How to Trim a Bichon Frise's Nails and Ears

Now we’re going to do nail and ear care, I’ve pre brushed the dog. This dogs do suffer from hair in the ear canal and this must be removed otherwise it collects dirt and starts hepatitis which is an ear infection. You can actually just very, very gently, we put a few little hairs out with our fingers and do not grab too many hairs. This will actually hurt the dog. Its just a few hairs at a time, holding the dogs head securely, some people actually find it best if we use an ear powder. If you just put a little bit of powder into your fingers, cut the hair then and then it does help you to get hold of the hair very much easier because this can be slightly greasy. I do not go down into the ear too much, nice clean ears, hair free, now the nails, I actually use this type of nail clipper because it has got a guard but this means that not too much nail can actually go through it stops. Because they obviously have—you don’t want to get the quick which is the nerve where the blood vessels are we only want to get the very tip of the nail and hold the foot securely and the nail in between your thumb and on your first finger with the nail clippers up. And just nip the top, reassure the dog because their feet are ticklish, just the same as ours are and they worry but it doesn’t hurt. Also check for dew claws, dew claws on the nail on the side of the leg about an inch up from the foot and this are sometimes not removed and this need trimming regularly. They do not wear down and they can be on all four legs just the front legs or the back legs. There we are, painless, just to finish off if there are no rough edges, I do like to file my nails. This is actually a foot file that you can get from a chemist, a leading chemist, hold the foot securely and the nail and very gently file off the rough edges, so if the dog does scratch it doesn’t cut its coat. And as you can see she doesn’t mind this actually. There we are, pedicure done.