Nail Clipping

[Anonymous]

Anyone know of a good way to clip the nails of a dog who is squirmy and agressive while you're doing it? My dog, Stokely, a chihuahua dauschund has such strong back feet its very difficult to pin him down to trim his nails. They are getting rather long and we really want to cut them soon. Thanks.

[Summer Magic]

They all are protective of their feet some more so than othrers. Try to desensitize by holding or petting his feet when you are holding him or sitting by him on the couch. Do this every day if you can. I clip about once a month and Magic sits pretty still now that I handle her feet all of the time. Whether it's time for clipping or not.

[Joyce Keeton]

Anyone know of a good way to clip the nails of a dog who is squirmy and agressive while you're doing it? My dog, Stokely, a chihuahua dauschund has such strong back feet its very difficult to pin him down to trim his nails. They are getting rather long and we really want to cut them soon. Thanks.

I would recommend you use a friend and have someone feed him really super duper extra yummy treats while you are clipping. Only start with a nail or two and first and then work your way up from there. The idea of desensitizing his feet is good too! :)

[Rachel Webb]

I was at the vet with my 67 pound dobie mix (Ellie) this weekend and she was great up until it came time for the doctor to trim her nails. Ellie would not sit still for the vet. I think the doc only got a few nails clipped and then accidentaly nicked Ellie's skin. It wasn't a good scene. I tried to entice Ellie with her yummy training treats, but she was only interested in them after the nail was trimmed. any suggestions for next time?

Thanks.

[Mario Niepel]

For nail trimming I would try an intensive desensitization of two things: the handling of feet and the clippers themselves. Both can be done many times every day. Introduce the clipper, maybe smear a little peanut butter on them, and wait until the dog investigates. Then click and reward your dog. Do this over and over until the clippers themselves become one of the dogs favorite objects. Then proced to touching the dogs feet with the clippers, and making the actual clipping motion (without clipping the nails), again, rewarding heavily for any reaction without fear.

Do the same for the feet. Touch a foot lightly, click and reward. You can also teach the dog to give a paw/shake hands. All these experiences need to be as positive as possible.

Once the dog warms up to the idea of the clippers and feet handling proceed to clip one nail (only a small piece) and reward heavily if there is no major reaction. Then slowly work your way up to clipping maybe two nails in one day, ...

My Sammy really didn't like to get his nails trimmed and would lie down to hide his feet. Now I can trim his nails while he sit in front of me and holds out his paws voluntarily. :)

Finally, if you let your dog run a lot (especially on concrete) you will most likely not need to clip the toenails on the feet in the back. This cuts the aggrevation of trimming nails in half.

[Rachel Webb]

wow - if I can get Ellie to "enjoy" a trimming like your Sammy, I will be thrilled! thanks for the advice - I am going to start working with my girl tonight.

[Mario Niepel]

Rachel, just make sure you take it very slowly and try to not have any 'negative' experiences. If Ellie shows fear, then you are going to fast (i.e. handling the foot too much, introducing the clippers too fast, ...)

And remember, if this is the main problem you are working on right now, bring out the big guns for this (i.e. cooked chicken, left over steak, hot dogs, peanut butter, liver, ...)

Good luck... mario