The Canine Nail Trim - Just Ask Nicely

The tail of how I learned to cut my dog’s nails.

I think I had a similar experience to most  people when I got my first dog and tried to cut his nails the first time. Everything is going well until I got a little too greedy, and then the red river started flowing out of his nail bed, and it felt like it would never stop. I was almost certain he was going to bleed to death.

Comparatively, I think Wilson had the same reaction to most dogs when this event occurs. The human he had trusted, with his life, tried to CUT.OFF.HIS.TOE! 

How dare I

Obviously it was a total accident, and since I was unable to convey this to Wilson, he wasn’t super down to let me do that again, and to be fair my guilt steered me away from wanting to try. 

Well, that was 12 years ago, and after doing this a couple thousand times since, on different species, and breed all with different behaviours, I have a decent roster of tools in my belt to make this go a little more smoothly.

Now, there are DOZENS of ways that you can help alleviate the stress for your pet when it comes to nail trims, and I hope you follow along and subscribe to my newsletter, because whenever I get that going I’ll be sure to cover them. 

But for now I’m going to write about what works for Wilson and I. 

I chose to use a method called consent training, which uses positive operant conditioning. That means that something positive is introduced into the environment when a desired behaviour is voluntary performed. To add to this, I never use significant force to make Wilson continue to participate, so I allow him to walk away whenever he wants to. 

Don’t get me wrong, this will not work for every dog, and cats, well they’ll probably just tell you where to shove it. But if your dog has basic obedience, and is highly food driven (this is Wilson 100%). Then this might work for you too. 

The thing I like about this, and about most fear-free methods, is that we are letting the dog have their own voice, and set their own boundaries.

To get things going I start with a bowl filled with a variety of treats ranging in reward level. A low level reward could be his kibble. Is he stoked to be getting extra kibble, for sure, but is it anything special? Not really.  Then we move up to my favourite training treat, dehydrated liver. There are a variety of brands that you can get from just about anywhere, but I love these because they’re low in calories, they’re delicious, and you can break them up into small pieces, so a little can go a long way and your dog wont pack on those L.Bs. Lastly, you gotta through something GOOD in there, this can be something like a small bit of cheese or hot dog, anything that your dog would do a backflip for, or at least try to.

How we go about it is I sit on the floor, Wilson is already wanting to know whats up because I have made the best schmorgesborg he’s every seen. But in training, rewards must be earned. While I’m sitting there I call him over if he’s not already up my butt, and ask for a paw. 

If your dog doesn’t know ‘paw’ you gotta go back a step, but I appreciate you coming along for the story.

Anyway, I ask for a paw, which he willingly, and almost forcefully gives. I trim a small bit off his nail (he still hates this part by the way) and give him a treat out of the bowl, usually as quick as I can. If you have a partner, person, or some fancy AI robot in the house that can give them the treats while you trim, even better. This will help your dog associate the trimming with the treat.  

I usually start off with one of the lower level rewards, we just started, his patience is still high, but none the less he did the thing I asked, so he gets a little snack. 

I repeat this process multiple times, taking small angular bits off at a time to ensure I don’t cut the quick.  

I tend to save the gold level rewards for when I can tell he’s getting a bit frustrated, or maybe not giving his paw as willingly as he once was. This immediately, but temporarily erases all the psychological trauma they think they’re experiencing. I try this with cheese and crackers for myself, and can’t say it works as well for me as it does for him.  

Slowly we work through all the toes on the front. And when I say slow, I mean SLOW, or at whatever Wilson’s pace is that day. Because as soon as I force him to do something he doesn’t want to, the positive interaction is over, he gets stressed, I get stressed and we all just want some cheese and crackers to make ourselves feel better. But by letting your dog remove themselves from the interaction when they are getting overstimulated, will help them mentally reset, and get ready for round two. What Wilson does is he will usually pull his paw away in disgust, takes the treat, and walk a few feet away, and looks longingly at the rest of the treats that are waiting. I don’t force him to stay with me, or to do anything that he doesn’t VOLUNTARILY want to do. So when he’s gotten over himself, I call him over, ask for a paw, clip, give another treat. Sometimes it’s the same toe, sometimes it’s the next one, really it’s whatever I can get to the fastest. I just keep repeating this until we’re done, or when Wilson just doesn’t come back for the treats (this rarely happens - he’s obsessed with food and people pleasing #bordercollieproblems). 

I realize at this point I haven’t talked about doing the toes on the back feet. Again, the way I do this works for Wilson and I, but not necessarily you and your 5lb Yorkie. What I do is I stand over top of him facing his bum, with my legs on either side of his waist, I grab his hind foot and bring it back in the most natural-to-him way possible, and am able to whip through these ones fairly quickly.

Dogs lack hind end awareness, which means that they pay a little less attention to what’s happening back there than upfront. Think of them as a car with front wheel drive, the back wheels kind of just follow along. So sometimes it’s easier to start back there because your dog doesn’t really care too much before moving to the stressful front feet. 

Something to keep in mind when handling your dogs feet is that they will probably not respond well to tight grips, be gentle, and when you’re extending their legs make sure you do it in a way that mechanically makes sense to them. When we reef on our pet’s legs and pull them in unnatural positions it can be uncomfortable and elevate their stress response. 

Fortunately, I’ve rebuilt a lot of trust with Wilson after our first mishap, and he’s incredibly food motivated so we can usually get through them all. But sometimes there’s not enough cheese and crackers in the world to make things okay (we all know that’s false because cheese and crackers are DELICIOUS - but you catch my drift). A classic sign that a dog is getting stressed out is that they are no longer taking treats, they don’t want to come near you anymore, maybe they’re growling, or doing a warning head turn toward your hand.  All of this means STOP, and definitely not “oh, just one more”. Take your time with your dog, be patient with them, and let them decide when they’re done. Less clicks-clacks on the hardwood is not worth diminishing the bond you have with your pet by forcing them to do something stressful.

“But Kaitlyn it’s just a nail trim, it’s not a big deal.”

It is for your dog.

They don’t understand why it’s happening, they don’t really know what you’re asking, so when they start to react in a fearful, or anxious way, it’s time to pump the breaks, and try again later or even another day. Any type of training always should end on a positive note. 

This isn’t the only way to cut dogs’ nails, but it’s the way that works for Wilson and I. I truly appreciate the time you took to read my rant, and I hope you were able to learn a little something.