treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

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jacksdad
Posts: 4887
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:48 pm

treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by jacksdad »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... YzrmWj1Qg0

this is my vet teaching her dog trim her own nails. Trill is an absolute success story of what can be done with a fearful dog. She has come such a long way in 1 year. From almost not even being able to to handle being looked at, or even talked to, to now running an playing with both people and most dogs (people was really by far the more scary thing for her, dogs only a little), to being touched etc.

She is scary smart and loves to work. she now lets people touch her, talk to her, and select people hold her paws...(Proud to be in that club :D )... she is so cute, she will come up to me, sit, then offer her paw and just want to hold "hands". we been working on just letting me as someone other than my vet, touch and "mess" with her paws. I am now up to her letting me touch her nails. no one yet can trim the nails. But then not too long ago no one could even touch her paw, let alone hold it.

so, to try and keep the nails somewhat under control, my vet taught her to use some sand paper to try and file down her own nails as a trick.

She is really a cool dog, lots of fun. We hadn't seen her in a couple weeks so today she, jack and I had some off leash zoomies today, and what a blast that was.
gwd
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:33 pm

Re: treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by gwd »

She's such a cutie. I love her little snorts.........
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jacksdad
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Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:48 pm

Re: treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by jacksdad »

she is a very sweet dog. and as you noticed, very communicative.
MPbandmom
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Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by MPbandmom »

Very cool!

I tried this with Sirius, but clearly didn't get a large enough board to use. After a few good runs down the sandpaper, she started putting her foot anywhere but on the sandpaper.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
WufWuf
Posts: 1371
Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 7:53 am

Re: treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by WufWuf »

Great video thanks for sharing :D I love the complaints and the attempts at "cheating" :lol: .
Operant conditioning rocks but classical conditioning rules
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minkee
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Re: treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by minkee »

I've been doing this with Scout :D It's starting to come together, and lovely to have a video like this to reference, so thank you. The sweetest part was when Breeze was feeling left out and started scratching it too, then putting his chin on it, trying his hardest to earn treats :D
bendog
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Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:42 am

Re: treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by bendog »

Knew there had been a post about this somewhere.

After Sash was at the vets a few weeks ago, they trimmed her nails as well which were hideously overgrown. So now I'm trying to keep them manageable by having her file her own (I can usually cut the back ones with a LOT of bribery but although she'll let me touch the front paws now she will still scream like a banshee and snap if I try to clip front ones)

Since she only manages 20-40 minutes walks a day, even though this is on pavement it doesn't wear them down enough. And before she had them clipped at the vets they were so long I didn't dare try getting her to file them incase it hurt her.

Anyway, this is second session of teaching her to scratch the board with sandpaper glued to it and it's going fairly well

http://youtu.be/h6qrGkWHHFI

(I look hideous on the video though sorry!)
MPbandmom
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Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

Re: treaching fearful dog to trim own nails

Post by MPbandmom »

She is doing really well bendog. There have been some videos on the fb nail maintenance group where owners have used a mailing tube or similar curved shape to put the sandpaper on. This way the sandpaper follows more the natural shape of the foot, so that rather than just the middle toes getting filed the most, the side nails get equal treatment.

I have it on my shopping list to buy a tube and a medium fine grit sandpaper and try that with Sirius. When I used a board about the size of a piece of sandpaper and covered it with the no slip stair tread, her pawing at it diminished rather than getting stronger. I suspect two reasons. The board was too small and she possibly wasn't scratching with just her nails, and the grit was too abrasive and she didn't like the sensation on her feet.

I have been reading that dogs with longer nails tend to have more sensitive feet as a result of the longer nails.

I am still working on feet handling, but still don't have either dog to a point where I would say they seem totally relaxed and find with me handling their feet.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
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