Could the dry weather affect a dogs nails? Our standard poodle has always had lots of walks, especially as we are retired and go on holiday many times a year in our motorhome. This year he has worn 2 nails on each of his front feet right down to the quick? As this has never happened before, I am wondering if the dry weather and rock hard ground could be the reason? I have ordered him some boots from the internet, as we are due to go away again next week. He is nearly 5 years old and has never had his nails manually trimmed. He does bounce about and is very active, he also does a lot of scratching with his front feet after he has had a wee or poo. They have started to bleed quite a bit. My groomer told me to get some trimmex, which stops the bleeding.

Has he been in water? I find that sometimes my dogs nails wear down quickly after being in the paddling pool especially if they're chasing around on the block paving afterwards. I generally keep them out at that point and soak the affected paw in salt water with a slosh of tcp in it to dry out the quick.

Eventually the quick should recede - lucky the person whose dog does wear the nails down - unlike my Whippet who seems to grow nails like crazy, but never wears them down.   And yes, I'd have to imagine that the concrete-hard ground just now, would cause this.   When mine went into quarantine kennels, we had this with one of my boys who never moved that well.   Once on the concrete run all the time, he wore his front nails down to the quick - blood everywhere until the quick had gone back sufficiently that this didn't happen.

He had been in water, but no more than usual, thanks for your reply.

Thanks for your reply.You are so right about whippets, I also have a whippet, he gets the same amount of exercise (minus the bouncing around). His nails are horrendously long, we have to trim them every 6 weeks. We don't feel that lucky with the poodle at the moment, we are trying to limit his exercise, as we go away again next week and wanted to do plenty of walking. Just waiting for his boots to arrive.

We have whippets and cut their claws every 3 weeks to keep them reasonable.

I could/should! do mine every week although I don't.   Her feet are just so different to a Basset's foot and somehow I can't get them looking how I think they should look.

ps   She has a corn on one of the middle pads on a front foot.   Probably caused by not hitting the ground as she should!?    I have the corn hulled roughly every 3 months - or when she starts limping again.

I agree mama bass. Show dogs, I’m always being told,should have their claws done weekly, but that seems over the top to me and realistically each dog’s feet are different.

I used to do our Bassets every week, became a routine on Sundays after a good walk. Found it less stressful for both parties to do a little & often, & also with black nails regular checking & trimming meant that I hopefully knew what I was doing!

Trimmex is good, but Nail-Safe is better.  I used the Trimmex for years and I've tried a couple of other styptic powders and a liquid one but this works far better than any of them - the tiniest pinch stops it right away.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001IDEGTY/ref=asc_df_B001IDEGTY54491777/?tag=googshopuk-21&creative=22110&creativeASIN=B001IDEGTY&linkCode=df0&hvadid=218677846051&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16620912433539963359&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007055&hvtargid=pla-351083933918&th=1&psc=1

Thank you Nikita, I will look out for this.