Start at the tip of the nail and clip a little at a time. Look out for a dark spot in the middle of the clipped area, which is the start of the quick, and do not cut too far into this. Have some styptic powder handy the first few times you do this because cutting into the quick can cause profuse bleeding.

Explains how to trim nails for dogs

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How to care for a dog

Dont your dogs do road work. It seems an awful lot to be clipping nails weekly. I have very really needed to clip nails, even when I had dogs that seldom went off the farm they seemed to wear them down. My standard poodle needed hers doing but they used to shatter so I had to give up on them - the vet could not do them either. They were really weird and would break off high up and cause a nail bed infection every so often.

Yep mine do road work and between 20 - 30 miles a week trotting next to bike on concrete.

All my dogs have always needed their nails clipping every week, not sure whether it is due to fabulous nutrition or high metabolism.

They are all different.

Horses basically run on their toenail. When we want them to cope barefoot we introduce them gradually to different surfaces. Tarmac roads are wonderful for stimulating growth and strength. I wonder if it's the trotting on roads that is actually stimulating your dogs' nails to grow and that's a contributory factor.

My dog runs over lots of different surfaces, from gravel, stones and rocks to mossy plains and muddy fields. She runs, turns, drops and slides to a stop. Her claws, including her dew claws are all strong, blunt and short and have never needed clipping. However, she's only 10 months old, so we shall see.

My boys walk/run for miles, not too much tarmac or concrete, far too hard on their joints, but loads of surfaces like ^^ above poster. Claws vary on how often they need doing ,but probably 6-8 weeks in between clippings for Dalmatian ,far less for GSP.

Another tip, is if you hook your fingers under the paw and gently extend it below the area of the nail you're going to trim, the quick is retracted a little bit and you've less chance of catching it and it bleeding. Sounds complicated but it's just like stretching your finger out to cut your own nail. ...

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