you can clean them out before they become problematic. So I want to trim some of this hair off. I can either do it with my scissors or I can do it with my razor. You take the dog's foot and very carefully you will trim the hair from around the pads and very careful not to cut the feet obviously and you can trim the hair around here too. Again, it keeps the foot a lot cleaner. So I just trimming this hair being very careful to keep the scissors flat with the foot pad; tickles a little bit with the dog but they can move their foot a little bit as long as you are holding the foot being very careful with your scissors. This also gives the dog better traction on the floor, wooden, tile or linoleum floor, because they are not walking on all that hair. So I am just trimming this hair right out between the pads and this is going to make it more comfortable for the dog and they will track in less stuff so that is a cleaner foot pad. "