So today I saw someone post for help about how to clip their nails as their dog would scream when they touched its feet. Then I saw the replies of people saying to use a towel and squash to dog tight, to give it drugs to sedate it, to give it to someone else to do….
This made me sad, first of all for the poor dogs that are being traumatised, and second for the poor owners that feel bad for making their dogs feel bad. An all-round bad experience simply because of an lack of knowledge.
Now I am no expert dog trainer – however this is so easy to easy understand – if it is a positive experience the dog will enjoy it. If you feed the dog treats whilst you touch its feet then it will associate it with pleasure not the “nasty clipping”.
Anyways – Dr Sophia Yin explains and demonstrates it so much better than I ever could so please watch it here:
https://drsophiayin.com/videos/entry/training_a_dog_to_enjoy_toenail_trims/
Towelling down our dog’s feet after each walk really helped. She did quite a bit of pavement pounding, too: kept them short
Really good point – its all about building the routine with a positive thing like a walk!