Nail clipping and his behavior

babybluetx23 · #1 05-18-2004, 03:11 PM

I have a question about something I noticed last night while I was clipping Harleys nails. He ONLY does it on the first paw. He will do EVERYTHING and anything to get out of my hold on him. He never bites, he just squirms, crys, yelps and will try to kick with his back paws. I have NEVER cut him to the quick, I have never hurt him as far as I know, he just throws a GREAT big fit with the first paw. After that he relaxes and lets me do it. Once I finish he Licks me as if to say "Thank you for finishing Im gonna go play"
Once he does calm down we praise him and give him lots of good lovings but he is getting SO strong that he is getting harder and harder to hold on to. Plus when he Jerks his paw back Im afraid I am going to end up hurting him. While he is throwing his fit we dont talk to him in a high pitched voice or tell him its ok, normally I tell him NO and tell him to knock it off. Either that or I just dont talk to him at all.
Is there ANYTHING I can do to make this Any easier on him and me? I am at a point now that I am having to ALMOST lay on him and hold him down to get this done.

JDUCE · #2 05-18-2004, 03:17 PM

Get ready it only gets worse. If you saw us dremmel Duce's nails, you would think we were trying to kill him. As he got older and stronger it got harder. He yelps, cries, pushes, flinches, howls etc. Nathan has to lay on top of him and we have to put his muzzel on. He is okay with the back paws but he HATES having the front paws done. We thought it was the dremmel, but I tried the clipper and. . .cut the quik. I felt so bad. Its funny once it is done Duce is fine, he stands up shakes and hops around like a rabbit.

I personally like the dremmel, if you cut the quik it will not bleed as much and i can shape the nails better.

Bruce Lanthier · #3 05-18-2004, 03:21 PM

I have found that starting on the back feet seems to help ease some of the resistance to nail cutting.

babybluetx23 · #4 05-18-2004, 03:26 PM

Quote:

I have found that starting on the back feet seems to help ease some of the resistance to nail cutting.

I might try that next week when we clip his nails.
JDUCE - YES that is EXACTLY how he acts, Like I am ABOUT to cut off his ENTIRE leg with a dull rusted blade! UGH! And once I get done he hops up and will hop around the house like nothing ever happened and then go pounce the cat or start a session of Play with Wolf. It drives me NUTTY!

Not only that but his strength just FLOORS me. When we did this last week he wasnt that strong nor the week before or the week before. I cant IMAGINE what he is going to be like when he is full grown! Good GRIEF! It is going to take the two of us to hold him down! hehehe

JDUCE · #5 05-18-2004, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by babybluetx23

Not only that but his strength just FLOORS me. When we did this last week he wasnt that strong nor the week before or the week before. I cant IMAGINE what he is going to be like when he is full grown! Good GRIEF! It is going to take the two of us to hold him down! hehehe

It will take two of you holding him down! Duce gets stronger and stronger. . .it is amazing.

I think we will try and start on the back paws first.

Bruce Lanthier · #6 05-18-2004, 03:33 PM

Try clipping the nails of a dog that will bite you.

Then it gets kind of hard to find someone to help. LMAO

babybluetx23 · #7 05-18-2004, 03:38 PM

My CAT will do that. He growls and then kicks and then Bites. He still has his Claws but has no use of them. So he found away around that, with his teeth!!! And you cant really train a cat so I have to wrestle with the silly cat to get his claws clipped.

brnlow · #8 05-18-2004, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDUCE

I personally like the dremmel, if you cut the quik it will not bleed as much and i can shape the nails better.

How do you use a dremmel? Just grind away? We have been letting the vet and groomers do the nail maintainence because I am just too nervous about my clipping ability. I have seen the dremmel and wondered how well they work for nails.

jbach · #9 05-18-2004, 04:10 PM

Dremmels work excellent for nails....just don't spend more than a couple of seconds on each one as it gets hot quick. You can always go back to it when it cools off. And make sure you don't back down while doing nails. The dog has to learn that you are going to cut his nails whether he likes it or not.

babybluetx23 · #10 05-18-2004, 04:13 PM

Oh I have NEVER backed down. I am Alpha Not him and that is the WAY it will stay. The more he fights the more I fight back and I ALWAYS and Always WILL win that fight.

Patty1231 · #11 05-18-2004, 04:16 PM

First rule is to never let the dog win! You may want to try treats. This worked really well for Rocco. Now I say "clippy nails for cheese" and he heads straight for the kitchen. I give a piece after each foot and haven't had any problems with him since I introduced this method a year ago - it was the same battle you described before that. I was lucky with Perle, she doesn't mind at all - but she still gets the cheese

JDUCE · #12 05-18-2004, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patty1231

First rule is to never let the dog win! You may want to try treats. This worked really well for Rocco. Now I say "clippy nails for cheese" and he heads straight for the kitchen. I give a piece after each foot and haven't had any problems with him since I introduced this method a year ago - it was the same battle you described before that. I was lucky with Perle, she doesn't mind at all - but she still gets the cheese

I will have to try this.

Brooke&Ryan · #13 05-18-2004, 04:25 PM

We had quite the battle with Julius as well when he was a pup. We tried the treats & they didn't work for us. Julius wasn't interested. He would just spit them back out & squirm harder.

I would hold Julius down while Ryan cut the nails. It took awhile until Julius finally accepted that we were going to cut the nails & it was going to get done.

Now Julius knows that after a nail clipping he gets to play tug with Ryan or I...same with grooming. So he'll flop over on his back with all four paws in the air.

Big goof....

Hang in there! It should get better soon!

Brooke

JDUCE · #14 05-18-2004, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brooke&Ryan

We had quite the battle with Julius as well when he was a pup. We tried the treats & they didn't work for us. Julius wasn't interested. He would just spit them back out & squirm harder.

I would hold Julius down while Ryan cut the nails. It took awhile until Julius finally accepted that we were going to cut the nails & it was going to get done.

Now Julius knows that after a nail clipping he gets to play tug with Ryan or I...same with grooming. So he'll flop over on his back with all four paws in the air.

Big goof....

Hang in there! It should get better soon!

Brooke

Maybe Julius can come over and teach Duce that we are not trying to kill/torture him. . .