NAILS NAILS
Oh those adorable little prancing Pug feet. How they hate to be touched. Ideally, Pug breeders should always have the Pug’s dew claws removed. Dew claws are the fifth nail that is on the side of their paws. Generally, only the front paws have the dew claws. The reason these should be removed is because the Pug is an indoor dog and these little nails that hang off to the side have tendencies to get hung up on blankets, carpet, ect...they may rip, bleed and cause pain and injury. They are also painful to a human who is sitting down only to have a Pug jump in their lap as the dew claws scrape their legs.
Pug’s nails should be kept short and blunt. It keeps their feet from splaying when they walk and it is much easier on your legs and arms as the Pug is a lap dog and spends most of his waking hours seeking a lap to jump in.
If you have ever tried to clip your Pug’s nails, you know it is not an easy task and no one likes to do it. It is almost impossible to get them to sit still and it generally takes one person to hold them down and another person to do the clipping.
You will need a good pair of dog nail clippers and possibly a doggy nail file and a bottle of quick stop bleeding powder. There is no easy way to tell you how to do this as it is a chore for me as well. I have seen other books that portray a Pug getting his nails clipped and it looks so easy. I am hear to tell you that it is not easy to clip a Pug’s nails. They hate it. One show breeder that I know bought a contraction from a pet magazine that hangs from the ceiling or whatever you can find to attach it too. At the end of this rope thing is what appears to be a straight jacket looking outfit. She puts her Pug in it as it completely immobolizes her with only her little chubby legs and head sticking out. As the Pug hangs in the air, tightly bundled, her owner can safely clip her nails without a fight.
Another friend simply tackles her Pugs and clips their nails as quickly as she can. Because they put up such a fight, she always has a bottle of quick stop on hand to stop the bleeding if she accidently clips to short and the Pug begans to bleed. Because the Pug’s nails are generally very black, it is difficult to tell where the quick is. The quick is the area in the nail that you should avoid cutting past. You may clip up to the quick area and should avoid bleeding. However, if you clip past the quick, the nails will bleed. You can apply baby oil to the nails and it is easier to see where the quick is.
If you do experience bleeding in from your Pug’s nails, put the quick stop powder generously on the site of the cut where the blood is oozing from. This should stop it from bleeding.
A sure way to have blunt, short nails and avoid the hassles of clipping them, is to walk your Pug daily on cement. This will surely grind her nails down naturally.