Rock climbing shoes are designed to focus your force and balance on your toes in general, and your big toe in particular. This has two predictable results -- when combined with proper technique it improves your ability to balance on tiny edges, but combine climbing shoes with poor technique and you'll end up stubbing your toes a lot.
Shoe Choice
Although climbing shoes aren't necessarily designed to protect your toes, proper shoe choice still plays a major role in keeping your toes intact. Although some high-performance climbing shoes are so tight they'll actually deform your big toes, most climbers and particularly beginners don't need such extreme footwear. Instead, select shoes that give you room to wiggle your toes as a unit, but aren't so loose that you can wiggle your toes individually. The one exception is that climbing shoes made of natural leather will stretch over time, so new leather climbing shoes should fit more snugly than synthetic shoes, which stretch little if at all.
Basic Technique
Stand in any climbing gym and you'll be able to pick beginners out by the sound of their climbing shoes scrabbling against the wall. Not only will this leave you with sore toes, it also scrapes away the rubber toe rand that's the only real toe protection climbing shoes have to offer. Paying attention to proper foot placement will protect your toes and shoes, and also quickly improve your climbing. Focus on placing your feet delicately and silently. Stand only on the inside or outside edge of your toes, or right on your big toe.
Shoe Maintenance
The rubber rand across the front of your climbing shoe isn't much protection for your toes, but aside from good footwork it's all you have to work with. This rand wears down quickly if you're a beginner with shoddy footwork; even experienced climbers will eventually wear through a rand and, if you keep wearing the shoes, you can even wear holes straight through the fabric, exposing your toes. Most shoes can be resoled -- a climbing shoe company can replace the rubber sole and rand for you, restoring this slight cushion of protection for your toes. Send your shoes to be resoled as soon as you notice the rand wearing thin or fabric showing through the rubber -- if you wait too long, they might not be reparable.
Considerations
Climbing shoes aren't designed for long walks, so if you have to hike to the climb, wear approach shoes. This eliminates another common cause of stubbed toes, and also helps keep the soles of your shoes clean. This, in turn, helps them stick better once you actually start climbing. If you're doing long, multi-pitch climbs, you need to keep your shoes on all day. But if you're climbing shorter routes or in a climbing gym, you can take your shoes off between climbs to give your toes a rest.
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