Just was given some dahlias, need help with dividing

My brother-in-law gave me five large clumps of dahlias, there must be at least 15 tubers in each clump, how do I divide them up?????
I have never had dahlias before and don't want to kill them, also the tubers seem a little shriveled, do I soak them or??

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=8584352

Pirl thank you so much annabell15 seems to have lost her manners.

Thanks, Eweed. Maybe so or maybe this will be a reminder to her.

First dahlia bloomed today and I lost the name! It's okay but not like the ones I used to have. Just too much work for this old bat with all the digging, dividing, etc.

Pirl if you are an old bat then I must be an old batter lol.I only have a few border D's that have bloomed. They were started in the gh. The rest are a long way behind thanks to the cold weather we are enjoying NOT. I better not complain there are folks flooding and being blown away.

Lovely rainbow there, Eweed.

I do have some of the little Dahlina types that have been blooming since I bought them already potted but the few that survived the winter, thanks to my total neglect, are struggling. We had a cool spring but now we're getting the heat and I'd have thought they'd be growing much faster. I actually have kept up with pinching!

Boy, I feel better now. I only have three dahlias that have bloomed, two being new to my garden. One other, an older tuber has buds and will be glad to know which it is as I got the labels mixed up when I took them out this spring. I was worried that they seemed so slow to bloom

It's such a slow year for so many plants! I have clematises just beginning to bloom - almost two months later than last year when we had a very warm spring here in the northeast.

The lilies have been right on time so perhaps they bloom by day length and not by temperature.

Arlene, that is an interesting idea -- about when lilies bloom. My peonies have actually been on time looking at last year, and looking at lilies, the first blooms I have had were July 25th and into August. Black Bird and Latvia went first, then two NOIDS.

My peonies were also right on time and so were the roses.

The tomatoes are way ahead of all former years. Hard to figure out these things.