lenght of dog nails

Question
I have a medium size dog.  During the summer months we go on 5-6 mile walks. His nails seem to be quite long.  You can hear them clicking when walking on concrete.  The groomer says that the walking will take care of them.  I don't think the nails are getting shorter.  What is the right lenght for dog's nail?  

Answer
Hello Ivonneschubert. I hope this will help. First you need to decide if the nail is cut as close to the quick (blood line) as possible.  Try this.  If you look at the nail straight on after making the first intitial cut, (which can be just 1/4 of the nail) you will then be able to see the core of the nail. You can see this whether the nail is black or white. The core will be all white at first then as you get closer to the quick you will notice that the center is getting darker. If you are familiar with trees when a tree is cut down at the stump the outter rim is lighter and the center is darker. (Maybe this will help give you the visual)As the center of the nail gets darker and more predominent you are getting closer to the quick. As far as how much you can take off each nail clipping, wheather it is weekly or biweekly really depends on how close you are to the quick. Check the inside (Core) of the nail to see how close you are. Basically the dot in the middle is darker the closer to the quick you are.  And for the best nail maintenence use a drummel tool to grind the nails. By grinding the nail not clipping, you will get a much nicer nail and of course no sharp edges. Most important over everything else when doing nail maintenence yourself always have Quick Stop (a powder used to stop the nail bleeding if youve cut to short) on hand. I never cut unless I have the bottle next to me. As far as infection, if you do cut the nail to short and it bleeds badly, as with any open wound you run the risk of infection. This is rare and my advice would to be to clip the nail just bits at a time so as not to severly cut the nail to short. This will give you a good beginning.  If you start out with a to long nail it will take you dog awhile to naturally wear the nails down by walking.  Once you have a good nail, then walking the dog on concrete will be like using a drummel to keep them short.  Good luck, Cindy lou :)