Groomer’s Trick to Cutting Your Lab’s Toenails
Keeping your lab’s nails short not only looks clean, but will prevent them from having accidents.
Trimming the nails can be quite tricky especially if your lab can get a little restless during grooming period. If you keep at it and make it a routine, your lab will probably get the idea that he or she needs to take it and get it over with.
We have a few tips below you can use the next time you think of trimming your lab’s nails.
There are several different types of clippers on the market. The plier type(E) has worked the best for me. I do my dogs’ nails once a week, because they grow so fast, so they don’t over-grow and damage the dogs’ feet. You can cause a splay-foot by not keeping the nails short. I admit, I have a Lab foot fetish. I like a nice tight Lab foot. Splayed-feet drive me crazy. Plus if your dog has dew-claws, that dew-claw can grow back into the dog’s foot. Just think how painful that would be if it happened to us. Its painful for the dog too. So do try and do the nails if not weekly, then every 2 weeks. By just trimming off the tips when needed, you will save both you and your dog a lot of pain and aggravation.
Yellow nails are by far the easiest of the nail colors to do. If you look close enough you can actually see the quick in the nail.
This is one of my yellows. Look close, can you see the pinkish quick? Its not the best picture, but you should be able to see it.
This should help you. Look just above the dotted red line. The vertical red line is where you should make your cut. You will miss the quick this way. Sometimes shining a flash light back through the nail will help you see the quick easier.
Black nails can be a bit tougher to cut. You can’t readily see the quick in a black nail. I’m here to show you how you can. Old groomer’s trick. 😉
Turn the foot over and look at it from the bottom. Look closely. See the little round part on the underside of the nail? That’s your quick.
Look where the arrow leads. See that little round part now? You would cut just to the right of that, where the solid red line is.
Its not hard when you know how.
IF you should happen to cut the quick even with these guidelines, don’t panic. You can buy QUIK STOP at most pet stores. Just have it standing by before you start doing nails, just in case.
If you don’t have QUIK STOP you can coat the bleeding tip of the nail in flour or cornstarch to help slow down the bleeding. Another good choice is a bar of soap. Dig the nail into the bar of soap to put a little blob of soap on the end of the nail. Its important to not let the dog lick the nail and take off whatever it is you’ve used to stop the bleeding.
You can read the full article on Wodd Haven Labs here.
Images taken from woodhavenlabs.com
Image credit: Shannon Huppin
