# How do I find the quick in my dog's black nails?



## thebunnyexpert (Jan 22, 2010)

Anyone know? I want to start doing my dog's nails.


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## Dog_Shrink (Sep 29, 2009)

Follow the line of the pad leather where it meets the hair of the foot at the same angle that the line where they meet is going in and kind of draw an invisible line out towards the nail. The quick should be behind that line if the nail isn't overgrown and the quick elongated. This is a horrible pic because it's hand drawn but it gives you the idea I'm so horribly trying to explain.


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## Binkalette (Dec 16, 2008)

What I do is trim off a little bit, then look at the nail. If it's still white and powdery, you can keep cutting (in small slices), When you notice there is less white stuff, start watching for a small gray, kind of moist looking dot in the center of the nail. When you see that.. STOP. The quick is right behind that. Sometimes it helps for me to take little slivers off at slight angles until I can see the dot.


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## kazuldra (Jan 4, 2010)

I typically tell owners to turn the dog's foot back, as though they were shoeing a horse and trim parallel to the pads of the foot. If you have a helper, and the dog is small, one person can cuddle the dog on its back like a baby while the other trims. Don't trim at an angle, and don't trim closer. Then, like Binkalette says, if the inside is white and powdery, you can trim again, in thin slices until you see the center start to get dark again. When you're close, the outer shell will be dark, there will be a lighter ring inside that, and a greyish dot in the middle.

That's a good rule of thumb for nails that are maintained on a regular schedule. If the toenails have grown out a lot, the quicks may have also grown out longer, and more caution needs to be taken (namely just take the very tip and look at the anatomy, then go from there)

On some large breeds, then end of the nail past the quick will look hollow when looking at it from the underside. It's very easy to tell where the quick is in those, just cut off the hollow part.


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## Labsnothers (Oct 10, 2009)

Frequent small amounts works. There is always the Dremmel. http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/dremel/dremel.html


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