Paw care is extremely important because a dog’s paws take the impact of their entire body weight. Making sure paws stay healthy is a must.
Paw Grooming Tips to Keep a Dog’s Paws Healthy
Shaving the Bottom of the Feet
When getting ready to shave feet, a set of dog clippers is needed, along with a 30 blade for a nice close cut when shaving the bottom. A 10 blade at home works too. For a really small dog, a toe blade, the same height as a 30 blade but smaller, works better for little dogs.
How Comfortable Are Your Dog’s Paws?
The important thing about shaving the feet is holding the clipper properly, on the sides, not with a palm grip. A 45-degree angle while cutting means being able to get a finger on the back side. Holding it wrong tends to lift up and not get a close cut.
Start by going from the back of the pad forward, which gets that little bit of hair that can bring mud into the house. Then focus most of the energy on going from the tip of the pad back toward the big pad at the back. The hardest thing for people to learn is to keep the clipper on the pad, since being up off the pad means it won’t cut.
Keep Nails Short
Another important tip for dog grooming is keeping nails short. If nails get too long, it can put pressure and pain on the toes and paws, which can ultimately put strain on the whole leg. Long nails are also prone to splitting and infection.
Trim the Hair Between the Pads
Paw hair can easily pick up debris and can get matted really fast. If the hair is really long, it can cause slips and slight injuries, and it folds beneath the pad, causing stability problems especially on laminated or tiled floors.
To trim, hold the leg and paw in a natural position by bending the wrist. If using scissors, use just the tip of the scissors, not the whole blade, lifting the paw and carefully and gently scissoring the excess hair. Give the dog a rest, then open the paw again to trim in between the pads, keeping the scissors flat and not digging in, since that risks damaging the webbing between the pads, trimming a little bit at a time.
Check Regularly for Irritation, Dryness, and Cracks
To get rid of dry, cracked paws, first clean the paws to remove debris and germs from the cracked pads, either with a saline solution wash, a food-soaked bath recipe, or a soothing antiseptic spray for dogs that don’t like a bath or foot soak.
After cleaning, applying a small amount of paw butter on the affected surface and gently massaging it in soothes and moisturizes dry, cracked paw pads and creates a barrier over the affected area to prevent further damage.
DIY Paw Scrub Recipe
For particularly dry paws, a sea salt and coconut oil scrub can help. One tablespoon of coconut oil and one teaspoon of sea salt, mixed together really well, is all that’s needed. Wash the dog’s feet well, apply the scrub with gentle circular movements and massage, then rinse with warm water.
A scrub’s most obvious benefit is exfoliation, the removal of the oldest skin cells on the skin’s outermost surface, and granulated particles of sea salt slough off surface skin cells and smooth rough patches of skin.
Quick Ways to Clean Dirty Paws
Dogs don’t wear shoes when they go outside, so when a dog goes out for a walk or to relieve themselves, they scratch the ground with their hind paws, picking up mud in the process, or their paws get wet from wet grass and catch dirt on daily walks, tracking mud and dirt through the house afterward.
Bath Mat
Placing a bath mat right inside the door where a dog comes in works well, since bath mats have absorbing material and rubbery bottoms that don’t slip. Training a dog to stop and rub paws down on the mat for a few seconds every time, always using the same door, keeps the dog from getting confused.
Dog Plunger
A dog plunger is a small silicone pot with soft rubbery bristles inside. A little bit of detergent and water in the plunger, with the dog’s paw stuck inside and wiggled around, lets the bristles gently scrub off mud stuck between the toes.
Paw Cleaning Mitt
A paw cleaning mitt is worn over a person’s hand, with the palm made from many thick, flexible fingers of top-quality microfiber material that enhances cleaning power and reduces effort. Slipping a hand inside and wiping the dog’s paw gets the little fingers in and around the nails and between the pads to take out every piece of mud, and the mitt can be tossed in with laundry afterward.
