How To Care For Your Dog’s Paws

I attempted to clip the nails of our bassador, Troy, for only the second time since we got him in October. Fortunately, his twice daily walkies keep them fairly trim. Well, unlike the first time, he was NOT happy with me and even yelped a few times. I couldn’t understand why, as I didn’t cut into the quick. I can only assume that I may have pinched it, thus causing his discomfort. Next time, I will try our Pedi-Paws nail trimmer.

At any rate, this got me to thinking, our little guy has had some trouble with his paws since we got him, including cracking and bleeding. We have tried dog booties, but he’s not particularly fond of them. Oh, he’ll wear them without a lot of fuss, but he can’t wait to get them off. Now we’re dealing with pain when we clip his nails. It made me wonder if we were doing everything we could for our little guy’s paws.

It was then that I ran across this excellent article at Dogster about How To Care For Your Dog’s Paws. It discusses such topics as trimming your dog’s nails, being aware of seasonal hazards (such as snow and ice, chemical de-icers, scorching pavement and sand), inspecting your dog’s paws (both underneath and between the toes) on a regular basis, as well as trimming the fur on the bottom of their paws. I admit, some of these things we haven’t done, though I’ll be sure to pay attention to them going forward.