Care of your German Spitz.

Feet on the German spitz should be small, rounded and catlike. This is one area that requires trimming to keep them neat and tidy and the breeder from whom you bought your spitz will show you how this is done. It is important to keep feet trim as the hair inbetween the toes and down the back of the hocks (lower leg) grows at an alarming rate and will splay the toes away from each other causing difficulty in walking if badly neglected and in a youngster lead to deformed feet. Toenails need to be kept short and in the small kleins often requiring clipping to keep them neat. If you don't feel upto clipping nails yourself your breeder may be willing to do it for you but if you use a human metal nail file and just file each nail a little bit each day you should have no need to pay a vet for this service and your spitz will have no problems in this area. I've personally found that kleins do not seem to wear the nails away naturally in play as the bigger dogs do and the nails can grow quickly if not kept in check.
Clipping nails can be a tricky business and unless shown how to do it safely, is not to be undertaken by the novice. Cutting through the 'quick' or pink bloodfed inner part of the nail will cause a lot of pain and discomfort and also quite a bit of bleeding (not unlike our own nails if we cut them too close to the finger) and will also result in a spitz who is 'foot shy' - ie very wary of having their feet touched at all. In a pet this may not be a major problem but in dogs that are going to be shown it is important that they are comfortable with people touching them. Quite a few German spitz do not have dew claws removed. These lie inside of the front legs just above the foot and occasionally on the inside of the back legs too. These really must be kept neat as they curl as they grow and will puncture the leg causing severe pain and if badly neglected cripple the dog. They do not wear away because of where they are situated on the leg. Get to know your puppy very well and make a mental note of dewclaws. Getting your puppy used to feet being trimmed and filed will go a long way to preventing any problems ;)