Trimming Your Dogs Nails

Trimming Your Dogs Nails

It's important to keep your dogs nails trimmed.  You can trim your dogs nails at home, at the groomer or at the veterinarian.  

When trimming your dogs nails at home, you want to first determine how long your dogs nails are and if the kwik has grown out.  The kwik includes a blood vessel and nerves and is easier to see on light dog nails.  If the kwik has grown out, you will make the dogs nails bleed if you cut back too short.  How do you know if your dogs nails are too long?  If you hear clicking on the floor when your dog walks, you can safely guess that their quick has grown out as well.  If this is the case, you want to just trim the tips of your dogs nails once every 2 weeks to train the quick to recede.  

When trimming your dogs nails at home, it's always good to have something handy to stop any nail bleeding if you accidently do trim too short.  Your veterinarian or groomer may have some kwik stop that you can purchase.  This is a yellow powder that stops the bleeding once packed onto the nail.  If you don't have access to kwik stop, some things that will work around the house are flour, starch or a bar of soap.  It does take more time to stop the bleeding with flour and starch.  Continue to pack it on the nail until the bleeding stops.  If you use a bar of soap, keep in mind that it may sting a little bit for your dog.  

Remember to take care of your dog properly by doing regular nail trimming to maintain a healthy short nail.  To keep a dogs nails nicely trimmed, once they are short, you can trim their nail once every 4 weeks to maintain the shortness.