[Dailydrool] Doing Nails

[JACQIE MARVICH]

I do ALOT of nails with a herd of 18 hounds and one weimaraner. Most of my dogs are pretty good about it. I have one that went to stay with someone else for a while when he was young and when he came home again he was totally freaked out about clipping his nails. I have no idea why. Boomer loves my brother who plans to adopt him when he gets his own place. So I have Joe come over and he does ear skritches and rubs his chest while I clip his nails. At first it took all we could do to get one foot done in 15 or 20 minutes. Now we can do all four feet with him only getting a bit upset on his front right foot. It's taken time but he is tolerating it well now considering how he was when he came back to me. 

One of my girls has solid black nails one all four feet. She has one white nail. She has always had longer quicks no matter how often I trimmed her nails. When she was being shown, I had to dremel her nails frequently to keep them short enough. It is very difficult to clip her nails without getting a little blood on a nail or two so I clip off just the point on each nail and use the dremel for the rest of the nail. I've never been able to keep her nails as some of the others but I don't hear her nails when she trots across the floor so they are short enough. She also has more petite feet and build than the rest of my dogs.

Each of my dog has indvidual differences about their nails. Some have much harder nails than others. Some are thicker and and have more color. Some of my bassets will just hand me their paws and sit there patiently while I clip away. Others look at me like "do we have to?" but they will let me do their nails without much fuss. I put most of them up on the grooming table and they get a small treat after each paw is done. I've found that if I'm using dulled nail clippers I will get more splitting. I also dremel the edges which helps prevent splitting and chipping. If your dogs have really dry nails that split easily, I would recommend adding a supplement to their diet. I have a few bassets that will lie down on the floor and hold their paws up for a trim. When I've done all four paws, we celebrate with some special goody like cheddar cheese, turkey jerky or turkey hot dog pieces. I generally do 3 or 4 per day till I have everyone is done. About once a month seems to keep their nails in good shape. The ones I'm showing get dremeled more often to keep their nails as short as possible.

Our weimaraner was a huge challenge as her breeder did not do her nails as a puppy. Their vet clipped them when they went to get vaccinated. At home they kept the puppies in a concrete run during the day while they were at work and the nails stayed short. Doing her nails was almost impossible. We had to start from square one and get her to let us handle her paws. Now she will sit in front of me and allow me to trim them without a fuss but it wasn't easy to get her to that point. She will evn allow me to use the dremel on them.

Jacqie Marvich
Oakrydge Bassets
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