For many breeders, dew claw removal is considered standard of care. This practice is often expected of breeders. It is touted as responsible preventative care, but is this actually an accurate claim? In this article, we will very briefly investigate this claim and discuss the risks and benefits associated with this common practice.
Dew claw removal is a surgical procedure that is usually performed on 3-5 day old puppies. All dogs have at least 4 claws (thumbs or toes) on each paw. Some dogs are born dew claws, which are an extra claw (or extra thumb or toe) attached further down the dog's wrist. When a puppy has this surgical procedure, the dew claws are usually "popped" out using medical clamps, similar to the ones in the picture above. Because it is a very fast process, pain medication is not generally given for this procedure, even though it is a very painful experience for young puppies.
Proponents of dew claw removal claim that, despite the pain it causes, dew claw removal is part of responsible preventative care. Intact dew claws can get caught on things and can end up causing serious injury. They can also be inconvenient for groomers as they can be hidden in hair and accidentally clipped or cut by a groomer. We have one small dog with rear dew claws that do make grooming more challenging, but we've had no problem at all grooming our dogs who have front dew claws.
Based on our research, there are far more risks involved with dew claw removal than there are benefits. Some of these risks include: physical and emotional pain during and following the procedure, increased risk of arthritis as the dog ages, increased risk of injury to supporting ligaments in the legs, and an increased tendency toward weakened and atrophied muscles. In addition to these health-related risks, the procedure can cause some practical problems for dogs, such as lack of grip and tension during physical activity. It would be similar to us trying to walk around without our big toes!
The list below is paraphrased from Dogs Naturally Magazine's article: Should Your Dog Have His Dewclaws Removed?
As you have probably already gathered, we are not proponents of regular dew claw removal. As holistic breeders, we believe that dog's bodies were created to work in a healthy holistic way. We believe all parts of the dog's body were created for a specific reason, so removing any body part without a clear necessary reason does not align with our beliefs and holistic approach. When you add to our beliefs the fact that we have owned large dogs with intact front and back dew claws (Great Pyrenees) for many years and never had any of them experience an injury as a result of having intact dew claws, it does not sit well with us to remove a body part for convenience sake. None of our dogs have developed arthritis, weakened muscles, injured ligaments, etc. So our experience with our Great Pyrenees dogs definitely supports the benefits of keeping intact dew claws. As such, we do not regularly perform dew claw removal on our puppies as part of our program. Most of our small breeding dogs do not have rear dew claws and we have had no problems with the front dew claws on those that have them. At this point, we believe it is better to leave well enough alone. For more information about this topic, please read this excellent article cited above: Should Your Dog Have His Dewclaws Removed? This article provides a detailed description of the anatomy and physiology of dew claws, 7 reasons your dog needs his dew claws with explanations of each reason, and detailed information on many of the risks associated with removing dew claws. To inquire about our puppies for sale , please toss us a question here . We'll be sure to fetch!
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