Brought Bella and Jasper to petsmart for a nail clip and ear clean since we got shots last weekend and I decided to see how they react to it before trying to do it myself. We had planned on bringing my two and my sisters pup Honee but decided to just do my guys this time since we had my two year old nephew fred with also and usually end up walking the store a bit.

Well Bella wasnt to bad some crying trying to yank away but the woman got her nails done pretty quick. Jasper, well Jaspers not really too welcome to go back for a clip. We had a little issue with him getting his shots, the vet tech knelt on the floor and held him to her chest to keep his face away from the vet and when he got his first shot he almost slammed the poor womens face into the ground bucking around. Getting his nails done was a.lot. worse, he sounded like she was stabbing him before he even got touched with the clippers, then when she asked someome to hold his head and pet him he snapped at them so they muzzled him and it went from wiggling and bucking around to a death roll which i didnt think possible with two restraints meant to keep him standing. They had to stop and told me to have a vet do them cause their better equiped for it. I think he got his hind nails clipped I actually havent even checked he is content sleeping in his cage poor guy had a rough day. Really glad we didnt bring Honee with as well cause shes all over Jasper to play and we would have had at least some bad snapping if we had all three. Didnt even bother with the ears we'll work on that later.

And poor fred we think he thought they were hurting the dogs, especially Jas, he was crying his little eyes out while they were getting worked on even though he could see them. I had problems with my last dog not liking nail clips but was never told to go some where else even though it ended up taking three people on average to actually get Nova's done after petsmart set the rule that your not aloud to help hold and calm your dog. Its too bad they had to enforce that I think I could have calmed him enough to get the job done or at least to where he didnt growl at the women the whole back to the front desk. Jaspers front paws will have to wait till I can see when my usually family vet is actually in the office, of theplaces we tried with Nova Dr. Rudowski was the only one who didnt have to muzzle her and could just walk in amd clip her so I hope Jasper will do ok with him.
Anyone has any suggestions to try getting used to nail clippers better

I'd say just work with him every day, starting with touching his paws, then holding the clippers and touching his paws, having him let you get close with the clippers, doing a fake "clip" but not actually cutting the nail, and working up to really clipping them. You might also try clipping only a few if he gets more and more worked up as you keep clipping. Just clip them a little, and remember which ones need done later, or even the next day.
Lots of treats, lots and lots haha.
We use a dremel on Korra, but she's really good with new noises and having her toes touched. Not sure how your pups will like it. It does take longer to wear down rather than cut, and you'd probably have to start from scratch, letting them get used to the tool etc. I mainly use it because I'm terrified of using the clippers, lol.

Yea thinking of using a dremel next time, they had asked me if i wanted to do that but i figured clipping would be easier the first time and i have a pair at home so its something i could do if they werent to nervous about. But i think we'll have to look into a dremel maybe that will work. I'm still learning what their afraid of and what their ok with so I keep trying to touch his paws and get him adjusted to it good thing is I have fred around and they know he touches their paws to try to get them to shake not that its successful they usually put their ears back lick him to distract him and ease their paws away. With any of us adults its like they know what were trying to do and they yank away and run half the time. Hopefully we can calm him down or maybe he'll just be our Nova version 2.0 no matter what we tried she hated her nails clipped it was like you were murdering her, had no problem with her paws being touched she enjoyed a good rub down her leg to her toes but heaven forbid you touched her nails with clippers and she always ripped whatever muzzle they put on her right off so it took three times as long to get hers done.

You could practice with just tapping the clippers on the ends of the nails without cutting.
We do this if we have a client-dog that doesn't like its nails done but doesn't really need them cut every grooming, and even have clients stop by for nail clips / tapping between groomings at no charge. It seems to work well. We've reformed quite a few dogs, even ones that took 3 people to hold - even chihuahuas that took 2 people to hold! Lol.

You could call around to a few groomers and see if any would be willing to work something out with you. My job, we only charge $5. for nails which helps encourage people to come more often - but for any regular grooming customers its free for nails between groomings.
We currently have one lady that comes with 4 pit-bulls that all dislike their nails. We set them on a every 2 weeks schedule at the end of our day, and only charge her $10 instead of $20. She has never brought them for anything but nails, I wonder if they would even like baths lol.
But they have been improving about their nails, they even walk right in the shop all tail wags and happy now - at first. ^_^

Practice with his feet like others said. A groomer I know has her own trick (if the owners allow it of course). She'll sedate a dog when she does it and lessens the sedates each time. It allows the dog to realize getting nails trimmed isn't the end of the world.

How old is Jasper? When Elara was a puppy, she would scream bloody murder when I'd go to trim her nails. When she was nice and small I would just hold her on her back in my lap and trim her nails once a week. I'd just use force to hold her still and tell her how good she was after it was done. Eventually she calmed down and now I can trim her nails no problem. But that doesn't really work with a full grown dog!

How do you go from desensitizing them to the actual clipping? Or is that even possible? Haha

Pippa will let me touch her paws, mess with the nails, even let me touch clippers to her nails, but the second we actually trim a nail, all hell breaks loose.

I am still not sure how old they are, money was tight before I got them and it got tighter not having work like i normally would right now so they havent been to a vet yet. We got shots at a clinic but I was so aggravated at the ignorance of the other people there and the vet doing the shots for argueing with me and bein an arragant asshat that I forgot to ask him if he could give me a guess of their age. We are trying to touch his paws more but he really hates it you can rub about half way down his leg then he yanks his paw away and grabs your hand.

My mom found out someone at her work also works with their partner at a doggyday care that does some grooming not to far from here so we are going to try them and good thing she says its free unless the dogs completely unruley then like $10. I checked a few vets right by my house and theres just no way im gonna go pay $20 per dog or like the one tells "the tech determines price by how big the dog is and how difficult the job is so $20 to $37.50."......yea ok people your insane I'll muzzle him figure a way to pin him have my brother help hold him down and have my sister or mom cut them while i hold if need be but I simply cannot pay what some people are asking. I had wanted to try one closer vet since theres two or three within 4 miles here but I cant even bring myself to ask pricing for anything else if thats the price for a simple nail clip.

The only problem with us doing it ourselves is that Jasper is big and has gained a couple inches since being here and he is STRONG! Bella's strong too but Jasper is in an entirely different yank you do down the street league and if he gets panicky he gets a. Lot. Stronger. I have a hard time walking him sometimes cause the strength he puts into his yanking and pulling and I'm a very big person myself. I'm just leary of hurting him or having him hurt us, the way I see it if I get hurt whatever it was my fault but the family gets injuried helping and of course its the dogs faults, well my sister doesnt see it that way but shes pregnant I dont want him kicking her in the stomache. I have gotten clobered by him a few times while the pups are playing and all i can say is when jas hits you your hurting for the day.

When it came to clipping the old husky mix nova we would use brute force basically. I would pin her practically lay on top of her and have to hold her leg while my aunt clipped real quick she got worse the older she got though, we would usually try bringing her to petsmart since more equip then us at home but when it wasnt possible thats what happened. She had no problem with you touching her paws and actually loved to have her legs and paws rubbed down but the second she saw felt or heard those clippers she was cujo in the flesh that was the only time she tried biting and did bite anyone but me.

Dayzee is pretty bad about nail trims. She doesnt snap or freak, but she exhibits a lot of stress behaviors during the nail trim. What ive been doing with her, is taking her for a play, a walk, and working some obedience cues with her, and then waiting about a half hour for her to relax before starting her trim. Its a very slow, calm procedure, and i stop if its becoming too much for her, and try again later. Nail trims are tricky. It can take some steadfast patience, and a few sticks of string cheese. Whats important is that you stay a calm, benevolent leader for your dog to take cues from.

someone suggested to me once that is you put a bit of peanut butter in a small snack size baggie let the dog work on getting it out while you clip. It gives them a distraction so you can get the clipping done.

are you walking on pavement? we NEVER have to clip the dogs nails, with husky nails they curl down and hit the surface unlike like others where the nails grow out. they should naturally file down if you are walking on a hard surface. the only thing i have to clip is sierras dew claws as she still has them.

jbealer wrote:

are you walking on pavement? we NEVER have to clip the dogs nails, with husky nails they curl down and hit the surface unlike like others where the nails grow out. they should naturally file down if you are walking on a hard surface. the only thing i have to clip is sierras dew claws as she still has them.

I was just gonna say both my dogs nails look fine, and don't need to be clipped. Honestly, I didn't think you needed to clip them.

Brandi is horrible with clipping nails! She throws herself and screams like someone is killing her. It scares me, because I think I'm cutting her nails too short. I make frozen god treats and just give her one to keep her busy and she doesn't even notice I'm doing it.

Evie's nails stay pretty short just from walking too. She also bites her own nails which is very convenient considering we have to pin her down to trim the hair on her paws. I'm glad I don't have to take her to a groomer to do it because I'm pretty sure she'd never be allowed back. The snarly, nasty faces she makes...and a stranger trying to do it

Balon is so bad my son lays him on the floor and his head goes under one leg and his back end under his other leg lol. He is just so bad! We tried everything but he hates to have his feet touched so I sit at his head and pet him and talk to him while my son cuts the nails. He has way better eyesight and can see the quick where I have a hard time lol, an age thing! Loki is pretty bad too but doesn't mind having his feet touched so I am hoping he will learn to accept it.

Here's a very good video that helps you walk through the steps of getting your dog used to having his feet handled:





I'm in the process of working with Loki. Even though I haven't been as diligent as I should, his progress is amazing. He used to not even let me touch his nails. Tonight after only a few sessions he let me trim his front left paw with a dremel.

All it takes is a lot of patience and a lot of treats.