Everyone with a large breed dog knows that if your dog doesn't like their nails being trimmed, how much of a dreaded task this can be!
Over the years, this has been one of the tasks that I equally hate as much. As a breeder I have to trim puppies nails from 2 weeks old puppy 'needle' nails, to thick course adult nails. After nipping a few quicks over the years, its sort of become a bit of a fear, after seeing how much blood the nail quick produces when cut. At the bottom of this blog, I have added some information on what to do if this happens, don't worry- we've all been there at some point!
We start off at 2 weeks of age, touching the little feet and normalising their feet being handled. We start off with a little nail file as the nails are so tiny, then from about 5 weeks of age move on to baby nail clippers. The file and nail clipper is sufficient up until about 6 months of age, if done regularly.
Kennelled dogs with access to a concrete or a coarse exercise area will automatically be at an advantage in this respect, because the ground acts as a natural 'sander' and keeps the nails short, as the dog moves around day-to-day. I don't have to trim any of my kennelled dogs, equally people that do a lot of road walking with their dogs will also benefit.
KANO
Kano is now 4 years of age and has always hated his feet being touched :-D He categorically hates it and will be miserable all day after you have touched his feet. He isn't aggressive, but certainly won't co-operate, and overall it's a pretty lame experience for both of us.
So...what to do....
After seeing a really helpful post on TikTok created by my good friend Black Tooth Dogs, on how to condition your dog to the nail grinder. See below...
Over the past 2 weeks I have been using the guidance from Black Tooth Dogs to try to win Kano over. We are getting there slowly, he still hates it, but no longer pulls away when I pick up his foot.
So we jumped right in and bought the Wahl Nail Grinder for dogs. This product is quite reasonably priced and comes with several different heads from medium to coarse and small for smaller nails.
It is not a bad weight and easy to hold, however 1 improvement would be better instructions on how to assemble the heads and an intensity option to slow the grinder down for nervous dogs.
Its a little noisy, but this didn't pose a problem, treats in hand!
After 10 mins or so, Kano was un-botherd by the noise, after lots of 'Fish4Dogs' Salmon treats :-D
We managed 2 toes today. I wanted to get him used to the noise, feeling and smell (which is not nice). He coped pretty well, however we will continue to do 5 mins each day, with lots of positive reinforcement, until we get the perfect manicure. :-D
WHAT TO DO IF YOU NIP A QUICK...