Clacky nails on hard floors

[Jolleigh]

We've just moved to a house with hard floors downstairs. The dog's clacking nails are driving me to distraction yet the groomer says there's nothing wrong with the length and she's reluctant to go shorter.

He's a cocker, very attached to me, so when I'm home, it upsets him to be separated unless someone is fussing over him. But a few times a week, I just need to be able to sit in a silent house.

He's not on his feet all the time, but has gotten very protective of me since I became pregnant and patrols the house regularly to check all is well.

Are there any techniques for dealing with or fixing it? I don't want to carpet the house so a product for the pup would be ideal.

I also have hard floors and a clicky spaniel. I have considered using elastic bands to attach cloths to his feet to a) muffle the noise and b) buff the floor, but I think he'd just look confused and fall over. Until someone invents dog slippers, I think you just have to put up with the sexy clacking.

Socks are useful, but please use tape to hold anything over feet. I have seen so horrible swollen feet where elastic bands have been used and in a matter of minutes have tighten constricting the blood supply.

Oh yes you can buy dog 'footwear' online and there are slippers available.

Haha! Attaching clothes to his feet! Brilliant!

Think he'll just have to put up with half an hour of outside time every now and then.

He'd only chew at doggie slippers! And I'd be too busy chuckling at them to appreciate the silence anyway.

cloths. Not clothes. You know what I mean!

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/e/e7/Dog-slippers.jpg&imgrefurl=uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Dog-slippers.jpg&h=882&w=932&sz=112&tbnid=em-SzB4F4PMXVM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=117&zoom=1&usg=__49NlhXh2USPRWBdkUrofiYW7nOA=&docid=Fp8HKHP66zqIdM&sa=X&ei=uPVoUsv8N9SrhAf56oDgCA&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQ9QEwAw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dog slippers

Dog socks would have been ideal if he didn't have just a chewing fetish for human socks! We're forever catching him trying to be stealthy and stealing socks

Nearly spat my brew out then! Those little pink ones wouldn't last 2 seconds. Either Baldrick would pull the stuffing out or OH would decide it's not manly enough!

dog slippers !

That dog is just begging to have them taken off - really lowers its streetcred. But it thinks its owner is always right - so it won't try and get them off because it thinks it isn't allowed to :( :)

I thought I'd solved my muddy paw/carpet problem by buying jersey booties for 18-24m babies, and whacking them on the instant the dogs got inside. I don't know what was more tragic, the faces of the dogs when they realised they were wearing socks, or the faces of my neighbours when I pegged out 8 booties on the washing line despite having no babies in the house. I think they assumed I'd 'gone a bit Liz Jones'. IYKWIM.

Have since got rid of the carpets, and now the incessant clicking of the dogs (like having West End tap dance musical marathon going on) is more than made up for by the oddly satisfying pleasure of sweeping up tumbleweeds of grey dog hair that would otherwise have been filling my hoover bags. Huge piles. When you think how much Miele hoover bags cost, the new floor is slowly paying for itself...

I would have thought that if you trim the nails v regularly the quick recedes and that you can over time get them shorter. I would hesitate over the sock route as they are an important way for the dog to cool down. hth.

at dog booties on the line!

I should add that the socks were just for while the paws were muddy - they were free to kick them off once the mud was contained in the sock and not in the shagpile. It didn't work. Dogs don't like loungewear.