Dog owners - Q about clipping nails

luvmykids wrote: Do you do it yourself, or take them to the vet or groomer? My mom was trying to tell me how easy it is but I'm terrified I'll cut it too short or that I'll do something that freaks the dogs out where they won't let me finish it

TrulyBlessed replied: I'm nervous about cutting my dog's nails also. I tried to a couple of times but he growls at me and that makes me even more scared. I'm going to ask the vet about it when I take him in on Thursday. My mom has no problems cutting her dogs nails.......

jcc64 replied: I've been wondering about this too. My dogs' nails are wayyyyy too long, but I have some big dogs- I think some heavy duty equipment would be needed to cut through those suckers. Let me know what you find out.

mckayleesmom replied: If you do it in the right light...its not that hard. Usually you can see the blood line in the nail....You just clip right up to that line but don't clip the blood line. You can go to the pet store and get this powder stuff to stop the bleeding in case you accidentally hit that line, but if your dogs will let you and stay still...You can probably manage it.

luvmykids replied:
That's what I'm afraid of....how many nails on a paw, times four paws? That is a lot of sitting still

And like Jeanne said, my dogs have huge nails and I'm afraid the "standard" clippers wouldn't do it and we'd be that much worse off

grapfruit replied: I used to do our littler dogs and rabbits all the time. The big ones were outside and never needed it because they dug and ran around.

Just walk them on the concrete more

Seriously, unless they're black or really dark, they're not that hard. If they ARE dark then just take a little bit off at a time. I wouldn't go past where the little triangle opening is underneath. (Does that make sense?) that's about where the quick starts.

I grew up on a farm and wanted to be a vet but didn't want to go through all the school. Stupid mistake *sigh*

luvmykids replied:
The big dogs are outside a lot and play and run on dirt, rocks, concrete, you name it...but I noticed todays Bogie's are REALLY overgrown. I do take him for walks but since we live on a dirt road....

mckayleesmom replied: Some vets will do them for you.

jem0622 replied: Petsmart does not require an appt to do it, and the charge is minimal. We plan to do the same for our German Shepard.

A&A'smommy replied: its SUPER easy, all you have to do clip to a little bit above the wick...

HuskerMom replied: My dog used to keep her nails trimmed herself. She would just chew on them and always kept them nice. She was such a girly girl.

MoonMama replied: She gets it done when she goes to the groomers each month (she's a Peek-A-Poo so has to be groomed a LOT) it costs me about $11 each time. Less stress on both of us.

mom21kid2dogs replied: We take Parker to the vet where her tech trims them. They charge about $8. We used to trim our dauxie's nails but we'd cut them too close occasionally and they'd bleed. I hated that and we decided it was best left to the professionals. Dudley was a Cocker and was a high maintenence grooming dog. His got trimmed as a part of his routine grooming.
With Bailey (who I had to walk 2 hours everyday to maintain him in the house), walking on concrete sidewalks did to the trick. Parker gets an hour walk a day and his still grow like a wild beast. We get them trimmed about every 8 weeks.