dog filing nails

[Maxy24]

I had seen videos in the past of dogs trained to file their own nails on sandpaper, so I decided to try it myself since Tucker dislikes having his nails clipped and is scared of the dremel noise. After four or so sessions this is where we are now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwHUZoo6Gaw&feature=plcp


It's going really well, I know so many people who don't clip their dogs nails because they hate it so much, everyone can do this though, it was a piece of cake. The only issue I'm having now is that somehow he is rubbing his nails down the board in a way that rubs the top and not the bottom of the nail, so they are sort of forming a flat pointy nail. I need to find a way to rub off the bottom of the nail. I think I just need to experiment with different angles.

[Nettle]

What an excellent idea

[MPbandmom]

Thank you for sharing this! I have been thinking on teaching Sirus to do her own nails as she too hates nail trims. I had seen it done with no slip stair tread tape applied to a board and as I didn't find any in the local Walmart and haven't made it to the hardware store to search, I haven't gotten started yet. I am glad to see plain sandpaper can be used too. That I have in stock here in my cabinet. Something to do with the dogs on this day when it is too crazy hot to go outside.

[Sabrina]

How clever of you! How is this working out - have you found a better angle? I'd be interested to know if you've taught Tucker to do his back paws, too. My little guy's nails grow so fast I have to dremel multiple times a week to keep up, and he tolerates but isn't overly found of the dremel.

[Maxy24]

After he got the nails short enough they started to file evenly on the nail. The one new problem I found is that he has one nail on each foot, the inner most nail (what would be a person's pointer finger) is not getting filed while his outermost nail is super short. I tried to clip those nails yesterday, took off a teeny chunk and it quicked him It's so frustrating! Whenever we make enough progress for me to clip a nail I quick him because his quicks are so long and so then he's terrified all over again. I tried filing his nail just with a regular nail file and he almost jumped out of his skin with terror. So he's got two longer nails for now.


I have not found a way to get him to do it with his back feet, though I haven't really tried. He's a bit better about letting me cut those. But I might try it, see if I can get him to kick, but I don't think it'll work out lol.

[ClareMarsh]

Re trimming the quick, have a look at this, I saw it recently and it helped make sense of how the quick grows. If only my dog had see through nails *sigh*

http://www.thedogtrainingsecret.com/blo ... nails2.gif

[Maxy24]

All of Tucker's nails are black except two on his back feet, it's a pain. And I seriously took off the smallest amount of nail possible without taking a long time (since the poor boy looked like he was about to die, he holds his breath) and it quicked him. With doing the filing the nails can get super short without being quicked because it's a little tiny bit each day, his outside nails are super small (well for him anyway) and were never quicked on the filing board.

[Sabrina]

. I tried to clip those nails yesterday, took off a teeny chunk and it quicked him It's so frustrating!

Aw, I know that frustration. Charley's nails are black, too, and for some reason the quick always seems to be past where it should be. I had him desensitized to the dremel, but somewhere along the line he got scared of it again (think it's because my unit's been on the fritz so it periodically slows way down without warning and I think this is uncomfortable for him) so we're starting back at square one.

Although it's frustrating, it's great that you're working slowly with him - Tucker's really lucky to have you!