Clipping your Danes nails from an early age.

I use a Dremel tool when caring for my dogs’ nails. It’s a popular method for the show circuit, but aside from that I prefer the short, rounded nail the Dremel gives you verses the long, sharp, jagged nail you get from dog toe nail clippers.

I can’t stress enough the importance of starting nail maintenance while your dog is a puppy. I dropped the ball on my dog, Suzy’s, nails when she was a puppy and now trying to do her nails is a complete cluster. I can’t even touch the Dremel without her sneaking away from me. Then we have a 20 minute wrestling match, which as you can imagine isn’t pretty. The whole event obviously stresses her out, and me for that matter. I feel horrible about it all, especially considering it’s my fault and it could have been avoided if I had started and kept up her nail maintenance when she was a puppy. Life piled up and I neglected her nails. Between shuttling two kids around, health issues, dealing with winter and everything else, when I would go to trim her nails she would buck, and I let her win. Which I now immensely regret, considering wrestling a 40-pound puppy would have been easy, wrestling a 120-pound dog is not easy. My advice to anyone who gets a puppy, no matter the breed, trim their nails starting day one and touch their feet frequently!

Aside from the Dremel tool, another must have for nail trimming is a over the counter medicine called Quick Stop. You can get it from your local pet shop or pet magazine. It’s a miracle powder that aids in coagulation of blood. No matter how good you are at trimming nails, you are bound to cut the quick of the nail. Its not a matter of IF, its just a matter of WHEN, so be prepared with Quick Stop. You pour a bit of the powder in your hand and dip the dogs bloody toe nail into the powder. Keep holding their paw for another minute or so until the wound coagulates.

I recommend trimming your dogs nails every two weeks. The more you trim the nails the more the blood vessel will retreat back into the claw and eventually you won’t have to trim them as frequently.

After the trim I give my dogs treats and cuddles so they know they did a good job, and they immediately move on to their next adventure rather than dwelling on the idea of the nail trimming.