Cutting puppy toe nails
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Anonymous
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My puppy freaks out when you try to cut his nails. He’s fine with you handling his toes, and with treats he’ll let you touch his toes with the clipper or grinder, but if you actually use it he wigs out, flails, etc. Last night we tried to just hold him tight and do it anyway and he struggled so much I cut too much of his toenail and made him bleed. I felt terrible, though he didn’t seem to notice, he was so upset by the clipping itself.
Do we just take him to a groomer? What will they do to make him hold still? Do we just keep trying while plying him with chicken? His nails are getting long - he’s 14 weeks and hasn’t had his nailed trimmed. |
Anonymous
| When I got my dog, she was a puppy, and I'd never had a dog before. She has opaque black nails and trimming them or grinding them myself scares me. My vet said "Just pay PetSmart groomers to do it." She also said "Let them be the bad guy." That is what I've done for 8 years now. It's worth it. |
Anonymous
| Normal. Bride with food and distract. |
Anonymous
| You can have someone else do it, or you can do with my puppy what we tried, which was just doing one nail a day to get them used to it. By the time you loop your way around you're ready to start again and they are hopefully more accustomed to it, maybe move up to only 2 at a time. |
Anonymous
I’m trying and that’s not working - he freaks, and no amount of treats will distract him. I am sure if I spent time every day bribing for incrementally closer contact with the clipper maybe he could get over it - but he’ll already let me touch his toes with the clipper. He just thinks the pressure of it is murder. |
Anonymous
| it can be painful. if you can file them it will be a better option. that or groomer |
Anonymous
It takes us hours for a few nails. |
Anonymous
| Just let the groomer do it. |
Anonymous
| We let groomer trim nails for our puppy, then we also did at vet once when 2 nurses, one holding him and use treat to district him while the other trim nails, it was still difficult since they didn’t want to force the puppy and they tried nails for 2 paws. They recommended not to trim all nails at once and try again to trim few each time if we plan to trim ourselves. |
Anonymous
| What if someone holds him puppy style while the other person trims? Mine also does best held in a blanket with just one foot out at once. |
Anonymous
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Maybe you need to work it up more.
He's ok with paws being touched He's ok with machine (off) being near him Try turning the machine on (not touching) and giving treats Try turning machine on, touch gently, treat Touch gently for longer, treat Touch gently for longer, treat etc I also find walking on cement/pavement really helps keep the nails down. I rarely have to do any nail trimming because of this. |
Anonymous
| Let someone else do it. If I do it (and I used to groom dogs in the summers during college so I know how to) they freak out. If someone else does it they are usually too afraid to freak out and let them do it. |
CosmicFlower
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| I was nervous about cutting them myself, so I let the groomer do it the first time and observed carefully. The groomer was very skilled and did it quickly. When they needed to be cut again, I followed all the advice that the groomer had given me, and it was a success! 😊 |
Anonymous
| For fun on this topic, see the videos all over the internet with plastic wrap, peanut butter and nail clippers. |
Anonymous
| My dog did much better with the dremel at that age. |