Tips for nail clipping?

Get a jar of peanut butter, or tahini, or a tub of cream cheese, and write her name on it. You're going to be using it regularly

On the first day, smear some on your fridge. While she licks, pick up a foot. That's all. Pick it up, put it down, and let her finish licking. When she's comfortable with that, move forward. Hold her foot, while she licks. After she's ok with that, hold her foot, and clip ONE nail, while she licks. You'll be doing this every day, so even one nail per day is going to get them all done. Eventually, you'll be able to work up to clipping all of her nails, and she should be a little happier about it, because she'll be getting a special treat, that she doesn't get for anything else.

I agree w/ Jennie, but if that doesn't work,  my guys really really really hate it too, so I just get it done, it takes two minutes when they do it and there is little drama. It's worth the money.

Be carefule cutting nails.  Maggie went to the groomer today and she slipped on the table, now her nail is waaay too short.  She was bleeding a lot out of her toe.  Luckily theres a vet in the building, so we got some powder to put on the cut to sterilize it and stop the bleeding.

My groomer only charges $5 for a nail clip. Much easier to have someone else do it and if they cut too short, your're not the bad guy.[]

One thing a lot of people don't realize.  The area right above the paw is very ticklish.  Instead of grabbing the paw, pick up the foot by the upper leg above the joint (or the upper hock on the rear), then pull the paw backwards towards the chest or up to the belly.  If the dog tries to withdraw the paw all he can do is go in the direction you are already going in - the muscles aren't as strong in the other direction.  Your dog will accept handling of his paws much more readily this way - I learned this watching my vet draw blood.

For tiny dogs work at eye level - either get right down on the floor or set them up on a sturdy, slip free table surface.  For larger dogs work on the floor unless you are lucky enough to own a grooming table.  Don't be tempted to get your dog in a headlock - be patient and use methods similiar to the above to desensitize your dog to being handled.  There may come a time when you need to handle your dog and won't be able to use brute force.  Plus this tends to make them leery of strangers' handling them in similiar ways, such as at the vet.

There are clippers with nail guards - I highly recommend these - it gives your the confidence to just whack away and get the job done.  You'll do it more often, too.

where do you find clippers with nail guards? one of our dogs has black nails, and we have been afraid of trying to trim them because we dont want to cut them too short. we have been taking him to a groomer to get them clipped, but they charge $9. we dont mind paying it, but he lets me handle his paws a lot more easily than he lets the groomers handle them.

Bradley you can get the clippers in pet smart or any pet supplier. With black nails there should be one or two lighter colored nails, or even one white, if there is use that as your guide, you can see how close the quick is then make sure to go no lower for the black nails leave the white one till last.

This actually answered a question of mine as well, thanks for starting the thread.
 
Kate

ORIGINAL: debv53

Bradley you can get the clippers in pet smart or any pet supplier. With black nails there should be one or two lighter colored nails, or even one white, if there is use that as your guide, you can see how close the quick is then make sure to go no lower for the black nails leave the white one till last.

his nails are pretty uniformly black, there are definitely no white ones, but i will check to see if any are lighter than others. amelia has a couple of black nails but most of her's are white. i will check with petsmart next time we are in there.

My dogs have totally black nails, too....

The weird thing is, Emma's were all CLEAR when she was a puppy!!

You can put a flashlight under the nail, and see the vein, in most dogs' nails.

Another clue as to where the quick should be on black nails (I've got a couple with nearly all black nails too) - the underside of the nail has a part where it goes from a round shape to concave - the quick will be about there 80% of the time.  If the nail is very badly overgrown, the quick might be forward of this but that's rarely true for normal lengths.

i think sydney's nails are normal length. we try to have them cut pretty often. i will try the flashlight idea too.

Thanks you guys. I'll try again using your ideas.

Ok i hope this helps....  bending the foot behind definitely helps.  Thats how I took these pictures on my 15 month old Great Dane.  I took before and after shots of her front right paw (unfortunately, her nails weren't very long, but it gives a good idea of where the quick is).  When looking at the bottom of the paw, there is a semi circle of nail that grows out and curls.  I think its best to only take a small bit of nail off, then slowly work your way back from side to side, top to bottom so you can widdle the extra semi-circle nail back down to being close to flush with the nail base.  Wow its hard to explain!  Anyway, I hope the pics can help.....
Here is a before shot: