Nail Clipping

[halter91]

Help Me!! I'm having a real hard time clipping Max's nails?? ANy suggestions...he really gets mad and squirms until i have to pin him down. There must be an easier way?? I have a tool from the pet store and he hates it!!

[stacwase]

My Max won't let me do it, either! I suppose if I did what I"m supposed to he'd eventually let me. You're supposed to incorporate playing with their feet a lot into your petting, until they enjoy having their feet handled. Then you can just do one at a time and take several days to complete the project. I ended up having the vet do it while he was under anesthesia for something else last week!

Let me know how it goes!

[belle67]

Originally posted by stacwase
My Max won't let me do it, either! I suppose if I did what I"m supposed to he'd eventually let me. You're supposed to incorporate playing with their feet a lot into your petting, until they enjoy having their feet handled. Then you can just do one at a time and take several days to complete the project. I ended up having the vet do it while he was under anesthesia for something else last week!

Let me know how it goes!

Exactly what I was going to say!
Don't forget lots of treats and take your time! It might take several attempts to even get one toe done.

[binka_nugget]

Yep, I was going to say what stacwase said. Make feet touching enjoyable for the dog...lots of praise and attention. I've actually taught a trick involving his feet...so that way, he's use to having his feet touched, it's something to keep him busy with and he also gets lots of praise and attention for allowing them to be handled.

[lovemyshiba]

I know how you feel, and no matter how much I play with my dogs' feet, they hate it. Riley hides from me as soon as I open up the evil closet--where the clippers are!!!
Abbey is a saint--she'll lift her paws for me, and sit and wait patiently for me to finish. I haven't tried Jada yet, but Riley and Kito are a pain. With those 2, it is a 2 person job--my husband holds them, and I clip the nails--not fun. Kito lets out the most horrific "shiba screams" when I am doing his too

Good luck!!!!

[Jack's Mom]

I used to have such a hard time cutting Jack's nails, too. It became a pain taking him somewhere to have it done so I came up with a plan. I left the clippers lying next to him on the floor for a day or two, so he would get used to what they were. Then I got a handful of really good treats...cheese bits, etc. and had him lay down on the floor. Then I cut one nail, gave him a treat and let him run around and play. Then I'd call him back, lay him down, cut another one, give him a treat and let him run around. I did this until all of his nail were cut. It took a while the first coupe of times, but after he got used to it a bit, I'd cut nails on one foot, then give him a treat, then another foot and another treat.
Don't know if this will work for you but maybe give it a try. Use your dogs most favorite treat in the world!

[stacwase]

We do the treat thing with Jake - my son sits with Jake's head in his lap and a bag of treats next to Jake's nose. Every once in a while he distracts him with a piece of treat and I clilp a little. Play a little, clip a little. But we can't do that with Max because he gets so excited about the treats that he won't hold still! Silly Maxy.

[tikeyas_mom]

Tikeya hates it when I try to clip her nails ..

what you have to do is touch his feet everyday foir like an hours at a time and eventually he will get used to his feet egtting touched. then you should make a chart with the 5 claws and mark what claw you cut each day. only cut one nail a day ..

[*FlatCoatsRule*]

Daisy does that too, she squirms and right at the moment I'm gonna clip she kicks her leg as hard as she can and it hurts! then I cut it to far cause she moved and she starts bleeding and it's a big mess! Has anyone tried those ones that you plug into the wall? they are expensive, but worth it! They are like sand paper things that you just bump their nail up against and it shaves it down really easily. They don't feel a thing, they just have to get used to the noise.

[Shelteez2]

Originally posted by *FlatCoatsRule*
Daisy does that too, she squirms and right at the moment I'm gonna clip she kicks her leg as hard as she can and it hurts! then I cut it to far cause she moved and she starts bleeding and it's a big mess! Has anyone tried those ones that you plug into the wall? they are expensive, but worth it! They are like sand paper things that you just bump their nail up against and it shaves it down really easily. They don't feel a thing, they just have to get used to the noise.

You mean a dremel *S* I get my dogs nails dremeled sometimes. If not I just clip them when I feel like it

If anyone is interested in how to dremel a dog's nails here is a very good site:
http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merens...awn/index.html

[*FlatCoatsRule*]

Yeah yeah! Exactly! I just didn't know what it was called, thanks!

[MHMama]

As the others have said touching the paws in a loving manner as a regular thing gets them used to it more. We also use this so that we can check their paws for any injuries etc. Makes it a lot easier for their Vet too if there is an injury as they are used their paws being handled. We are fortunate to have a Vet that tells us to bring in our pups at any time and he clips their nails for free, don't even need an appointment but we do call ahead to make sure they aren't busy and we don't bump in front of anyone there that might have an appointment

[Samantha Puppy]

I take Sam to the vet - I'm too afraid of cutting the vein and crippling her.

She's good for the vet unless she's in an uncomfortable position, then she squirms.