Some education for all of us!

I don't want to go into a big lecture about dogs and children interacting, but it is very sad to hear of accidents happening that could have been prevented.  It is heartbreaking for the whole family!

So here are some helpful tips on how children should and should NOT play with dogs.  And as well as that, some helpful images to recognise fear and anxiety in dogs...some are a lot more subtle than you'd think!

You could print these off and hand them to your kids.  I'm sure they would love to learn the correct way of playing with their furry friend!

Hope this will help and please share your new found knowledge with others!

Carolyn Zenker
Muttz For Cutz

On a lighter note...here are some funny dogs

Why dog's nails can bleed after trimming

When you trim as many nails as a dog groomer does, then seeing a little blood during nail clipping is nothing to be too worried about.  It can happen quite regularly and we know how to handle the situation.

However as a dog owner, it can be quite scary when you see your beloved pooch with blood on it's paws.  Dog's have a small blood vessel called 'quick' in their nails.  If you trim the nails a little bit too short then this will start to bleed.

 This is where the nail is trimmed just in front of the quick.  This is what you would aim for when you are clipping nails.

Here the dog's nails are clipped and the quick is exposed.  This will lead to the nail starting to bleed.  In most cases the dog will hardly feel this.  There are special clotting powders that can be applied to the nail which will stop the bleeding very quickly.

So why is it that the quick can become cut during nail clipping???  Well, when you are with a dog with black nails, it is very hard to estimate exactly where the quick ends.  In dogs with clear nails, it is easy to see the quick and to know exactly where to clip.  Due to this reason, black nails are a lot harder to clip that clear nails and they are usually the ones that end up bleeding.

As well as that, the quick can be shorter and longer in certain dogs.  All we can do is estimate where to cut the nail based on experience.  Most of the time dogs with nails that have been allowed to grow for a while and are very long will in turn have a much longer quick (as in, it goes a lot further down into the nail).  Dogs that have quite short nails also tend to have a shorter quick.

So the next time you experience nail bleeding after your dog's nails have been trimmed, don't be alarmed.  If you are clipping your own dogs nails at home, invest in some clotting powder (like Trimmex) which is readily available in shops.