Doggone Nailed It

Your dog may not be too thrilled about having his nails trimmed.  Whether it is yourself or someone else performing this task there are some lovely ways to groom your dog towards the tolerance of touch to his feet.  If your pooch is not moving around as much as he used to his nails will not wear down as fast as they naturally would.  If your dog pulls away at the slightest touch of his feet, you can begin touching of stroking his legs during relaxing sessions.  No need to use a lot of pressure, just think ‘respectful touching’.  As you increase the amount of touching it may be necessary to go back a step.  You can even start with the back of your hand which is not as threatening because you can’t ‘grab’ your dog.  If the hand is still too much for him, find any object that he will tolerate you touching him with.  It could be a toy or even a soft paint brush.  You can build up the amount of pressure over time.  Ideally you can get to the point where you can touch him with the clippers.  Using them, make some gentle strokes or circles on different parts of his body.  This is way before actually using them. For some dogs the sound of the clipping is overwhelming due to past experience so you can desensitize him to this by trimming some matches which will make a similar sound and perhaps team it up with a treat.  Be patient and it will pay off but please don’t wait until Fido’s nails are so long his toes are being pushed around.

Leah & Angela OMeara

Hound Dog Day Care (Specialists in Dog Minding & Dog Boarding, Pet Sitting Brisbane & Doggy Day Care Brisbane)