ohLizzz
06-01-2009, 11:42 PM
I've cut down my pups nails before and he was okay with it but this time I tried doing it, he freaks out! he will squirm and struggle and try his best to get away! His nails are getting to long and I'm starting to get worried. What can I do to calm him down or get him to let me trim down his nails? :(
Ltlpistol
06-02-2009, 07:15 AM
You need to be messing with his feet on a daily basis. Don't have the clippers in your hand, put them in your back pocket or something. Then just start rubbing him all over, lots of scrubbies. Pick up each foot, rub on it, separate the toes feel his pads, etc. Just mess with his feet a lot, when he's allowing you to do that praise him, praise him a lot for enjoying the scrubbies, etc. Roll him on his back and rub his tummy. Then after a few days of this try clipping just one or two toes while he's enjoying the scrubbies. If he lets you without a fuss, praise him alot. As soon as he starts fighting the clipping stop. Try again the next day, it may take several days to get all his toes, but eventually he will associate the toe clipping with the fun, feel-good scrubbies and won't fight so. Just be extremely careful not to quick a nail. If his toenails are white you can see the pink line where the quick stops. Don't cut past that. If his toenails are black, look on the underside, where the curve starts away from the main round part of the nail is usually where the quick is, but just take little slices of nail off until you can see a small black circle in the end. That's the beginning of the quick.
Sorry, forgot to mention, don't forget the dewclaws. Lots of people miss them and they end up extremely long and can curve back into the foot.
As well as playing with my pups' paws, I try to get them when they're pooped right out. Then they're lazy and sleepy and don't really care what you're doing to them, they just wanna nap!