Trimming your dog's nails is an important part of health care of caring for
them. And I know it's something that our students mentioned.
It's a stressful process.
I know that you guys here on our YouTube channel have mentioned that, you know,
you get a little anxious when it's time to trim your dog's nails.
But in today's video,
I thought I'd sit here and I would give you this amount of tips in this amount
of time to help you have a less stressful nail trimming process.
I'm Ken Steepe, welcome back to McCann Dogs
here in our training facility.
We've helped more than a hundred thousand dog owners with the same dog training
challenges that you have. So if this is your first time on the channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button so that I can help you to have a well
behaved for like a family member. If you only bring out the nail trimmers,
when you're about to trim your dog's nails,
there's going to be a little bit of anxiety associated with that.
If the only time that you handle your dog's feet is when you're going to be
trimming their nails, then you really need to change that routine.
So he doesn't love getting her nails cut. She tolerates it.
So one of the things that they often practice is just a little word association
with just letting her see this Clippers. Yes. And then simply getting reward.
So I don't want her to think that every time we bring the clippers out,
I'm going to clip her toenails. I want her to learn that sometimes fun,
Sometimes fun things happen. Yes. Good girl. Okay.
And they take one step further and I'm just going to hold her paw up. Yes.
I'm just going to feed her for that. And then they take the Clippers. Yes.
Good girl. Remember, you're a good timing.
I need to make sure I say yes when my hand's actually holding onto her paws.
Lift her paw again. Yes. good girl, I'm going to hold the clippers up. Yes.
Good girl.
What I'm looking for so that she's not trying to pull her paw away or nip and
bite at me. I want her to be calm. Good girl and try the other paw. Good Girl.
But I'm just going to hold it for a second. You mind your business? Yes.
That's excellent. Good. Yes,
absolutely. Good girl.
That would literally be the extent of my training session.
I wouldn't actually clip her toenails.
I would just do a couple of seconds of really fun. High value rewards,
letting her sniff and see the clippers and then call it quits.
Do their nails at dinner time.
If you can take advantage of the fact that your dog's hungry and they're going
to be much more focused on the food than they are on the fact that you're
clipping their nails, then take advantage of it. I mean,
these situations are going to naturally occur during the day and a great time to
take advantage of that is a mealtime.
So clip your dog's nails and you can reward them using some of their dinner.
Here's a tip for those of you who struggle with cutting your dog's back nails,
hold the pot backwards. This way.
You'll be able to see the underside of the nail.
This is also really helpful for those of you who have a dog with black nails,
you can actually see the quick as you're cutting those back nails.
This will allow you to trim that nail confidently.
You'll have lots of control of your dog.
The other thing you can do when you're holding that Paul in this position is
that you can brace your dog in between your legs.
This will reduce the amount of movement that your dog can do.
And it'll just let you see that nail so clearly that you can make the trimming
process much, much easier for those back paws.
If you have a dog with long fur over their toes,
wet paws can make a world of difference.
Now there's a couple of different ways that you can get your dogs, paw wet,
but it's going to be really helpful.
The other thing that's helpful is if your dog has wet nails,
especially if it's something like you've gone for a walk outside,
your dogs have just been swimming.
Those nails will be a little softer and it will allow you to trim them a lot
more easily.
So I have a bowl of water here.
I also have a face cloth that you can simply put your dog's paw in the bowl of
water. If they're comfortable with that,
or you could even just take a wet cloth, make it wet,
and then you can apply it to your puppies paw.
I'm just going to wet his paw a Little bit here because he has tons of fur right
around his nails.
So once the fur gets wet and literally can just push it off to the side
and you'll see, it just stays in place.
And now I can expose those nails and I can cut the much more easily rather than
trying to hold the hair back and do everything all at once. You can see,
I can just peel it to the side. It stays there perfectly.
And then I have a much easier job of clipping his nails.
Something as simple as putting peanut butter in a food bowl or peanut butter on
the backside of like a Frisbee or a disc will allow you to focus your
dog's attention on that thing, especially if they love peanut butter.
Now for those of you who have a dog, that's a little bit stressed,
this is a great one because it takes them some time to,
to eat all of that peanut butter while you can confidently clip away on their
nails. And once they're finished the peanut butter,
I want you to break the break off the process. You know, you stop trimming.
Maybe you reload a disc or food bowl,
and then you can get back into the trimming process.
But this is a great one for dogs who are highly food motivated,
good lighting is really helpful.
So using something like a headlamp,
now this is a handy little thing that we use for all kinds of reasons,
why with our dogs I'll I suggest that you check out, you know,
your local hardware store and grab one for yourself,
but I'll actually list the link in the description below to this headlamp,
because it's so handy for cutting dog's nails. You know, I always suggest,
and I have suggested in the past,
in some of our nail trimming videos to have a well lit area,
somewhere like your kitchen might have great lighting. Maybe it's your bathroom,
but having something like a headlamp on or using something like your cell phone
light can be so helpful to visualize where the quick is in your dog'ss nail.
This is our oldest dog Funkee Monkee,
and I have a couple of tricks that I do and clipping her toenails. She has very,
very black nails. So I actually do a bunch of things.
I put the food out to keep her still,
I lift her paw up backwards so I can see really easily.
And I turned my head lamp on the high so that I can see that quick inside that
nail as best that I can. So I'm just gonna put my bowl down.
I need to get my clippers ready, stand her up, good girl hold her thing back,
adjust my headlamp and then I can clip. And with her,
usually just do a couple
and then I let her have some of the food, yes, good girl get that one.
And then we try it again. Good girl, okay, come here. Yes. Wait.
Stand on the thing. No, so I can not let you move.
So I just sorta flip her paw back, clip
clip, and then take a break. Let her have a couple of treats. Good girl!
Trim your dog's nails often and take off tiny amounts.
Each time we actually have one of our trainers who has toenail Tuesday and she
sits down with all of her dogs and it takes off a little bit of nail each time.
This is a great approach because what actually happens is that a vessel in the
quick inside the nail actually recedes a little bit,
you also run much less of a likelihood of cutting them of, of, you know,
damaging that vessel and then bleeding all over the place.
It's also quite a painful process.
So incorporate nail trimming into your weekly routine,
or maybe you do it two times a month, something like that,
where you take off smaller amounts rather than waiting until, Oh boy,
we really need to trim these nails and taking off larger amounts.
Now this was the condensed version of a nail trimming video,
some quick tips to help you to be successful.
But if you'd like a little bit more deeper,
look even a step by step approach to trimming your dog's nails.
Especially if they're a little stressed,
then make sure you click that card right there on that note. I'm Ken,
we'll see you in the next video. Happy training!