How many nails does a dog have on her front paws and back paws?

Most dogs will have five toes on each of her front paws and four on her back paws. Each one of the toes contains a nail. Dogs normally have a dewclaw, or what is sometimes referred to as a dog’s “thumb” on its front paws, on their front paws. The dewclaw is only occasionally present on the back paws, causing dog’s to have an extra nail on the front paws.

The total number of nails that a dog normally has is 18, though it could be 20 if the dog has dewclaws on both the front and back paws. Dewclaws are also sometimes removed when a dog is a puppy, so an adult dog with dewclaws removed could only have 16 nails total.