Dog Nail Clippers

Dog Nail Clippers

What are Dog Nail Clippers?

Dog Nail Clippers come under the category of grooming tools meant for dogs. They are mostly designed ergonomically which ensures a careful nail cutting process. These tools are made in a way so that you do not find cutting the nails of your dog as painstaking procedure. You can use nail clippers for all kinds of dogs which are of different sizes.

The dog nail clippers are made of steel which is of a high quality and has sharp blades to ensure smooth cutting. The blades of a good quality clipper stay sharp even after multiple uses and will last your for years. Such clippers have a good grip which will not let it slip away from your hands. The handles are designed to perfectly fit into your hands so that you do not accidentally cut or injure your dog through the course of cutting.

Types of Dog Nail Clippers

There are mainly two kinds of Dog Nail Clippers: Scissors clippers and Guillotine clippers. The names are suggestive of the way they work. The former works like scissors with which stronger and bigger nails are fit to be cut. The guillotine clipper works like a guillotine where you have a hole inside which the nail has to be put and then squeezed. Dogs of a small size or medium size have nails that are fit to be clipped with this kind of clipper.

How to use Dog Nail Clippers?

Are you ready to start with the nail cutting sessions already? But wait! Before you get all excited, let us tell you that this will require some time. The preparation time is more than the actual time required to chop those extra nails away. Try making your dog comfortable with a pay or foot massage so that it knows how to deal with a touch on the paws. You have to understand that a nail clipper is an object that your dog has never seen before so it is highly likely that it will react unpleasantly to a foreign tool.

The key is to be patient and loving towards your pet and then start with process gradually. Here are a few simple steps:

• Select a room that has enough light so as to avoid accidents while cutting nails
• Make the environment in that room favorable to your pup by playing with it in the room
• It is better if you cover your nose and mouth while cutting nails so that you do not inhale nail dust
• We suggest that you tie your dog with the leash so that it cannot escape suddenly half way through the process
• Hold your dog close by placing your arms on the body of your dog after making it lie down sideways
• Do not start cutting if your dog is jumpy. Start only when you are sure that your dog is calm
• The paw should be held firmly in a grip but too so much that it pains your dog.
• Take the clipper in the other hand and hold it at an angle to match the curve of the nail. Make sure your grip is strong on the clipper.
• Start with making small cuts on the nails so that you do not end up chipping more than what is required.
• You will reach a circle that will be of the nail color. When you reach this circle after multiple clippings of the nail, you should stop because that circle has a vein which is known as a quick. If you cut past the quick, your dog will start bleeding on the nails.
• When all the nails have been clipped finely, file or smoothen then with the help of an emery board.

Safety rules for using Dog Nail Clippers

As we have mentioned above, you should begin by cutting small parts of the nail so that you do not reach the quick when you start. This might lead to injuries resulting in heavy bleeding. If you have made a mistake which happens often in the case of dogs with black nails, you will want to have some things handy.

Before you start the cutting, make sure you have some corn starch or styptic powder at home. When the nail bleeds, immediately apply one of the two to stop bleeding instantly. The powder has to be applied with some pressure to the nails and held for a few minutes for the bleeding to cease. If the bleeding still persists, then rush to the vet immediately.

Why is cutting the nails of your dog necessary?

This is a very valid question that customers often ask. After all, it is true that long nails will help your dog to be more protective in nature. Plus, the whole cutting process gets eliminated. But, this is not the case. The truth is that long nails prevent your dog form walking smoothly because dogs use their toes to walk. Claws that have grown too much will hurt the nails of your dog by putting pressure at the base of the nails. This will then make the toe go crooked by moving the paw sideways.

Long nails will cause hindrance when your pet wants to move around also because of the fact that they will feel an obstruction when the nails come into contact with the earth. Over a long period of time, your pet will keep having pains in the joints, tendons, and the muscles of the feet and might end up being arthritic. No wonder that nail clippers have become such an indispensable accessory for dogs these days.