How important is to trim your dog´s nails

Interesting. I never realized how your dog's nails could effect them with agility.

My dog's nails are pretty short. I go by the sound of the wood floor. If her nails start to click too loudly, I know it's time to trim them. When they're trimmed, I can barely hear her walking around the house and sometimes it freaks me out. I'll turn around, assuming she's in a different room and then all of a sudden she'll be behind me :lol:. She usually only needs a nail trimming every 3-4 weeks. They don't grow very fast.

Her back nails rarely need trimming. Just one or two of them occasionally get trimmed. I guess the way she walks on concrete, her back nails get naturally filed. Her front nails probably file a little bit too, because her nails stay short for only needing a trimming once a month.


BarbV said:
Ok...I've never been a scaredy cat about doing nails. But with all Bacca's recent health issues, grooming him has become a real challenge. Anytime I now try to lay him down, even to just trim his pads or brush his coat, he goes ape.

I tried to do his pads two days ago and I thought he was going to have a seizure. He started to jerk and flay and was actually foaming at the mouth.

And his nails REALLY need doing. And his pads to stop him sliding around.

The only thing I can think of is is going back to "puppy" basics. Start with just touching his paws, then progress to squeezing the paw, then progress to brushing the paw, etc. etc. etc.

Or do I just wrestle him down and get it done so that when its all done, he realizes it wasn't so bad.
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My dog is not so bad with her nails. She clearly doesn't like it, but I don't have to wrestle as much. Brushing is a different story. She screams like I;m murdering her and attacks the brush. I've tried the slow clicker training and progressing to build her tolerance numerous times. It didn't help her. She has to be brushed or she will get get mats and dry skin, so I have no choice, but to force her. I muzzle her, put a short leash on her and brush her despite her protest.
 
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I taught myself how to cut my dogs nails, I do it the same as Dr. Leslie. before I only cut their nails like this to take away the sharp edges, I never knew how important it was until now though. I'm glad this was posted, I was starting to wonder if I should start cutting them the was groomers do, good thing I didn't!:winkgrin:
 
I tried this with Dickens this weekend, and he sat still very nicely for it. I'll keep it up with successive trimmings and see how it works out.
 
BarbV said:
Ok...I've never been a scaredy cat about doing nails. But with all Bacca's recent health issues, grooming him has become a real challenge. Anytime I now try to lay him down, even to just trim his pads or brush his coat, he goes ape.

I tried to do his pads two days ago and I thought he was going to have a seizure. He started to jerk and flay and was actually foaming at the mouth.

And his nails REALLY need doing. And his pads to stop him sliding around.

The only thing I can think of is is going back to "puppy" basics. Start with just touching his paws, then progress to squeezing the paw, then progress to brushing the paw, etc. etc. etc.

Or do I just wrestle him down and get it done so that when its all done, he realizes it wasn't so bad.
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vote option 2 lol both of mine HATES their nails done. But they get over it once I hand out those treats after:lol:
 
Jocu was getting dremeled since he came home as the little puppy boy- he would get cookies a lot when we were doing that.

when we were visiting family in PA in July, I decided to dremel outside- no cleanup then:winkgrin:

well, Cranberry saw Jocu getting treats for getting his nails done and he jumped right up in the way and said- me me me- do me, I want cookies too.....:lol:

I had started working with Dixie before that as she'll do anything and put up with anything for a cookie so now all three get dremeled.
 
xerospin said:
vote option 2 lol both of mine HATES their nails done. But they get over it once I hand out those treats after:lol:
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Until he got sick he was totally fine with grooming and nail trims. Now he seems to associate any touch with nasty vets and nasty groomers.

That is why I'm thinking about puppy 101
 
I tried this weekend on.Shelby. See how it works.

Hollie always hated her nails being trimmed. To the point I couldn't do it. Took her to the vet to have it done one time. She freaked out so bad it took 4 people and she pooped all over the table. After that she realized it wasn't so bad letting me do it. She wasn't happy about it but didn't fight me any more.
 
romeosangiovese said:
This might be a good time to share a video on how to condition a dog to enjoy nail clipping!
http://youtu.be/G3MFEbkcvYg
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Perfect timing for me. My Bacca has gotten to the point where any body intervention is BAD. I tried to simply trim his underpads the other day and he went berserk.

That's what happens when you have vets constantly poking and proding at them.

I'd decided to go to puppy 101 with him when it came to grooming, but was trying to remember all the steps. This was a great refresher!

But here is my challenge. Bacca is NOT reward motivated at all! He turns his nose up at almost ALL treats.

Any ideas?
 
You can try making him earn his meals! Use his daily food rations to do counterconditioning an desensitization. All dogs are motivated by food - it really just depends on how hungry they are! :lol:

If he hates all of his current grooming tools, you may want to get a new set, then work on each one slowly. It'll take some time (maybe quite a bit of time!! And he may be a little ungroomed during this period) but I like to think of it as a lifetime investment!

I'd never used a shaver on Romeo and Juliet's paw pads before until recently. I bought the Wahl Peanut that was recommended on this forum and used their meals to condition them to the shaver, the sound and the vibration, and now they practically offer me their feet! What a refreshing change from having to wrestle with them with the little scissors!
 
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