How to cut my dogs nails?

So here is a quick blurb on how to cut your dog’s nails without making a bloody mess!

 

What tool should I use? People often ask the question but there is so many different products and opinion out there that it may make it difficult for you to find something that works with your dog and budget. 

 

So I’m going to start with the less obvious, the electric nail trimmer.

 

It’s a great tool which can make the task a bit less dangerous per says if used correctly. The only thing you have to do in order to make it pleasant for everyone is to make it something your dog will be looking forward too/ enjoy it . This is going to require some conditioning, maybe a bit more than with the regular cutting tool as they are silent.  These electric trimmers often come with a guard that guides you and gives you an idea as to when to stop trimming.  Another great feature is that you can actually round your dog’s nails, which is priceless especially if you’ve ever got scratch after clipping your dog’s nail. Oh so painful.

Seen on TV

The other options are the guillotine trimmer and the scissor trimmer.

The Scissor trimmer is exactly that a trimmer that functions exactly like a regular pair of scissor besides the fact that the blades are shaped for the job.

DO NOT USE REGULAR SCISSORS

 

 

The Scissor trimmer is perfect for the dew claw (the dogs thumb) as it you are less restricted in comparison to the guillotine style trimmer. 

The guillotine, well it’s exactly that a guillotine a scissor like shaped too that hold the nail in place and a blade goes up and down to cut the nail.

 

 

Where do I cut you may ask, well first let me tell you that there are blood vessels in your dog’s nail (the quick), not at the tip but its there.  

 

 

 

So let’s see how can avoid it and get these nails trimmed.

If the nail is clear and you can see the pink quick simply cut before it on an angle.

 

What if I can’t see the quick because the nail is too dark? Well this a bit more tricky. You’re going to want to cut it in small portions still on an angle.
 

As you cut off small pieces of the nail, look at the cut edge of the nail. (1)The light tissue is the curved bottom part of the nail. The mottled light and (2)dark tissue is the top part of the nail.

As you cut the nail deeper, you will see (3) a homogeneous gray to pink oval starting to appear at the top of the cut surface of the nail. Stop cutting the nail at this point as additional cutting will cut into the quick. All that’s left to do is a little filling if need be and your all set. 

Thanks for reading, now get trimming 

Kevin.

Please note that we are not responsible for any injury that may result in applying the above methods