How to cut a dog's nails

The quick of a nail is the living, inner part that lies up the middle of the nail. It contains nerves and a blood supply and it’s joined directly to the toe. The quick looks like a small, pink, pointed triangle. You can see the quick inside a white nail if you hold your dog’s paw up to the light, but you can’t see the quick in a black nail. The quick gets longer as a nail grows longer and as a nail wears down, the quick gradually recedes and gets shorter.

Sometimes, a nail might break or get pulled off, leaving the quick exposed. This will feel sore and sensitive for a couple of weeks and it might bleed if it gets knocked or scratched. It will dry up and recede towards the base of the nail, but it’ll remain vulnerable until the new nail grows back (which, in most cases, it will), after a few more weeks. Until then, it will need to be kept clean and dry. If it does get knocked and bleed, you can bathe it in cold plain or salty water and apply pressure to it, using your hand or a lightly applied dressing, if it keeps dripping. Usually, a damaged quick will stop bleeding after a few minutes, when normal blood clotting processes are activated. If you’re worried about an exposed or bleeding quick, or a damaged nail, your vet team can advise you further.

Many active dogs will not need to have their nails trimmed, as they’ll wear down their nails naturally. Even the dew claws (found part of the way up the front legs) wear down when the dog performs tight turns. Some breeds, however, even if they are active, may need to have regular nail trims because the shape of their feet prevents their nails from wearing down so easily. Sighthounds, for instance, normally have long toes and their nails point forwards, rather than towards the ground. 

Dogs who can’t be exercised normally, perhaps because they’re very elderly or because they’re recovering from a procedure and are resting, might need to have their nails trimmed, since they won’t wear down naturally.

If you do need to trim your dog’s nails, it’s better to maintain them on a weekly basis, rather than trying to do a big trim infrequently. This way, you can nibble off small amounts of nail, rather than taking big cuts. You’ll be less likely to squeeze or cut the nail quick and you should be able to keep your dog practiced at having a relatively quick procedure, with plenty of rewards.

It’s true that many dogs really dislike having their nails cut. There could be one or more reasons for this. Some dogs don’t like having their feet handled at all so, even though they may never have had a bad experience with nail trimming, they are on edge and worried about anything involving their feet. They might have a condition that makes their feet painful or sensitive, such as osteoarthritis or allergic skin disease. They may have had a previous non-nail-related foot problem (such as having had a grass seed between the toes), that has made them worried about procedures involving their feet. Other dogs have had a nail trim that has put them off repeating the experience. When accidentally a nail quick gets cut, it’s uncomfortable for the dog and they’ll remember exactly what was happening before they felt the pain. Naturally, they’ll want to avoid the same thing happening again so, as soon as the nail clippers come into view, the dog is on edge. Even if you’re really careful and you don’t squeeze or cut the nails, once your dog has had a bad experience, they might still associate the clicking sound of the trimmers with discomfort.

A nail quick doesn’t have to bleed for trimming to be uncomfortable. Depending on the person’s technique when trimming nails, a nail can become squashed around the quick, or the nail or toe can be pulled or twisted. These all make the experience unpleasant for the dog, so they start to try to avoid having the procedure done.

If a dog has had to be restrained heavily to have their nails trimmed in the past, they’re more likely to become upset or to panic when they see the same scenario developing. This can make it more and more difficult to carry out a nail trim as time goes on, as the process becomes more aversive for the dog each time.

When nails grow longer, the quick also grows longer, but the quick recedes again if nails are gradually worn or trimmed down. If your dog’s nails have become too long and exercise alone isn’t helping to reduce them, you’ll need to perform regular, gradual trims to ensure that you reshape the nails without cutting the quick.

Initially, using the technique described above, long nails should be trimmed back to a point just before reaching the quick. Be gentle and remember that, if your dog’s nails have been touching the ground or if the toes have been gradually twisted or pushed out of a natural position, nail trimming might be an uncomfortable procedure for your dog. After the main trim, weekly maintenance, nibbling a little of the nail shell away at a time, should bring the nails gradually back to a healthy length with correspondingly short quicks.

Many dogs will never need to have their nails cut, while others will need to have a regular trim. Your dog’s breed and activity levels will determine whether you’ll need to trim their nails. For instance, sighthounds tend to have quite long, low foot conformation and their nails often point forwards, rather than towards the ground, and this can make it quite difficult for them to wear down their nails naturally. Older dogs, who only take gentle exercise, may not wear their nails down adequately.

If a dog’s nails keep growing and don’t wear down or get trimmed, eventually, they can push the toes upwards or sideways when the paw touches the ground, which is uncomfortable and can alter the way the dog moves. Dew claws (on the toe that’s found part of the way up the front leg and, in some dogs, also on the hind leg) can curl around and dig into the toes themselves, causing pain and infections.

If you’re trimming your dog’s nails and you cut the quick by accident, it will probably bleed and your dog is likely to react to the sudden pain, by yelping or withdrawing their paw. It can be very difficult to know where the quick lies inside a dark-coloured nail, so this is much more likely to happen in a dog whose nails are black or brown. If your dog has some white nails, you’ll have an idea of the size and shape of the quicks from the nails in which they’re visible and you can cut dark nails accordingly. Even so, you might be unlucky and catch a quick. You may not cut enough of the quick to make it bleed, but if you look at the cut surface of the nail and the centre looks pink or red, the quick is exposed and there is risk of discomfort, bleeding and, potentially, infection. In this case, stop trimming and allow the quick to recede over the next couple of weeks, while keeping an eye on it.

If you’ve made the quick bleed, how much bleeding to expect and how easily you’ll be able to stop it will depend on how much of the quick has been cut off. If you’ve just nicked the tip, you might see little dots of blood on the floor as your dog walks around. You might see blood slowly welling up in the centre of the cut surface of the nail if you hold up your dog’s paw. If you’ve cut further up the quick, it may drip or even trickle blood. You can try applying pressure to the wound by means of a pad of cotton wool, kitchen roll or gauze soaked in cold, plain or salty water, using your hand or a light dressing to apply pressure. Cotton wool and kitchen roll may stick to a wound if they become dry, so don’t leave the pad in place longer than about 10 minutes. If the quick is still bleeding after this time, apply a new dressing and give your vet team a call for advice. They may recommend that your dog visits them to have the nail cauterized using a caustic pencil, a special pencil or a stick that has a tip made from silver nitrate. In most cases, this can be done in a normal appointment slot. Whether the bleeding stops straight away or the following cauterization, you’ll need to keep a close eye on the nail for the next week or two, in case it gets knocked and starts bleeding again, and you’ll need to restrict your dog to gentle exercise on soft, clean surfaces.

You could buy your own caustic pencil, to be kept handy if you are trimming your dog’s nails yourself. Beware that silver nitrate does sting when it’s applied to a cut nail quick and your dog may react to having an already sore nail touched with something that stings. You may need help to restrain your dog if you’re going to use a caustic pencil at home. If you’re in any doubt at all about your dog’s reaction to having their sore nail treated, don’t put yourself at risk of being bitten, or of losing your dog’s trust. Contact your vet team, who will be glad to help.

It’s not a good idea to try to cut a dog’s nails with scissors. Dogs’ nails are usually pretty tough and scissors can’t cut through them easily, so you can end up with splits and cracks. Also, the action of the two scissor blades crossing can twist the nail, making it uncomfortable for your dog. The other thing to remember when you’re using scissors around animals, is that they often wriggle, especially if they’re having their feet touched, and you don’t want to risk an injury from the blades.