My dog won't let me trim her nails. Any suggestions?

Question

My dog is about a year and a half. I have been trimming her nails myself since she was 3 months old. Lately she has been very aggressive towards it. I can't even grab her paws without her trying to bite me. I have never cut them too short, but it seems to hurt her. Has anyone else gone through this, and do you have any suggestions, so she will allow me to trim her nails? They are getting bad. I already tried taking her somewhere else, and they refused to trim them because she started to get too aggressive.

Answer 1

You've got to be firm with her. You can't let her get away with trying to bite you. If need be, put a muzzle on her - you can use the leg cut off a pair of panty hose - it's soft, won't hurt, but you can clip her nails. Don't let anyone hold her down, that's going to make things worse.

Before resorting to a muzzle, try doing her nails when she's really tired out from a long walk. Spend some time playing with her feet, then just pretend to clip her nails. The next night try clipping off just a tiny bit.

Answer 2

Try to do it with her standing up. Just fold the paw you are trying to do backwards like they shoe horses. A friend of mine is a groomer and this is how she does it. I do my Golden Retrievers this way. sometimes it helps to put something under them so they can't sit. Make sure that your clippers are sharp. You must be firm with her to do the job and dont let her get away with biting you. if she does stop and discipline her, but you must also reward her for behaving when she is good. I had a similar situation with my dogs. Start off slow, at first maybe do only one foot or even only one nail if she is misbehaving. Then reward her and stop for a while. Do another one and reward her again. You might even want to wait a whole day bewtween each attempt. Eventually work your way up to doing them all at once. You will have to discipline her if she tries to bite you. Dont hit her to discipline her a dog will remember it very well if you hit them. To discipline her hold her by the muzzle and look her in the eyes and in a very stern voice tell her NO. Just dont forget to reward her for being good. Pet her and tell her good girl and give her a treat. MAKE A BIG DEAL OUY OF IT You want to make it a good experience for your dog. If all else fails use a muzzle but I find it works better if you can do without the muzzle it makes it esier to reward them for good behavior. One other thing to check is that there is nothing wrong with her feet. This may mean a trip to the Vet. Good luck!

Answer 3

Try using treats to make it a positive training experience and take it very slow, over a matter of several weeks or maybe longer depending on how she responds. At first, just start by touching her paw, and when she lets you do it, then immediately say "yes!" very enthusiastically and give her a small dog treat. Keep doing this over several sessions until she is comfortable with you touching her paws. When she gets used to having her paws touched, try, holding her paw and use the same technique. Then later on move to clipping a nail and then rewarding her with a treat for each clip.

Since her nails are bad now, you may want to take her to a vet and have her sedated to get her claws clipped. Then start the training program immediately after, so by the time you're ready to do it again, she's hopefully ready to tolerate it.

I've done this approach with both cats and dogs and it works. It may take you awhile because she already has a negative impression of clipping, but with time and patience you should get there.

Answer 4

To suddenly become aggressive toward you clipping your dog's nails after doing it for a year could mean your dog has a cut in it's paw or maybe one of the nails are torn. Cutting the quick (nerve ending) on one of the nails certainly would put the dog off on having them clipped later but shouldn't make them that aggressive. I would suggest having the vet take a close look at your dogs paws to rule out any cuts/torn nails then just take it from there.

Answer 5

Shirley Chong came up with a brilliant idea. First, you clicker train your dog to 'paw' on cue. This is basically rubbing the paw along a board.

Then you make a huge nail file by glueing a piece of sand-paper to a board, and cue your dog to 'paw' the nail file!

If you know how to clicker-train, it is incredibly easy to teach.

Alternatively, get a bunch of tiny little tasty treats and just work on touching your dog's paws gently and briefly, giving a treat each time. You are trying to build a nice association with having paws touched, and reward your dog for letting you do this.

Then you work up to trimming one nail per day, giving lots of treats before, during and after you trim that one nail.

Do NOT trim too far down the nail. This hurts dogs quite a lot. Just take a tiny little bit off. Use very good guillotine style nail trimmers.

Answer 6

You may have nicked the vein some time in the past. All it takes is one bad experience and it can put the dog off it for a lifetime.

When she's relaxing with you, play with her paws a little (without trying to clip them) to get her used to people touching them. Stop before she starts to get agitated. (Don't grab at them at first, just sort of pet them. When she's comfortable with that - and it may take a while - give her paws a little squeeze. Work your way up to holding her paws.)

You may have to take her to the vet to get her nails trimmed, and bring a soft muzzle. (Vets have more experience with aggressive animals than your average groomer). Your vet may also have some advice for having to deal with this problem in the long term.

I hope this helps

Answer 7

Here's a few things you can try. Have someone distract her while you trim the nails. Rather than cut the nails, use either a Dremmel with a grinding bit or a nail file (the kind that's used for acrylic nails). I've found that filing the nail is easier for dogs to tolerate than cutting and it makes for a smoother nail.

Answer 8

My puppy used to do that but it was her own personal issue. She hated her paws being touched, but we worked through it. Try talking to her soothingly and only go as far as her personal boundaries will allow. Reward her for letting you get as far as you did. When she lets you hold her paw, check it everywhere in between the toes and everything. She might have a cut or something. Then check her nails. Are they discoloured or appear to be sensitve to the touch? If they are brittle or discolored there might be something missing in her diet. If all else fails take her to a vet that she likes. Hope it helps.

Answer 9

you either need a muzzle and a second person or you need to take her to the vet. You should try to grab and play with her feet without the nail trimmers. If she trys to bite disapline her, push her nose away or LIGHTLY pop her nose and say "No!" or "My foot!" Whatever you do be careful and don't get frustrated. Good luck!!!

Answer 10

next time you are about to do her nails the seccon she trys to bite you flip her on her back and gently hold her muzzle tell her that its not good to bite or the bad bad bad always works let her go and grab her foot again if she trys to bite again put her into submission until she calms down and repeat until she lets you trim her nails