# My poodles paws



## barqui (Sep 6, 2011)

I'm thinking of shaving off the fur around her paws (so they look like little booties). Is this alright? The fur on the rest of her legs will remain, it's just the paws because I wash her paws everytime we come in from a walk and she also tramples on her pee quite frequently. So I might be washing her paws up to 4 times a day. I just thought shaving off the paws for now would help them dry faster. I don't want the paws to remain damp and cause fungal infection etc (that happens in humans... I'm not so sure about dogs hehehe...).

Another thing is her claws. Is there a sure-fire way of determining how much to cut? Her claws are black so I can't see where the quick ends. Can I go by length instead? She's really sensitive to any kind of pressure on the claws. Once I squeeze down on the claw she gives a huge reaction (and I was only testing with a teeny tiny bit at the end), how do groomers manage such a sensitive dog?


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

I can only tell you about the paws. My Schnauzer/Poodles have poodle hair. I always keep the hair on the bottom of their feet trimmed short. I use small hair scissors "carefully". I accidentally nicked between the pad once.  I found that it was easier to keep their feet clean and it keeps the hair from becoming matted and infected between the pads. I had that happen once. That is when I decided to keep it trimmed. I also trim with scissors around the sides and a little off of the top of their feet to make it easier for them to dry. Mine also have a tendency to have itchy feet if not taken care of like this. I wash their feet sometimes between baths. I just quickly blow dry them.

Someone will come along hopefully and explain the nails. My dogs have white nails and are easy to see the quicks.


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## Graco22 (Jul 16, 2007)

Breed trims on poodles have "clean" feet, meaning the foot is shaved clean and very short, up to the bend in the "wrist." I would recommend you have a professional groomer do this, as it is easy to cut the dog with clippers, and too dangerous to use shears. (of course shears will also make the foot look choppy and messy, clippers are very clean and smooth). So you can certainly have this done to maintain some cleanliness and ease of cleaning the feet. There is no sure way of knowing where to clip the nails. If you are uncomfortable doing it, again, I recommend a professional groomer. They can trim the nails, and dremel/file them smooth and short (Poodle nails should never be long enough to touch the floor, as it affects the structure of the tight foot, which leads to leg, shoulder and back problems.) She is cute!


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## barqui (Sep 6, 2011)

Thanks for the advice!! I brought her to the groomer for a wash and to get her nails cut, but it seems they grew out pretty quickly or the groomer didn't cut enough. Her nails are very long now. I would like to learn to do it myself. 

I decided to try cutting the fur round her paws. I didn't shave but used a small scissors (for human hair) to snip away the longer bits round the foot and tried to clean up the fur between the toes. I didn't do the clean look. Now it's like in between and I didn't cut the fur round the legs. My sister says she looks like she's on tip toes hahaha.... Doesn't look too good though. I'm thinking of ordering clippers for dogs and cleaning up the feet a bit more. Maybe will shortern the rest of her fur by an inch too. Is it very difficult to shave a poodle? I don't need to create the poms, I just want a standard length throughout the body. I'll do the head and muzzle by scissoring...

Also clipped the nails.... didn't go too bad. I used a flashlight to try to see through the nails. She struggled quite a bit at 1st but I gave her a treat for each nail I cut so after a while she calmed down. She still doesn't like the process. I cut into the quick on one nail, luckily it was just a little bit and she didn't seem to feel it. The bleeding stopped in no time. I just wanted to make sure none of the nails touched the ground (they were touching) as I did notice she was standing in a very odd way, like a little bow-legged. I hope it's not permanent???

How often can I trim her nails? What is the growth rate of the nails? I read somewhere that the quick will recede with regular trimming so I can keep her nails shorter? Now they look really long and they touch the floor very quickly.


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## Caniche (Oct 1, 2011)

I am not a professional groomer but to do my miniature poodle feet and face I love love love the wahl chromini. It is cordless, small in my hand and I never had an accident of cutting my dogs with it (you still have to be careful though). I ordered a second one just in case the one I have breaks. Wouldn't live without it lol.

For cutting nails both my dogs and I prefer a dremmel. I tried the pedipaws and peticure but they didn't last. I tried a dremmel alone but was freaked at the idea of catching hair in the dremmel so I bought the Peticure Safe Guard $19.95 from http://www.peticure-grooming.com/ It fits on top of most dremmel I think.
At first I used my husband's dremmel but I had a hard time controlling the speed. It was always going too fast and my dogs were twitchy. So now I have a cordless dremmel. I can adjust the knob on it much better so it goes slower. I trim a tiny bit each week or so to maintain.

This site http://homepages.udayton.edu/~jmerenski1/doberdawn/dremel/dremel.html I think will show you all there is to know on cutting nails with dremmel.

Hope it helps. Did I mention I love my chromini?


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## Graco22 (Jul 16, 2007)

barqui said:


> Thanks for the advice!! I brought her to the groomer for a wash and to get her nails cut, but it seems they grew out pretty quickly or the groomer didn't cut enough. Her nails are very long now. I would like to learn to do it myself.
> 
> I decided to try cutting the fur round her paws. I didn't shave but used a small scissors (for human hair) to snip away the longer bits round the foot and tried to clean up the fur between the toes. I didn't do the clean look. Now it's like in between and I didn't cut the fur round the legs. My sister says she looks like she's on tip toes hahaha.... Doesn't look too good though. I'm thinking of ordering clippers for dogs and cleaning up the feet a bit more. Maybe will shortern the rest of her fur by an inch too. Is it very difficult to shave a poodle? I don't need to create the poms, I just want a standard length throughout the body. I'll do the head and muzzle by scissoring...
> 
> ...


Nails grow fast, and small dogs nails get sharp even faster. I would recommend weekly filing/dremeling for best results. You can trim a bit off the nails weekly if you prefer trimming them. Just make small shave type clips with the trimmers until you are close to the quik (vein). You can buy syptic powder to have on hand should you bleed one. That will stop the bleeding immediately. 

I am not sure what type of haircut you are going for on your poodle, but clipping the feet is going to look much nicer, and not like she was all chopped up with scissors. And you always want to use a clipper to shave the hair out of the bottoms of the feet. As for her face, if you want a short/shaved face, do NOT use scissors, use a clipper. If you want a teddy bear head instead, then shears are good for that. 

There are many great clippers for what you need, feet, face, sanitary, etc. I would get one with an adjustable blade, and rechargeable. They are very handy for this type of work. I like the Wahl Bravura best, but the Arco, Laube Speed Feed, are good ones too..There are tons of them out there, as the poster below stated too, that is a good clipper for home stuff. Don't buy the cheap stuff at Petstores..you will be sorely disappointed. Get a quality clipper and keep taking her to the groomers every 6 weeks or so to keep up with the rest of her coat and get her accustomed to being groomed. It will make her life less stressful if you get her accustomed to it while she is young, even if you decided to do everything at home later.


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## barqui (Sep 6, 2011)

Thanks caniche & graco! The Wahl clipper sounds good! Is Amazon a good place to buy it from? I don't wanna be ripped off by the pet shops here. Grooming dogs isn't a big thing in our country so such tools are a bit hard to find. I did see cheap ones going at the pet store (and almost bought one!!!) but ok I heard you 

As for the nails I think I'll follow what graco mentioned and do 'shavings' of trimmings weekly, probably will look up pictures of how a nail cross section should look like if I clip it properly. Filing/dremelling sound really ticklish but I'll try out filing since I have a file that came with the nail cutter.

A teddy bear cut is obviously in the order.... LOL... she's the perfect colour and size for a walking and barking teddy bear!! I saw this vid on youtube that shows how the person does the teddy bear look on a white poodle (it's pretty easy to find). Looks really good! I'll be able to do that in 10 years maybe... LOL... I think I'll bring her to a professional to get a teddy bear cut then do some maintenance on the paws, sanitary areas and face in between visits.

Regarding shaving the bottoms of the feet, do I have to dig in between the toes to get the hair out from there as well? Any possibility of clipping into her toes and hurting her?


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## Graco22 (Jul 16, 2007)

Yes you want to clip down in between the paw pads on the bottom of the foot. Its harder to nick them with a very short blade loike a 30 or 40. Just be gentle, and dont press hard. You want to "scoop" the hair out. If that makes you nervous at first, just shave flush with the pads til you are more comfortable. Over the course of a few months tho, that hair in the pads left will matt.


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