cutting nails

[julie farris]

our doggie won't let us cut her nails!

2 of us try to do it...

one to hold, one to clip,

we give treats...

even before we "touch" the nails,

she's acting like we're going to

rip the nails off of her skin!!!

she's such a good and calm doggie!

what to do?

[Amy & Bernie]

Tough call! Bernie doesn't like it either but I always 1) start when he's already calm, napping is best! and 2) do it from on top of him. Seems odd, but I actually straddle him, so it's already a dominance thing, "I'm running this show", and then I gently go to work. The first few times I had a bunch of small treats within reach so every time I clipped a single nail he'd get an enthusiastic "good boy!" and a treat. I'd let him calm down and stop wiggling before starting on the next nail. We went at his pace. It was SLOW going for awhile.

It was a process but after a couple times he realized I wasn't trying to kill him!

[Lydia & Lacey Doodle]

Lacey doesn't like it either. We've tried a few times but she gently nips at us.  I just take her to the vet, they do it just fine and she behaves so well with them!

[Melissa]

We use the pet dremel.  of course that also takes getting used to with the noise and all, but I always worry about cutting the quick and this allows me to get close but not hurt him,  Good Luck!

[Jennifer and Jack]

Have you tried just handling the paws without trying to cut them? I try to rub Jacks paws at least daily so he is used to me touching his feet. He is getting better about it. I just started cutting his nails myself, I was told to use a flash light to shine under the nail this way you can see where it is safe to cut.

Good luck

[Jennifer Tramell]

I have found that a dog with unspent energy finds things to get excited/upset about but, if they have had a good run (or whatever), suddenly they are less inclined to make a fuss.   I would take your dog for a long walk, play ball, doggie park, whatever you guys like to do, then when she's ready to "chill out", start handling her feet (don't start until she's calmed down from the excitement of the outing).  Even if you don't trim her nails, she will be less inclined to struggle with foot handling and eventually nail trimming.  If you can pet/massage her favorite spot while she is having her feet handled she will relate the positive feeling with the feet handling, then, I always give a treat so the whole exercise ends up with a positive.  Just a suggestion, good luck!

[Pam and Ginger Snap]

I just brought Ginger to have them done.  It was the best 15 dollars I've spent in a while!!!!  They did them in aobut 5 mins.

[Carol Brand]

Put the dog on a table.  Use a dremel.

[Leslie J]

I'm planning to try the dremel on Cocoa.  A friend sent me this link on how to use a dremel.  It looks comprehensive to me:

 

http://homepages.udayton.edu/~jmerenski1/doberdawn/dremel/dremel.html

[Leslie J]

I just noticed how young your pup was!  Cocoa was very hard to groom until she was almost a year old- she would fight us, wiggle and squiggle.  Now she is much calmer and more accustomed to being handled and it is much easier.  Hang in there- it will get easier as she matures.  Now Cocoa is so calm and cooperative when we groom her- you wouldn't believe she is the same dog.

[Adina P]

I second putting the dog on a table.  It really helped a ton when grooming my Rosco as a pup.

[Amy]

We have the Pedi-Paws and Marley tolerates it. I do one nail... give a little treat and lots of praise. Before they came out with the pet type dremels, I used a dremel from the garage with a fine sandpaper on our Westie!