- Do you get stressed at the idea of
clipping your dog's nails and more importantly,
does your dog get stressed at the process?
In this video, Instructor Shannon,
and her toller named Ned
are gonna give you the complete guide
of how to clip your dog's nails.
It's going to include
how to make them comfortable with the process
so that you're more comfortable and so are they.
I'm Ken Steepe, this is Instructor Shannon,
and this is Ned.
And welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(dogs barking)
- Nail trimming is something that
every dog will have to go through.
It's something that's very important
for their overall foot health
and of course, that means their overall health in general.
We are going to talk today about
some of the ins and outs
of how to get your dog used to nail trimming,
how to make sure that they're nice and comfortable with it
and how to do it properly
so that you're not accidentally
cutting into that quick.
It is so important that your dog is used to the process
of having their nails trimmed,
even if you, yourself, don't wanna do the work,
if you want to have your vet or your groomer do it,
that's fine, but your dog will have to be
used to and comfortable with the process.
So, we want to make sure that
even if we do have somebody else do it,
our dog has spent a lot of time with us,
being interacted with,
with handling with those clippers
and getting comfortable with the whole idea of that.
Now, there are two main styles of clippers
that you will come across.
In addition to nail clippers,
you could also use a Dremel.
We're not gonna get into that in this video,
but it is a way of trimming nails
that a lot of people do like.
Now with the two main styles of nail trimmers,
you've got what we call the scissor style
and what we call the guillotine style.
Now the scissor style of clippers is pretty straightforward.
They're a little bit more versatile.
You can actually cut your dog's nails in any direction.
So, if you find that sometimes you have a hard time
with the precision aspect of nail trimming,
you might find that the scissor type of trimmers
are a better one to work with,
than the guillotine, which you have to hold
and move a little bit more specifically
and we'll get to that in a moment.
Now with the scissor style of clippers,
the only thing that I really like to mention
is that they often will have a guide on them
from the manufacturer,
and we don't want you to use that guide.
It certainly will prevent you
from cutting off your dog's entire nail,
but we want you to trim your dog's nails
more frequently than not,
which means that hopefully the quick
will be nice and short.
The more often you trim your dog's toenails,
the more than quick will recede,
and the healthier and shorter you can get those toenails.
If I use that guide and put my dog's toenail
in all the way to that guide,
I would end up cutting way too much of his toenail off.
I would actually end up cutting into the quick,
without question, so, we do recommend
that you get rid of that guide
and use your touch,
use your feel and use your eyesight
and your history of cutting nails as well
to determine how much of that nail
you're gonna cut off.
Now, with the guillotine style of clippers,
there's actually a right and a wrong way to hold this.
Now, if I hold this with the moving edge in my palm,
and I line up my dog's toenail,
when I go to cut,
you can see how much that head moves
and I'm gonna end up taking off
a different amount than what I had planned.
So it's very important with these
that you hold the non-moving edge,
that's the moving edge,
this is the non-moving edge,
hold that non-moving edge in your palm,
and that way, when you go to squeeze,
you can see it's just the blade that moves up.
I'm not getting a lot of play to the head
and I can end up cutting
exactly what I had intended to cut off of that toenail.
One of the most important points
that we want to make in this video today
is how important it is to work with your dog
with handling techniques,
both with and without the clippers
to get them comfortable with nail trimming.
So with Ned here,
Ned just turned two recently,
so he's had his nails trimmed
just about every week of his life
since he came home to live with me at nine weeks of age.
So, he's pretty accustomed to this at this point.
But, the initial, I would say month or two that he was home,
I did a little bit of nail trimming practice
every single day to make sure that he got
really accustomed and really used to
me handling him both with and without those clippers.
Now I wasn't necessarily trimming toenails
every single time I worked with him,
but I was making sure that he was comfortable
being still, being around those clippers,
being touched with and having pressure put on his nails
so that I could eventually get to the point
where he would sit, stalk still,
as I put that nail in the clipper
and there wasn't gonna be any movement
before I actually took that little piece of nail off.
The last thing I want to do
is accidentally cut off too much of the nail.
There is a blood vessel inside of the nail,
and it's called the quick.
And if you cut into it, it will bleed
and it can be,
for lack of a better word,
I would say it can be dramatic.
It's not something that your dog is going to
bleed to death over,
it's not as terrifying as it seems,
but it does bleed a lot
and it can be very alarming.
It does sting to the dog as well.
It would sort of be like
cutting off a little bit too much of your own nail,
so it is a little bit painful.
It's something that you want to avoid.
So, the goal with handling is always to keep our dogs
in that state of mind where they're nice and calm
and they're able to just sit and be still
while you do what you need to do.
All I'm gonna do with my dog,
when he's a young dog
and he's just getting used to things,
is I'm gonna get him used to the idea of me touching.
So I might pick up a paw.
Yes!
I'm gonna say yes while I'm holding that paw
and then I'm gonna deliver a cookie to him.
So as long as the timing of my yes
happens while I'm touching what I'm touching,
my dog is gonna start to associate that
with the good rewards that are coming.
So again with that paw.
Good boy!
Yes!
I'll say yes and get my cookie out to reward.
If you've got a baby puppy
that you're starting this with,
you might actually start with the food
right on your dog's nose
and then pick up the paw.
Yes!
And reward from there.
So that they're a little bit distracted by the food
and they start to get the idea that
you touching their paw is nothing they need to worry about
and it's also a really good thing.
As time goes on, you can get to the point where
you're simply picking up that paw.
Yes, good job!
And then rewarding your dog.
Now, while I'm holding the paw and handling,
I want to make sure that I can
separate the toes a little bit.
Yes!
And then reinforce my dog for that.
So I'm gonna do a lot of work with this handling,
moving the toes around,
keeping it nice and short initially
but eventually building to the point where
I can hold his foot for as long as I want
without him having any sort of problem with it.
What a good dog you are, buddy.
Yes!
As long as, again, I say yes as I'm holding
and then deliver my treat.
Now what I'm gonna do is some similar things
but with the clippers as well.
And just so that you
stay nice and calm in the process as well
and don't get anxious,
if you are a little anxious
about the nail trimming process,
close the clippers
so that you're not gonna do any harm.
I'm gonna pick up my dog's foot
and I might just give it a little touch.
Yes, good job, buddy!
And you could see there, he's looking at his foot
and then he starts looking up at me
because he's waiting for me to say yes
and then get that cookie out.
He's learned that this situation means
he gets lots of rewards and it's a wonderful thing.
Nothing at all that he needs to worry about.
Now if you have a dog that is a little bit sensitive
about having their feet handled,
you'll need to take slower steps with this.
And every dog is unique.
They're all individuals,
and they're all gonna progress at different rates.
So, don't feel like you need to keep up with
a certain standard, you simply need to make progress.
And I always recommend that people keep a journal
of their thoughts as they're working through
any particular problem
so that you can jot down
little bits of information
about how things went yesterday,
what your plan is for today,
and then two weeks from now,
if you start to run into a problem,
you can look back in your journal entries
and you can see how you worked through some things.
You'll get lots of tips that'll help you out
in your own training scenario.
If your dog is really sensitive
about those feet being handled,
take baby steps.
So I might just run my hand down this foot
and not expect anything.
Yes, good job!
I also might work on something like a shake a paw
or a high five to have an extra little way
of teaching my dog,
give me your paw.
Yes!
That them allowing me to handle their feet
is a great, great thing.
If you're needing to take little baby steps on handling,
it might take you two or three training sessions
just to get to the point where you can
lightly put a little bit, uh, good boy,
a little bit less pressure on the foot
sitting on the ground.
I know, you're very cute.
Can you put that down for a second?
Thatta boy.
So you might just hold it in position there
just with a little bit of rubbing or pressure.
Eventually get to the point where
you can maybe lift it a touch,
and you can yes and reinforce
each of these tiny little baby steps
to help your dog get to the point
where they're really, really comfortable.
Now once you're ready to actually cut toenails,
a couple of things, inventory items, if you will,
that you'll need to make note of first.
Does your dog have dew claws?
Some dogs will have dew claws on their front foot,
on the front feet, pardon me,
and some dogs will also have dew claws
on the rear feet,
and with all of their toenails,
if you take your dog for walks
on sidewalks, et cetera, a lot,
they will grind down those nails a little bit.
You still will probably have to,
thank you, buddy,
you still will probably have to
cut your dog's toenail frequently,
but that dew claw will never ever make contact
with the sidewalk or the pavement,
so you will have to make sure that
you get to that one frequently.
And like I said, if they have rear dew claws as well.
Now Ned does have front dew claws.
He doesn't have rear,
but the dew claw is basically just like a little thumb.
It's not opposable,
but a little thumb upwards on the dog's leg there,
and that nail, like I said, will never touch the ground.
It's always gonna be up away from the ground,
so it's never gonna get ground down at all,
so be very, very aware,
if your dogs have dew claws,
you want to make sure that you cut them
and pay attention to them frequently.
If they're left unattended,
the nail can actually grow so long
that it comes and turns and grows right back into the foot.
Of course, very dangerous for the dog.
So, be very aware of those dew claws.
Now, I like to use the scissor style of clippers.
It's simply a matter of preference,
but it's totally up to you which you prefer to cut with.
Either way, what you want to be able to do
is cut off small amounts of the nail more frequently
rather than cutting off a whole bunch of the nail
maybe once every month or two.
So once a week or so, good boy,
you are going to work on
just taking and shaving off little bits of the nail.
So what I'm gonna do is insert my dog's toenail
into the clipper,
I'm gonna make sure he's nice and calm and still.
He's not struggling or panicking in that moment.
If all is good,
I'm simply going to snap
and take off a tiny little bit.
The piece that I just took off
was maybe about a millimeter or so.
Then I'm gonna move over to the side of the nail
and take off another tiny little touch.
The inside of the nail, another little touch.
And then I'm gonna take a slight diagonal amount of nail
off of the top of that as well.
And that just cuts the nail around the quick
and it enables the nail to reseal as it grows
and that quick will start to recede a little bit
as time goes on.
Now, as we mentioned, there is a blood vessel
in that nail that will bleed if you cut into it,
and that's of course something that you want to avoid.
If you do happen to cut into that nail,
there's all sorts of styptic powders on the market
that you can get,
there's silver nitrate sticks
that will stop that from bleeding in a hurry.
If you're in a pinch
and you don't have any of those things on hand,
a cold compress will help.
If it's winter, you can throw the dog out in the backyard
and let them wander around in the snow.
It might look a little bit like a massacre out there,
but it will help to slow the bleeding.
And you also want to, as much as possible,
if you happen to cut into that quick,
try to keep your dog calm.
Because of course, if the heart is not overpumping,
then the blood flow will be slower
and it'll help to dry that up.
So, a couple of tips there to help
if you do happen to make a mistake
and cut into the quick.
Now, remember if you are working with a young dog
who's fairly new to nail trimming,
you need to be really conscious
of how much you are rewarding the process.
We want the dog to have an absolute
positive association with the whole idea of nail trimming
and be totally calm and relaxed about it
and even actually look forward to the interaction.
So, do make sure that as you're working through,
as I mentioned, when Ned was a puppy,
the first two months he was home,
I probably did nail trimming work every single day
and I rarely did more than one or two nails at a time
when I actually did get into trimming nails.
What I wanted to do was
make sure that my dog
understood and was comfortable with the process,
but I wanted to keep the pressure
as a nice, short interval.
So I would do some handling work,
lots of really high value rewards.
I would maybe trim a toenail
and of course, remember when you're trimming those toenails,
it's not just one cut.
You want to take a little bit off the front,
off of each side,
and then a little bit off of the top as well on that nail.
So, you don't want to have your dog
when they're new and young
and having a hard time, potentially, with this situation,
you don't want them in the situation for so long
that they start to get stressed,
that they get more stressed,
that they start to completely panic
and it's a downward spiral of course.
So, keep it nice and short.
Get in lots of good rewards.
Of course you can taper off the rewards as your dog grows
and as the positive association is made with this exercise,
but we want to make sure
that it is a wonderful experience for the dogs.
- I want to thank Instructor Shannon and Ned
for joining us today,
and I hope you feel prepared to clip your dog's nails.
Now if you're looking for more handling training,
click that card right there,
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make sure you hit that subscribe button.
We publish new videos every single week
to help you to have a well-behaved
four-legged family member.
On that note, I'm Ken.
- I'm Shannon.
- Happy training!