.com Forum · Real Show Dogs

... Well, the back ones seem to but the ones on the front paws... not happening. I trim my dog's nails every 1-3 days, which is more than most do. His nails seem to get shorter in the back, and are satisfactory. But the ones in the front look terrible. When we were still growing him out, I went a month or so without trimming his nails. But, for the past 3 months, I've been on the trimming every 1-3 days schedule. They're not ridiculously long, and certainly look shorter than any pet's nails, but they're on the longer side for a show dog in my opinion. I've always cut them down as far as I possibly can without cutting the quick. I don't get it. Has anyone else ever had this happen? It's certainly strange, I've never seen anything like it. He's on an excellent diet, is coming into coat, and his nails do grow quickly. But I still don't see how you could trim nails 2-4 times per week, and see very little difference over the course of 3 months.

One of my BCs is like this, to get them down shorter, I end up grinding them with the dremel daily. Just a touch to each nail to help pull back the quick, then every couple days to keep them nice and short.

Yeah, it hit me today when I took a long, hard look at him, and we have a show this weekend -_- . They've been trimmed daily for the past week and a half. I'd just really hate for people to be under the impression that I don't bother to trim nails often. Couldn't be farther from the truth LOL. They'd notice that the back is clearly short as well as the front dewclaws. I've seen GSDs in the ring with practically no nails, as well as ones that touch the floor. While I hate the situation with his front nails, I refuse to purposely quick them all. I've heard of people doing it, and have seen someone take a PBGV's nails all the way back to nothing. I really am at a loss though.

Do you dremel or cut?
I'm no where near as good as you - my dogs get their nails done once a week if I'm on top of things, usually closer to every two weeks.
gaiting on concrete will help to work them down too.

I've dremeled a few times, but typically cut. My dremel broke, but it was junk anyways. It hardly did anything. My dog has very strong and thick nails, so perhaps that was why. I used one from a friend once , and it worked pretty well. Nothing I couldn't accomplish cutting though.

And that's the thing, he's worked on concrete every single day. There's even a concrete slab on our acre of a backward that he uses pretty frequently when he's not being worked. He also has a bad habit of digging, which wears down nails as well. You would think they'd literally be nubs, but for some reason they're not in the front.

Perhaps try cutting the nails at a different angle? If he's not wearing them down himself maybe if you change the angle of the cut - tilted more toward the top of the foot for example - maybe the pressure he puts on the nail will change and they'll start to wear back?

If he likes to dig, make him an "emory board" out of course sandpaper stapled to a board. Teach him to dig on the board to file his own nails. If you start by putting treats under the slightly raised/angled board (assuming he's food motivated) he will learn to scratch on the board fairly quickly. once he's good at it, you can change the angle of the board while he's scratching to get better results. Won't help for this weekend, but might be an option to work on for the future.

I have the same issue with my girl. It's even worse, she has been dremeled every other day for over a year and her back nails are nubs but the fronts are longer and bother me. Like you, they aren't bad by pet standard, but for show they are unsightly! I have no idea how to get them down any further. We have a specialty coming up so I have been touching them with the dremel nightly and I get right to the quick.

I am interested in what people suggest!

A quick note on purposefully quicking nails- if he ever has to go under anesthesia for a dental or other procedure yoi can ask the vet tech to do it. Theyll cauterize before hes awake and be at a much more desirable length. We did this for some routinue patients who complained about long nails (as well as the horrific spca commercial worthy cases)
I never saw much difference in dremmeling vs just trimming back myself, it can help get a nice angle, but not much difference in how quickly it helps the quick recede

I have a dog with flatter feet and she grows long qwiks. Nothing I do makes them shorter including dremmel and cut them way back when she was under for her spay.

Dogs with a really nice arch and tight foot tend to have shorter qwiks from what I have observed in my grooming shop ( 20 plus years )

Update: Wr purchased a new dremel, and it is working much better than the clippers. Still a fairly slow process, though.

I know when you have a litter it is better to trim the nails every 3 days or so, encourages the quicks to recede and is so much nicer for the bitch. I always think 'lazy breeders' when I see litter photos and pups nails have sharp talon-like points. Makes the new owners job so much easier in maintaining them too.

I agree, and puppy nails are pretty easy anyways.

Hi guys, its an old discussion i see but here are lot of good thoughts on dog nail trimming. For those who need more information about dog nail trimming i recommend this article: https://ourpetsmag.com/how-to-trim-or-grind-dog-nails-tips-tricks/, you may find useful tips how short and often to trim, what tools to use.


-----
Last edited by Arabelo on 2/1/2021 3:51:14 PM