WHAT TO DO IF YOUR DOG HATES NAIL TRIMS
An extremely important part of your dog’s health care is regular nail trimming. But what do you do if your dog hates nail trims?
Here’s what to do if your dog panics or bites when you trim their nails.
Desensitization and Counter-Conditioning
Though it does take time, when implemented correctly, systematic desensitization and counter-conditioning is effective at reducing aggression and increasing cooperation with nail trims.
Desensitization and counter-conditioning create positive associations by pairing the trigger (in this case, nail trims) with food. With practice, your dog will have a positive conditioned emotional response to nail trims and won’t feel the need to aggress or resist.
The key to success is to start where your dog is comfortable, gradually increase the criteria, and go at your dog’s pace. The biggest reason people don’t succeed with counter-conditioning and desensitization is that they increase criteria too quickly and lose their dog’s trust.
Start Small
For now, start at their shoulder where they are comfortable and show no signs of stress or avoidance.
Touch their shoulder for one second, then immediately feed a treat. If they show no signs of stress and are happy to keep playing, increase the duration on the next repetition and touch their shoulder for two seconds. Don’t go further down their leg towards their paw just yet. Do several repetitions until they are comfortable with you touching their shoulder for at least a few seconds.
Don’t Rush
It can be tempting to rush this process, but it’s important to go at their pace to make long term progress. Go slower than you think you need to with increasing criteria. If you see any signs of stress or avoidance, decrease your criteria back to where they are comfortable.
Signs of Stress
Signs of stress in dogs include moving away, tongue flicking, closing their mouth if it was previously open, holding their breath, freezing, yawning, showing the whites of their eyes, scratching, shaking off, or any other behaviors that seem out of context, like suddenly stopping to sniff when there is nothing on the floor, or panting when it isn’t warm.
Criteria
There are two separate sets of criteria to increase before introducing clippers or a dremel into this game.
One set of criteria is duration, or how long you can touch or hold their shoulder/elbow/leg/eventually paw.
The other criteria is how close to their paw you can touch.
Work on increasing both sets of criteria, but not at the same time. For instance, one session stay at the current distance from their paw and increase the duration of the touch. The next session, work on getting closer to their paw at the current (or even less) duration.
Short and Sweet
Keep your sessions to no more than 3 minutes when working on this. Short sessions more frequently will net you more progress than longer sessions less frequently.
Introduce the Clippers or Dremel
Once they are comfortable with having their paws handled for the duration it’ll take to trim their nails, introduce the clippers or dremel in the same manner as the paw handling.
Don’t Ignore Long Nails
Your dog’s distrust of nail trims does not negate the dangers of long nails, so what do you do in the meantime while you’re working on desensitization and counter-conditioning?
Scratch Board
You can make a scratch board by duct taping sandpaper to a sturdy piece of wood or a cutting board. 80-120 grit sandpaper is great for this.
You can also buy a pre-made scratch board. The Digger Dog Nail File is fabulous. The reward placement with the trap door speeds the process along and really encourages intense digging at the board, the most effective way to shorten their nails.
Another great option is the ScratchPad for Dogs.
Teach Your Dog to File Their Own Nails
Place a really amazing treat (like a piece of steak) underneath the scratch board and encourage your dog to dig for the treat and file their nails down.
The scratchboard won’t do a perfect job of filing your dog’s nails down and is not a replacement for regular nail trims. Rather, the scratchboard will help prevent your dog’s nails from becoming dangerously overgrown while giving you time to work on desensitizing and counter-conditioning.