I talked to my sister this morning about clipping her dog’s nails. Laura has three dogs, Bandit (a Jack Rat); J.D. (a Jack Russell) and Gordon (a big doofy Golden Retriever that I absolutely adore!) Laura’s question had to do with clipping the nails of a dog that absolutely HATES it and freaks out (J.D.). In fact, the last time Laura and Ron clipped his nails, Laura had to hold him while Ron clipped; and J.D. bit her. Ron stated that J.D. would have to have a muzzle which Laura vehemently opposed, Laura understands that J.D. is not biting to be vicious, J.D. is biting out of fear; the dog is terrified of having his nails clipped. Naturally Laura would like to be able to clip his nails without him being fearful.
Now I am not an expert on dogs by any means (yet) but I did have some ideas which I shared with Laura about clipping J.D.’s nails. First I would begin by trying to desensitize J.D. to the clippers. I would do this by pulling the clippers out and showing them to J.D. and giving him a treat and tell him he is a good boy. I would do that for at least 10 to 20 times, then I would take the clippers out and open and close them, again rewarding J.D. with a treat. The goal here is to make the clippers less fearful for J.D.
When the time comes for J.D. to have his nails clipped, I think she should hold him and distract him with a bunch of treats; every time he looks at those clippers I would put the treat in front of his nose and entice him to look away, the goal here is for J.D to be looking to Laura for treats and not even worrying what Ron is doing with those clippers!
What would I use for treats? I would probably get some hotdogs and slice them and then quarter them, or little balls of raw ground beef, something which would really grab his attention and not something he gets routinely.
I hope this helps for any of you that may have a dog that is fearful of the nail clippers.
On another note, we had agility class today and because Sampson really hates it; I told everyone he was a judge; here is a picture of Agility Judge Sampson.
Sampson very generously gave everyone "8's"
Brutus is very anxious and very opposed to having his nails clipped – because of his size and breed (Pix Boxer who’s now 90lbs) Matt refused to clip his nails without a muzzle. I was also opposed to the muzzle, but have come to realize it has saved me especially from losing my face while clipping nails. The above link (style M56 if it doesn’t take you there) is what we have for Brutus – custom fit to his size – The three of us have our routine – Brutus accepts the muzzle fairly easily now, matt holds him into a corner, and I’m the clipper. We tried desentizing him, but we’re pretty sure Brutus never had his nails done in the 3.5 years before we had him, and we couldn’t not have them done, and I couldn’t afford to have him put under every time. Tell your sister to do it every 2-3 weeks too – might help if you have a routine about it (so we usually do it when we Saturday mornings, and Ella is done first so Brutus can mentally prepare himself). Hope this was helpful
Of course you must do what works best for you and your dog Megan, and truthfully no-one knows your dog better than you do. It just breaks MY heart when I see a dog muzzled, or on a gentle leader. I’m sure it is far less stressful for Brutus to be muzzled for a few minutes than to go through the trauma at the vet or groomers. Still you may want to try showing him the clippers a lot and opening them in front of him without touching him.