Ever have difficulties in clipping your dog’s nails? No? Then good for you! Most dog owners have encountered a problem with clipping their nails because dogs essentially NEVER liked their paws being held. Some dog parents may fear that they will hurt their fur babies if they thrash around. Dogs will just plainly hate for their pars to be held. So what are the ways in order to safely trim their nails?
There are many ways but if you want the safest ways possible, then you have to study how your dogs behave during this dreaded time of the week or month (depends on when you schedule clipping their nails). You need to get their attention and make them feel that there is nothing to be scared about with best dog nail clippers.
Trimming ‘em claws!
The first step is to get some treats, make the whole experience positive and don’t feel like you need to be a hero and trim all the nails at once. Start with one, reward and come back later if you or your pet is nervous. One technique that helps is to hold the handle of the nail trimmers flat against the toe pad and cut straight across the nail, so that the nail will sit just above the ground. This technique makes it extremely unlikely you will cut the nails too short. This will make your dog feel safe and not overreact because they tend to just hate it right away when they see the nail clippers. Be extra careful with the pink part because that is where you dogs blood vessels are already and it will hurt your dog if you cut all the way through.
What? Your dogs have black nails? Easy Peasy!
If your dog has black nails, look at the underside of the nail and you will notice that towards the tip the nail separates out into a triangular shape with two outer ‘walls’. At this point, there is no quick and it is safe to cut the tip off. Another trick of the trade is to apply gentle pressure with the nail trimmers without actually cutting where you think you need to cut. If your dog reacts to the pressure, most likely you are too close to the quick and you will need to more the clippers further down the nail.
If the nails ever bleed…
Simply use a clean bar of soap and run it under the damaged nail. The soap will plug the vessel and stop the bleeding. Usually if you have made your dog bleed, they will be a bit nervous next time, so make sure you have lots of treats at the ready and take it slow. Don’t expect for them to forget about it right away because dogs are smarter than you think they are!
These are great steps and basic knowledge on how to ensure your fur babies safety in cutting their nails. Not only do they need it for “grooming” but because long nails can hurt their paws. It is important that they are comfortable because they can’t speak like people, but simply knowing if they are in pain just by observing is a big enough help to determine the cause.