@saralynn1 Touch wood I’ve never cut my dogs quick but I’m always scared I will! (I also have a yellow lab with light coloured nails- I think I’d struggle with dark nails that small!)
I only ever trim my dog’s nails when she’s happily chilling lying down and isn’t bothered by me playing with her feet. Any time she gets fidgety I give up, even if I haven’t don’t anything, or got halfway through a foot.
I follow the measure twice, cut once rule and look at the back of the nails where you can see the “hollow” bit and where the quick starts. I find it’s a lot easier to trim about half the amount I think I need to and then take off tiny slivers of nail to get it to the right length. I try to take her for a walk on concrete or tarmac afterwards to file off the sharp edges a bit.
She’s good now she’s older, lazier and doesn’t care about the clippers anymore but as a puppy it could take me 2 weeks to get round all her nails by waiting until she was relaxed enough for me to try clipping one or two then stopping when she got fidgety.
If it helps to get both you and your dogs confidence back a bit, start regularly trimming her nails but only taking the tiniest sliver off the tip- I think there’s a skill to getting the clippers at the right angle so you’re taking off the amount you want.
Hope that helps! Sounds like you’re taking really good care of your dog!