By Albert & Terra Collver · June 1, 2026

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The Game On litter turned a week old today, and that means it’s time for one of the small, slightly-surprising tasks of new-puppy life: their very first nail trim.

If you have never raised a litter, you might be picturing this as a long-from-now event — surely you don’t trim a one-week-old puppy’s nails? But the truth is that English Springer Spaniel puppies grow nails astonishingly fast, and by about Day 7 those tiny claws are already sharp enough to be a problem. Today’s video and post are about why we trim, when we trim, what we use, and how Domino got along with the whole production.

Why we trim at one week

The reason isn’t cosmetic — it’s about Etta. When eight little puppies are nursing at once, they instinctively knead and paddle at their mother’s belly with their front feet to stimulate milk letdown. It’s the same motion you’ve watched a kitten make. The problem is that newborn puppy nails have a needle-fine point on them, and after a few days those points start scratching the very thin skin on a nursing mother’s abdomen.

A few too many scratches and you suddenly have a mom who is uncomfortable when her babies latch on. A few more, and you have a mom who would rather not let the babies latch on. That’s a problem we work very hard to avoid, because mom’s willingness to nurse for the full weaning period is one of the most important variables in a litter’s outcome.

So once the nails start to feel like the world’s smallest cat claws — usually around five to seven days — we begin a weekly trimming routine that runs until the puppies are weaned. The goal isn’t to take much off; the goal is just to keep the very tip blunt.

What we use

We use ordinary human infant fingernail clippers. They are small, blunt-tipped (so you can’t slip and cut a paw pad), and inexpensive. A good pair of small, sharp dog nail scissors will also do the job; some breeders prefer those. What you don’t want is full-size adult dog clippers — they’re far too coarse for a paw the size of a quarter.

If you’ve ever clipped a newborn human baby’s fingernails, the process feels almost identical: a calm hold, a single quick snip per nail, and you’re done.

What we actually did with Domino today

We picked Domino — our black-and-white girl with the lightning-bolt blaze between her eyes — to be our demo puppy. She was the first one Terra reached for, and she has a sweet, settled temperament, so she usually tolerates being handled with minimal fussing.

A note on what we didn’t do today: usually at this age the day’s session would include Early Neurological Stimulation (the five short exercises we’ve written about before). We deliberately held those back for this puppy this morning so the nail trim could be its own moment. The puppies still get plenty of stress-conditioning from the trim itself — being lifted, immobilized briefly, and put back — and we don’t want to pile too much new stimulation on a single short session. One thing at a time.

Terra held Domino snugly against her body, supported the head with one hand, isolated a single paw with the other, and took the very tip off each nail in turn. The whole front-foot set takes maybe twenty seconds, the rear feet another twenty, and that’s that.

Did Domino enjoy it? Honestly, no. Puppies at this age aren’t fans of being held still by anything that isn’t their mother, and they will tell you so with a few small protest grunts. But the procedure itself is painless when done correctly — we’re only removing a millimeter or so of nail tip, well outside the quick (the blood vessel and nerve that runs down inside the nail) — and the moment she was back in the whelping box, she had her chin on her sister and her eyes shut.

Some practical breeder notes

A few things we’ve learned over the years that you may find useful, whether you’re raising a litter or just preparing to receive one of these puppies in August:

• Keep the cuts tiny. The quick in a newborn puppy reaches almost to the tip of the nail. If you take too much, you’ll see a bead of bright red blood. It heals fast and the puppy will be fine, but everyone — puppy, mom, and you — would rather you didn’t.
• Trim weekly. A weekly rhythm keeps things very manageable. If you skip a week, the quick lengthens to match the new nail length, and you can never catch up.
• Have styptic powder or cornstarch handy. If you ever do nick the quick, a tiny pinch of either stops the bleeding instantly.
• Make it a normal handling event. This is the start of a lifetime of nail trims. Puppies who learn at one week old that being held still for thirty seconds is no big deal grow up into dogs you can groom without a fight.
  

When the Game On puppies go home with their new families in late July, we send each family home with a tip sheet on continuing this. The dogs who came from us tend to be very tolerant about feet, faces, ears, and mouths — not because they’re stoic, but because they have already gone through a couple hundred of these tiny, calm handling sessions before they ever met their new owners.

Coming up

Tomorrow is Day 8, which means we’re back to Puppy Culture’s daily rotation in earnest — ENS continues through Day 16, and the Early Scent Introduction scent for the day is black tea. The puppies’ eyes will start to open soon (usually around Day 10–14), and the litter will begin to look unmistakably like little Springers rather than little potato-shaped sausages.

Stay tuned for daily updates here, on our YouTube channel, on Facebook, and in our private buyer group.

— Albert & Terra