How to Trim Your Pet’s Toenails At Home

I’m always apprehensive when I trim my Schnauzers toenails. One of them has black toenails and it always makes me nervous that I’m gonna cut the quick so I ended up not ever trimming enough off.

A lot of people use a sander to trim their pets nails, but my dogs freak out by the noise of the sander, therefore, I have to use nail trimmers.

After watching this tutorial by DIYPetGrooms.com I felt more comfortable trimming their nails…especially the one with the all black nails! This was so helpful to me and I wanted to share this with you!

Why Nail Trims Are Important

If you hear your dog’s nails tapping on the floor when he/she walks, then it’s definitely time for a nail trim. When a dog’s nails tap on hard surfaces, it pushes their nail back up into their nail bed. This can be extremely painful for your pooch because it can put pressure on your dog’s toe joints. It could also force your dog’s toes to twist to the side, resulting in soreness or even arthritis.

What’s Inside Your Dog’s Nails?

Before we talk about how to clip your dog’s nails, you must know what’s inside of them. Underneath your dog’s nail is a quick. The quick provides the blood supply to the nail. Do not cut the quick. If you do, you will see blood gushing out of your dog’s nail. This is extremely painful for your dog. I cannot stress enough how sensitive this part is.

Cutting Black Nails

While cutting a dog’s white nails is typically done with one cut per nail, that’s not necessarily the case for black nails. Since it’s easier to see a visual aid, I have included a great video that highlights cutting black nails.

Watch how DIYPetGrooms.com does this in their step by step tutorial so you can feel more comfortable about trimming your pets nails!