Contact your breeder.
3 words people probably get tired of hearing, and other people get tired of repeating. While it may not seem like it, that swizzling, shedding, barking, pooping, needy 100+ pound lump of love, and occasionally frustration, is your breeder’s life’s work, passion, and labor of love. They understand completely that they’re your pet and you may not eat, sleep, and breathe the swissy world outside of your house, but they do. Not a day goes by that I don’t have conversations centered around these dogs with several other breeders and owners from one end of this country to the other, and I’m not the only crazy dog lady. Ask any one of them to recite a random person’s swissy’s family tree and you’ll be there for a few hours. Ask the same about their own family tree and they can probably get it out in one breath. When you take home a puppy, you take with it an unseen and unspoken network of support and knowledge and experience. That’s the benefit of working with a quality breeder. They may not have all the answers, but they probably know someone who does, and will work endlessly to solve the issue, if and when they’re given the opportunity. Give them the opportunity. Give them the courtesy to be able to provide the support they signed onto 63 days before your dog came into this world, and the years before that. I have dogs 7 generations down from foundation stock. That’s 20+ years of blood, sweat, and tears. Don’t have a breeder, or they’ve fallen off the face of the earth since you brought home the puppy? Contact a breeder. This page is a great wealth of knowledge, no doubt about it. But as with all Facebook groups, it can also be a source of confusion and frustration, with a bajillion different answers of varying validity. So find a breeder and ask questions. I don’t know one breeder (and I pretty much know them all) who won’t take time out of their day to answer questions. Don’t know how? Message the admins of this page, they know how. Not sure when to spay your girl? Contact your breeder. Tired of loose stools and clear-the-room gas? Contact your breeder. Send them poop pictures, they love it. Frustrated with some behavior that is wearing on you? Contact your breeder. Take a cute picture of your adorable puppy doing something adorable? Share it with the masses on this page, and also with your breeder. They’re not just there to solve issues. They live for updates on their puppies. Send them a million sleeping puppy pictures, and a note about the cute things he’s done lately. And when they critique something, like weight, a risky behavior, or any other thing that can help your dog live longer, take it to heart. They’ve seen it all, good and bad. TL;DR, You have more support and knowledge than you may realize. Make your dog’s breeder your first contact every time. If you don’t have a breeder, contact one, and 9 times out of 10, they’ll give you the same attention and support they give their puppy owners. If they don’t, ask someone else. Side note, and a very important one, I use “breeder” as an all encompassing term for the sake of brevity in my not-so-brief rambling. It takes two to tango, so your dog likely has a stud dog owner to talk to as well. Occasionally, the breeder owns the bitch and the stud, but more often than not in this breed, the stud dog lives with someone else, and that someone else has additional years of knowledge and experience. Use that resource available to you. To continue sounding like the broken record I have felt like the past few weeks (years, really), contact your breeder. For the good things and the hard things, contact your breeder.
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Trim your dog’s nails, and then next week, trim your dog’s nails, and then, the week after that, do it again. They live their life on those feet, so it’s your job as a responsible owner to keep their feet healthy and comfortable. Every groom shop I’ve ever known will trim nails for a very reasonable price. I say groomer, because they tend to take the time to work with the dog, rather than pile on and do a quick, wham bam job, and the dog learns to accept it, rather than fear it. Embrace Wellness (and probably others) will also reimburse you for nail trims. You pay for the insurance, so get your money’s worth while avoiding health problems and unnecessary pain.
When do they need done? Every 1 to 2 weeks from birth on. Our puppies’ nails are clipped at a few days old, and by 8 weeks old have been clipped and dremeled more than a handful of times. Most breeders do the same, so you likely have a puppy who is used to it the day you take them home, so keep up on it. If you’re not sure why it’s important, walk around on your heels for a few days and see how your body feels. It doesn’t take much for them to be walking with bent toes, either twisted sidewise or up at an unnatural position. Walk the dog on a hard surface. Can you hear the clicking? Trim their nails. Can’t hear it? Good! Trim them anyway. What tool should you use? I much prefer a rotary tool (ie dremel), but my Chicago Electric brand tool has been the most reliable and cost about $20 at Harbor Freight 6ish years ago. My cordless tool was $18 at Walmart and has a light, which is amazing, but I like a corded tool for longer nails. Batteries dying with one foot left is frustrating. I use sanding bands, rather than stones, because they stay cooler. You can splurge and buy the diamond tip, but bands work just fine. Omg, but what if they bleed! Unless your dog has a serious medical issue, they’ll stop bleeding. Might look like a crime scene before it stops, but your dog won’t die. Cornstarch, styptic powder, a romp in the dirt, and the blood will stop. It’s pretty difficult to quick a dog with a dremel, and pretty easy to quick them with clippers. How do you teach the dog to accept it, and even *gasp* enjoy it? There’s a million answers for that. Ask your breeder, ask your groomer, ask your vet, ask other swissy owners, watch YouTube videos, grab a foot and learn as you go, join the Nail Maintenance Facebook page. Whatever route, just do it. Your dog and future dogs will appreciate the effort. There are very, very few good reasons to leave nails long, including weight pull and sledding, but chances are, 99% of the dogs on this page aren’t doing those things, and don’t need the length, and they’re a health hazard. Keep them short, keep them in a routine, and you will have a much happier, healthier dog. Also don’t let them get fat, but that’s a rant for another day... |