# Receding nail quick?



## Bella67 (Jun 22, 2014)

I like to keep Troy's nails nice and short and he is really good about it. I try to cut them once a week. 

Is the yellow part of the nail the receding quick orrrrrr....? I'm confused about this because I thought they where supposed to be pink.


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## Hector3 (Jul 23, 2013)

Look under the nail. That nail looks brown so the stopping point you're looking for should look like this. That is the soft tissue before the quick. Cut beyond that and you will quick the dog.


Generally you will see a white chaulky layer before the soft tissue.


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## Bella67 (Jun 22, 2014)

I know where to stop before I will quick him. I just don't know why the quick looks brown. None of his other laws aren't like that so much.


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## Hector3 (Jul 23, 2013)

It's just the shell of the nail. You only see pink when nails are clear enough.


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## Stonevintage (Aug 26, 2014)

Hector3 said:


> Look under the nail. That nail looks brown so the stopping point you're looking for should look like this. That is the soft tissue before the quick. Cut beyond that and you will quick the dog.
> 
> 
> Generally you will see a white chaulky layer before the soft tissue.


Thank you! This is the angle I needed to see! The side shots do nothing when the nail is all dark brown.


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## Wolfenstein (Feb 26, 2009)

Hector3 said:


> It's just the shell of the nail. You only see pink when nails are clear enough.


Yeah, the underneath is weird. It's more crumbly and dry, and with dark nails it tends to make people THINK they can cut more when they really can't.

Since this is what I THOUGHT the thread was going to be about, if there's anyone actively LOOKING to recede quicks, I've found a really great method for it that I use on all the dogs that I groom. I use a much smaller pair of clippers than you would think you'd use on a GSD, and instead of just cutting the tip, I angle it up a little bit to sorta carve around the quick. That bottom part crumbles off really easy once the top part of the nail is gone, so if you have good control of your clipper and your dog, you can expose the quick a bit from the top, then you can file down the nail or let it wear down on its own. The quick winds up exposed without breaking open (ideally) so it can dry out and recede.

You can also end up realizing you can cut a lot more sometimes if you file the nail after cutting it. That part on the bottom will come off, and sometimes you'll notice you can then cut more off the tip.

This, of course, is all if you know you have good control of your hands. But I figure there have to be people out there with calm dogs that might want to try it! 

This video is really good at explaining what I'm talking about. (If you get past the selling the woman's doing about how SHE is apparently the only person cutting nails like this! haha) The whole thing's good, but you can skip ahead to about 3:30 to get to the actual nail clipping stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM4HQDb1Ef0


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## Hector3 (Jul 23, 2013)

Stonevintage said:


> Thank you! This is the angle I needed to see! The side shots do nothing when the nail is all dark brown.



Glad I could help. I have lots more pictures of nail pics if you need any that are black lol.


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## Athena'sMom (Jan 9, 2014)

Grinding the nails is much better than trimming. You can get much closer to the quick and the nail looks much more uniformed and clean. I love my dremmel.


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## Bella67 (Jun 22, 2014)

I was thinking about getting a dremmel but it takes too long.


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## Wolfenstein (Feb 26, 2009)

When I talk about filing, that's what I use, a dremmel. If you cut first and file after to round everything out, you do get closer to the quick, and a much nicer nail. But if you're not looking for the effort, clipping is fine, then doing some walking or running on pavement to wear the nails back naturally. That usually doesn't happen uniformly, though. It all depends how much you're willing to put in. Frankly, I'm always thrilled to hear owners cutting their dogs nails at ALL! Most people seem to think they don't need to...


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