06/03/2025
The Importance of Trimming Your Dog's Nails
Trimming dogs’ nails is very important for more reasons than just avoiding the annoying clicking on the floor. Overgrown nails can lead to broken nails, especially in a drier climate. With mature dogs, untrimmed nails can cause decreased traction, affect mobility, and even cause pain.
A dog’s nails should be trimmed every 4 weeks depending on your pup’s growth rate. At the very least, they should be trimmed every 6-8 weeks. That frequency may seem like a lot, but the more you trim them, the less you have to trim off. I find this actually decreases the risk of quicking (cutting into the quick) your pup. Bear in mind that quicks grow as nails do. As a result, leaving nails unclipped for extended periods will mean significantly longer nails (even following a clip), because you cannot cut the nails back to their previous length without hitting the quick.
The quick is the blood supply in the nail, that can bleed heavily if quicked (the act of cutting into this blood supply).
When a dog’s nails break, they usually split up the nail toward the toe and can cause severe pain and be a risk for infection. If the nail fragment comes away, the exposed quick is quite painful on its own, and every time they bump anything with it, it’s even more painful.
In older dogs, you can see extremely long nails — so long that they can affect your dog’s ability to walk. If the nails are too long and the first thing to touch the floor, they can inhibit traction and make it even harder for old dogs with arthritis or other orthopedic impairments. Nails can get so long that they alter how the dog’s foot sits on the ground, causing discomfort and even resulting in arthritis over time.
