648117
Honored Member
I'm going to trim Holly's nails this weekend and was wondering how often everybody else trims their dogs nails.
Holly's nails don't seem to wear down enough from walking (most days she walks for 20 minutes on sealed footpath, 20 minutes on gravel paths and 20+ minutes on grass).
So about a month ago the vet suggested that Holly's nails were to long so I cut them, the front ones went fine but the first back one that I tried bled (I put flour on it to stop the bleeding) so I didn't do any of the other back nails. I had already been working on desensitizing her to the clippers so she is pretty good (except I can't do it with her on her back like in the kikopup clip, she doesn't like that so she stands on her grooming mat for it and she can't be held still because that makes her want to get away so full desensitization was important).
So I took her to the groomers so they could show me how to do it properly. Holly has black nails so I can't see the quick and it turned out I was taking way too much off
The groomer said I should do them about once a month and that wearing the nail down from walking depends on the shape of the dogs foot and their weight.
I have never had to trim any of our other dogs nails and I'm not very good at judging how long the nails should be.
So my plan is to trim her nails on the first weekend of each month and just pretend to trim them on all the other weekends (giving treats) so she stays happy about getting it done.
How does that sound?
What does everybody else do about keeping their dogs nails the right length and how do you know if they are?
Holly's nails don't seem to wear down enough from walking (most days she walks for 20 minutes on sealed footpath, 20 minutes on gravel paths and 20+ minutes on grass).
So about a month ago the vet suggested that Holly's nails were to long so I cut them, the front ones went fine but the first back one that I tried bled (I put flour on it to stop the bleeding) so I didn't do any of the other back nails. I had already been working on desensitizing her to the clippers so she is pretty good (except I can't do it with her on her back like in the kikopup clip, she doesn't like that so she stands on her grooming mat for it and she can't be held still because that makes her want to get away so full desensitization was important).
So I took her to the groomers so they could show me how to do it properly. Holly has black nails so I can't see the quick and it turned out I was taking way too much off

The groomer said I should do them about once a month and that wearing the nail down from walking depends on the shape of the dogs foot and their weight.
I have never had to trim any of our other dogs nails and I'm not very good at judging how long the nails should be.
So my plan is to trim her nails on the first weekend of each month and just pretend to trim them on all the other weekends (giving treats) so she stays happy about getting it done.
How does that sound?
What does everybody else do about keeping their dogs nails the right length and how do you know if they are?