Miley has never had her nails trimmed. She runs a lot, and her nails wear down naturally– as dog nails are supposed to do.
This is one of her front dewclaws, which also wears down as she runs. These dewclaws touch the ground whenever she changes direction abruptly.
It’s so worn down that I have to dig it out with my thumb to show you.
All the dogs I knew growing up spent a lot of time running hard outside– except my grandmother’s miniature dachshund.
She had to have her nails clipped, and oh boy, did she hate it.
I can still see my grandpa holding Heidi in a towel while my grandmother held her jaws shut so Gramps could clip them.
When I asked him why the bigger dogs never got their nails clipped, he just told me it was because they were out running all the time and they naturally wore them down.
You can tell from Miley’s feet that it would be a one in a million shot for her to damage that dewclaw. It’s so well-aligned and gets so worn down that there is virtually no way for it to catch on anything.
I am glad she has them, though. There is a chance she may have to pull herself out of an icy pond some time.
There is a greater chance of that than any chance of her tearing a dewclaw.
Simple risk analysis.
Dog people don’t have it.
My GR’s nails also wear naturally. She also doesn’t have dewclaws (breeder’s decision). My first GR’s did not wear naturally, even though she was a lot more active than my current dog. The first one also tore a front dewclaw. I’m guessing that some dogs just have softer nails than others.
Sample size of two, though, so I can’t generalize except to say that it does take some patient training to get dogs to tolerate messing with their feet.
She loves to have her feet touched and rubbed.
Could be cause she’s never been quicked!
If you never trim them, you never quick them.
One of the first thing I do with young puppies is play with and rub their feet. All my dogs enjoy having their feet rubbed and massaged, so clipping nails is no problem. Oddly enough, even though my wolfhounds are out and active for a good part of the day, I still have to trim their (huge) nails regularly. This may be because they have hard nails, or it might be because they also spend a lot of their time sprawled on the couches behind and beside me as I sit here at the computer desk. On another note, I enjoy following Retrieverman’s blog because he seems be one of the few people with a blog on dogs who bases most of what he writes on common sense.
It is true that dogs’ nails vary in hardness. Black nails are usually the hardest, white/pink news the softest. The same is true of horses– ask any farrier. One reason old horsemen did not like white feet; the hooves are softer and more easily damaged.
Wet nails wear more quickly, and of course the surface on which the dog moves makes a difference. I’ve seen dogs kenneled on concrete wear their nails and pads down to bleeding nubs from the dogs’ endless pacing and circling.
I rarely have to trim my dogs’ back nails, however I do trim their front ones about once per month.
I would say my dogs (aussie and lab) get average exercise, considering we live in town. Their nails also seem to get harder as they age (or maybe I just need new clippers!)
Also, the breeder I got my aussie from told me she was on the fence about removing dew claws, but decided to leave them on. I sent her the video you shared with the golden climbing out of the pond, she responded that she was glad she left them, and will continue to do so :)
Another factor in toenail wear is the angle of the bones in the paw. A dog with flat feet will wear the pads on the bottom of their feet, yet still have long sharp nails, even with lots of daily walking on sidewalks.
A dog with very steep bones in the paw (cat feet) will sometimes wear the toenails down until they bleed, but still show little wear on the black pads on the bottom of the feet.
Agreed, my dogs rarely have their toenails clipped, and they all have very hard black nails, but then again they go for really hard runs two or three times a day. The ground here is tough, hilly, lots of rocks and shale, so with all their running around, there really is no need to cut them down.
However, I have a real problem with people brushing their dogs teeth. Unbelievable, if you give them some big meaty bones every day, there is absolutely no need to do this. My dogs have a mostly natural diet (bones, chicken carcasses, wings, necks etc) and have never had any problems with tartar on their teeth, or losing their teeth and the other upshot of this is that they have never had to have their anal glands expressed. Just feed them like nature intended and the vet bills will decrease, and yes, as you said there is a simple risk analysis !
If I bought your risk analysis I’d have to have dewclaws removed! The chance of needing to get out of an icy pond in Florida is pretty close to zero.
My three are all chocolates with dark nails. I have to trim dew claws occasionally, but they take care of the rest.
One of my least favorite tasks when I worked at the vet clinic was trimming nails. Most owners never got them used to having their paws handled, then bring them to us to muzzle them, hold em down, and clip while they scream and poop and pee and express anal glands all over the place (and that’s just from the SOUND the clips make, heaven help them if we accidentally quick them, which I’d like to add, I did less often than any of the vets), then the owners treat US like the bad guys for “being mean”. Give me poop duty or surgery clean-up any day.
My own dogs rarely need trimming, which is good because I think I transfer my anxiety to them when I do it.