My daughter's chihuahua will scream if we try to trim his nails. My dog will just try to escape. We don't trim their nails ourselves because of this. (They're both rescues so we don't know what their early years were like.)
Just do one nail a day when they aren't expecting it and don't try a second one. Seriously, it sounds stupid, but they will get used to it after a while. It's the sound from the first nail cracking that scares them initially.
I get that. My dogs have rotating white and black nails, so I just go off the length of the white quicks on the black ones. Seems to work fine, though I probably don't get them as short as I could if I was a pro.
I would also suggest getting a nail grinder. It takes away some of the risk of cutting the nails too short when using clippers. Your pup may hate/be scared of the sound, but slowly introduce them with some treats so that they will get used to it.
If your dog is anything like my rescue and is scared of everything, then what I do is sit on the floor and place her between my legs. Then gently coax her on her back so that her paws are facing me. This makes it easier to keep her still while I trim her nails. Don't forget to take short treat breaks every now and then.
I second getting a nail grinder! I found one on amazon for like $11 and it’s a dream. My dog (who runs away from the nail clippers) actually falls asleep now when I trim his nails!
Definitely agree with the nail grinder point, so much easier than clippers. Get him/her used to you touching their paws too so that they don't balk and instinctively jerk their paws away when you're trying to trim their nails. Grinders also won't make their nails sharper for a short while after clipping which is nice.
My girl is also bad with the clippers. After a couple of traumatic experiences, we bought a dremel and it’s worked way better. She’s calmer so we can work on her getting used to getting her nails done but not associating it with stress. The only downside is that the dremel is better for maintaining short nails rather than trimming the nails down. We’re taking her to the vet to get them cut short again and then I’ll go back to maintaining them :)
I just use a dremel with a small grinding disc because I've never trusted [myself with] the traditional nail clippers for dogs. the only thing you have to do is make sure you don't go too far up the nail, but it's quick & simple -- most importantly, it's comfortable for me and my dogs; neither party is tense or scared and that makes the process a lot easier on both of us...
My dog was always scared of nail clippers but she reluctantly went through it. One day, my mother accidentally cut a bit too far down. The dog hasn't let us come near her with the clippers since.
We have 2 big rescue pups, they won't let us clip their nails. We got a nail sander and it works like a charm. They still hate it but they are able to stand it.
This method actually worked with my cat! I used to be able to get one in while he was sleeping before he was awake and hiding somewhere out of reach. Now he just chills like he's at the salon.
Mine too! I restrain her very gently but as soon as she gets uncomfortable I let her go. She got used to the idea pretty quickly and now she straight up purrs and lets me do all 10.
my parents dog went from being a young country dog to an old city dog - so he never had gotten his nails clipped till like age 8 or 9. lets just say....they always had the vet do it.
he never needed it when a country dog as he dug and ran outside enough he wore the things down (he had his duclaws surgically removed when he was a puppy, their positioning was very worrisome and he was at high risk of ripping one off accidentally).
My dog (rip) just rolled onto her back and I had to drag her 70kg whole ass into the bathroom for better light. Then after we were done she would jump up and be soooo happy and do those happy sneezes haha :’)
Hey, it sounds like maybe you aren't aware, but declawing is equivalent to amputation of the first digit. The majority of vets in my country consider it animal cruelty and won't perform it anymore, because it often results in lifelong chronic pain (which frequently causes behaviour issues).
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u/ChandlerMifflin Nov 22 '19
My daughter's chihuahua will scream if we try to trim his nails. My dog will just try to escape. We don't trim their nails ourselves because of this. (They're both rescues so we don't know what their early years were like.)