Nail Trims at Daycare

Let’s talk nails for a minute. Properly maintaining your dog’s nails is an important but sometimes overlooked part of their physical health. Keeping your dog’s nails short actually improves their ability to rebalance themselves. When our dogs’ nails are too long, it causes our dogs to distribute weight differently which can contribute to joint issues. Long nails also pose a higher risk for cracking or being torn if they are to get caught on anything. Like our own fingernails, our dogs’ nails are always growing, excessively long nails can start to curl back and grow into your dog’s paw pads causing pain and discomfort. It’s so, so important to keep up with nail trims as a part of your dog’s overall health!

Did you know you can that we offer nail trims at daycare? You can add a nail trim to any daycare visit!

There are many reasons to get your dog’s nails trimmed at daycare:

  • Nails are done by experienced staff they know

  • It’s an environment they are comfortable in

  • You don’t have to make an extra trip to the groomer or vet

  • It can take the fear out of doing it yourself

  • You can even set up a recurring nail trim schedule so you don’t even have to think about it!

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  • Before

  • After

So how often does your dog need their nails trimmed? Some dogs need nail trims as often as every week or two, while others need nail trims on a monthly basis. Just like our fingernails grow at different rates, so do our dogs’ nails. Some dogs are good at filing their nails down on their own based on their daily activities. You may notice your dog needs more frequent nail trims during the winter because they are not able to file their nails down as well in the snow. A good rule of thumb is if your dog is standing on a firm, flat surface and their nails touch the floor, it is time for a nail trim. If your dog has long quicks and you’d like their nails to be shorter, we’ll recommend cutting the nails on a weekly basis until the quick has receded to a preferred length and then we can move to a bi-weekly or monthly schedule.

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  • Before

  • After

  • Before

  • After

Some dogs are not a fan of their nails being trimmed. This could be due to a bad experience, their nails being cut too short and exposing their quick (where the nerves are), or maybe they have just never been a fan of paw handling. Nail trims are an inevitable part of their life, wouldn’t it be great if they didn’t have to be a stressful experience for them?!

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Relaxed and willingly allowing the nail trim

If your dog is uncomfortable with nail trims, we offer one-on-one training ($50/hr) to help them feel comfortable with them. During these one-on-ones, we will work on creating a positive association with paw handling as well as with the nail clippers. For these dogs, we recommend keeping a pretty consistent schedule even after the one on ones are no longer needed so that they continue to feel comfortable with their nails being trimmed.

We may recommend one-on-one training for dogs that:

  • Require multiple people for a nail trim

  • Are uncomfortable with paw handling

  • Display stress during nail trims

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When you get your dog used to paw handling, you can do all sorts of fun things - like painting their nails!

If you are interested in setting up a nail trim at daycare, just send us an email at info@thedogden.com or ask us about it next time you drop off your dog.  We are happy to help!

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