Image Credits: Pixabay
Dog paws are surprisingly sophisticated. The paw of a dog is of a particular design to serve that specific breed's historical requirements. The paw of your dog is functionally equivalent to your hands-only much better. Your dog can walk without shoes on surfaces which you can never touch with your bare hands or feet. Canines can do this as they have many paw pads with a filling of fatty tissue. An average dog paw has a total of six pads for every paw. Four digital pads are present in one toe along with metacarpal pad and carpal pad.
Paw functions
Other than natural insulation, the pad network provides
acceleration, shock absorption, terrain intel, braking, rough surface
protection, and sure-footed navigation. An individual paw has its temperature
control system due to the positioning of sweat glands below the skin's
outermost layer. The sweat glands keep paw pads moist and thus temperature
balanced.
Unlike you, the dog
cannot wriggle its toes. They, however, serve identical functions of movement
and balance. Walking is their primary task. Your dog walks on its toes and not
on its nails or paw pads. The nails of the dog help the animal to grip the
surface. Many dogs possess a "dewclaw"-which is an evolutionary
memory of a thumb. It is only found on the canine's front paws. A few dogs
possess dewclaws on both their back and front paws. A few dog breeds even
possess double dewclaws in their back paws.
Dow claws and clippers
Dog nails are colloquially called dog claws, and they are
equivalent to a human's toenails and fingernails. These are created from cartilage
and are dead. Blood supply, however, is made through "dog nail
quick," a small blood vessel. This blood supply is something which the
nails of your dog to grow continuously. Almost all dogs possess four toes, and
each has its corresponding nail, on every paw. For those dogs which possess
dewclaws, those small claws found a little higher in the paw could bring the
number of toenails to five in each paw. When it comes to dogs which possess
double dewclaws on rear paws, this means the two paws will each have six nails.
It is thus essential to
choose the correct toenail clippers for your dog. If you are a newbie to dog
maintenance, buy scissor clippers. Guillotine clippers sold by many pet shops
works by sticking the canine's tail inside a particular hole in the clipper
center and squeezing the handles. The nail tip then gets chopped off. Many dogs
are afraid of guillotine clippers, and for such dogs, standard scissor tip
clippers work fine. If your dog is a large animal, then buy bigger sized dog
clippers.