Grooming wellness checkup Part 2.

Feet

Most kinds of discomfort on the feet will mean the majority of the day for the doodle will be affected. Matted hair between the toes, among pads, nails touching the ground, putting pressure on the toes cause a lot of discomforts. Just imagine having a tiny rock in your shoes. You want it out right away, right? I do. Now take a look at the images below and brace yourself! Look out for these -not so little- monsters on your doodle! 

Keep an eye out for:

* Paw hair on the pads
* Toe Mohawks
* Paw pad boomerangs
* Toenail Socks
* Nail length
* Injury
* Mats (see +1 for more info)

Paw hair on the pads

Before paw hair trim

Getting a good grip while chasing a buddy or a kitty cat is super important. With this fluff boot on, dogs have a very hard time finding comfort in standing, sitting, or just being due to the mats and having the legs so slippery.

After paw hair trim

This guy was beyond happy to get rid of the fluff boots and the mats underneath. Your dog is the happiest when you can see the pads without fluff around. We edge the grass mostly for design purposes. Let's maintain our doodles' paws for comfort!

I could not resist sharing how cute these paws look, so here it is! :) Enjoy!

Tadaaa. :) After the paw hair trim. You just want to kiss those pads!! :D

Toe mohawks

Large toe mohawks between middle toes 

 Large toe mohawks trimmed out.

Large toe mohawks trimmed out.

Toe mohawk-free coat

Paw pad boomerangs

Paw pad boomerangs should not be present. They develop when the hair in the pads grow long and get matted due to wet grass, licking, mud, swim time, etc. 

The area between the paw pads should be short and clean from mud, mats, and foreign objects.

Toenail socks

Toenail socks develop when the nail splits and hair, carpet pieces, etc gets stuck in the split. The sock you see above encircled a toenail. The hole is where the nail was.

Toenail socks should not be present, you need to see the full length of the nail when you move the coat out of the way.

Nail length

Image #1.

How long are the nails on this dog? The correct answer is we have no idea. We need to move the hair out of the way (by hand, with a brush, comb, or blow-dryer) to see what is going on with the nails.

Image #2.

This view is still not good enough view. You want to see the full length of the nail, the base of the nail, and check the dewclaws as well. So, to get all that info, check out the next image to see how it looks when we move the hair!

Image #3.

Getting there! :) Search for 4 toenails! You see only 3 in here. And the one on the outer side is positioned in a way that this guy needs more frequent nail care there to make sure that one is not growing out of control.

Image #4.

Taking a peek at the dewclaw. Loooong one. This could use a trim, about 3-4 mm come off. This is the before image. I like to round the nail up after the nail trim to make sure they are comfortable and safe for all.

Injury

The most common injury is a cut on the pads or nail injuries. Keep an eye out for dried blood, harder, less fluffy coat. Licking a specific spot extensively and being grumpy for spots when you are trying to mess with them. Let's see a few images of paw injuries!

This image is from my guy, Toki. We spent the morning at Walnut Creek Park (a few years ago) and we were playing fetch in the creek. Him being a "Maligator", did not show any -like zero- sensitivity signs. The first thing that caught my attention was tiny blood spots on the ground. He was not limping or anything. Just saying this so you will know that sometimes, with dogs who have high pain tolerance, you need to dig for stuff, they won't show it to you unless it's bad-bad.

This is where the blood came from. He wore off the skin so much in the creek, it got raw. Lesson learned, no fetch time in the creek with rocky bottom! He was not limping for a second. I cleaned it up, no water funs for a few days and he was good as new. Notice the difference between the left and this image above. The left one is raw, but not bleeding. The above one is smaller, raw but got to the point is was bleeding. With dogs with low pain tolerance, you will never get to this far.

If you look close enough, you see the toe on the outer side broke off and it is only about a 1/3 of it what's left and doing it's best to grow back. 

In the middle, the rounded, tube-like thing is the soft tissue of a toenail. The horny tissue broke off. (See rough edge.) It was not bleeding, but the soft tissue is exposed so it is more prone to more injury and it is uncomfortable for the dog to walk on it.