[Vincent]

Hi as Vinnie goes for walks on grass or mud his nails have gotten a bit long. He never used to mind me cutting them but now he goes crazy when I go near his feet. Does anyone have any techinques they could tell me on how to keep him calm? I am worried i will hurt him cause he wriggles so much?

Thanks

 

[Islander]

For Ziva I use a battery operated Dremel tool, so we grind hers down. It was the recommended method by our breeder.

When we're ready to begin, I get either some chopped up apple with a bit of peanut butter or a few broken Triscuit crackers with a bit of peanut butter.
My husband gives her the treats while I work on her nails. I can work through
all four paws in just a few short minutes.

She's happy, I'm happy and her nails look great!

 

[Mischa]

Funny, I just bought a dremel yesterday too. It's called Pet Pedicure and I'm hoping it works when we get our puppy.

With my chihuahua though, our vet taught us an interesting tip to help with regular grooming. He said every day for about 5-10 minutes to sit our dog on our lap (or for bigger dogs I guess you could just sit beside your dog on the ground) and play with the ears (so they get used to their ears being cleaned), run your finger over their teeth (for brushing their teeth), then rub your fingers over their front paws and nails, then the back pawns and nails. This desensitizes them from being constantly touched there, but also establishes dominance.

Sometimes they will resist, but just make sure that you stay calm and assertive and keep doing it. If they resist and you let go, it teaches them that once they squirm a bit they can make it stop, which is obviously what you don't want. After we were done, we would praise him, pet him, and give him a treat sometimes. It really helped us a lot.

Good luck to you.

 

[Tulip]

Wait until he's asleep - that's what I do!

 

[Crazy Kian]

We take Kian to the the local Pet Smart and let there "professionals" : deal with him for that.
Either that or I let him pull me around the sidewalk.... it's like a free manicure for the guy. ;D

 

[gunnr]

I hold the dog, and my wife cuts the nails.
The tailgate of my truck is the perfect height.

 

[Ro-Ro]

We are very lucky and our neighbor has two Old English and does Old English Rescue for this area - she has all the tools of the trade and grinds Ziva's nail down while Ziva tries to lick her. Awesome Neighbor!!!!

 

[Big Rick]

The best way we found (besides taking them to the vet or pet store) takes two people. The first person holds their favorite treat just tight enough that they have to work at it to get. The other person can then clip the nails with impunity. They are too busy trying to get the treat to worry about their feet. It worked for us and now they don't mind having their nails clipped.

 

[Chestersmum]

I wait until our puppy is asleep also!!

When he's awake we stroke and touch his feet and introduce the nail clipper but he's still too wriggly for us to cut them unless he's in the land of nod. He doesn't even notice then and we can get through them all no problem.

We do his about once a week to get him used to it. Literally taking a mm off each time.

 

[LynnieB]

I took my Vizsla to the pet grooming place on Saturday & while he had his front feet up at the counter saying hello to the owners labrador the bloke cut his nails. He didnt even blink !!!! Sometimes he can act so cute & well behaved to strangers!!!!!!

 

[jmmec]

Without a helper, what seems to work for me (for a puppy) is to wrap the "body" of the puppy in a towel, of course leaving the legs and feet exposed. The compression of the towel around the body seems to provide comfort and the puppy will just lay in your arms as you carefully trim the nails.

If you do this weekly, when they are a puppy, then they'll soon become accustomed to it, and you can eventually stop using the towel as they age. You can also start to introduce the dremel to grind down the nails.

I don't know if this trick works on all puppies...

 

[Ro-Ro]

We're the pnes where the neighbor used her drummel - well Ziva has decided she now prefers not to have that done. We have since tried every trick, including all the ones listed. We are just being consistent and can ususally get one or two trimmed before she wakes up from a nap.

 

[treetops1974]

PetSmart ... $11 a visit

 

[Gema18]

I tend to do my older bitches in the back of the car on the way to a beach walk. That way she soon forgets about it!!

 

[Kailua]

We'll wait until they're in a deep sleep to cut them. I also will dremel their nails every night to keep them down. With the dremel, their nails don't have that "just cut" feel to them.

 

[kellygh]

What is dremel?

 

[jld640]

An actual Dremel is a brand name, power, rotary tool with a variety of attachments that let you grind, sand, polish etc. You can get one at most hardware stores. With that said, like Kleenex and tissue, the Dremel brand name is now used by some folks to describe any similar device.

For our purposes here, it can either be the actual Dremel tool (which some people get because it can be used for projects other than grinding pet nails) or any of the pet specific rotary grinders (which, according to the kind people at Petco, tend to be cheaper and are designed for less noise and vibration). The last time I was evaluating the pet-specific tools, I found some that had an actual grinding stone and some that had emory-board or sand paper glued to a rotating drum.

Savannah needed to get used to nail clipping first, so we still use nail clippers, but there is a dremel or dremel want-to-be in my near future.

 

[willbill59]

My V actually likes it. I have always stuck to one way of cutting them. I have huge finger nail clippers, and I lop the nails right off. If he get rowdy, I just tell him easy (which is his word for calm) and he stays calm. I think it is because he knows he will get a reward after he is finished. I have taught him this since day one.

 

[mswhipple]

I have a Dremel, which I tried to use on my previous dog, but she never did adjust to it. I think it was the noise that kind of scared her. Now with Willie, I get in the car and drive to Bonnie's Pet Parlor, and she trims Willie's toe nails for $10... to me, it's worth every penny!

I've had dogs in the past with clear toe nails, and those I trimmed myself. Willie's toe nails are an opaque brown so you can't see the quick. I am just too worried I'll "quick" him. Bonnie never has.

 

[texasred]

I never trim my dogs nails when they are sleeping. When they are pups I make sure I mess with their ears , mouths and feet daily. Now that they are older I just sit on the floor and tell the down. They will lay next to me while I trim their nails. I always make sure they get a belly rub when I'm through.