For a lot of people clipping their dog's nails can be really stressful for both
the human and the dog, but it doesn't have to be. In today's video,
instructor Robbie's gonna show you how to work through the most difficult part
of the nail trimming process. And it might not be what you think it is.
I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs
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Hi everyone. I'm instructor Robbie, and I'm here today with Lucy.
And Lucy is a three year old mixed breed of some sort.
We're not entirely sure what she is.
We've specifically chosen Lucy for this video today because Lucy is not a fan
of having her toenails trimmed. Like most dogs,
a lot of dogs can get very worried about it.
Some dogs are just downright fearful about having their nails trimmed,
but when you think about it,
it's something that your dog needs to learn to tolerate because they're gonna
have their nails trimmed throughout their life.
And what we wanna do is we wanna try to make it a pleasant experience for the
dog. And if we go about it correctly and we take our time to build confidence,
we can not only help the dogs learn to tolerate having their toenails trimmed,
but also perhaps if we're really lucky, actually enjoy it.
Now because I've never met Lucy before, are this is our first time meeting.
You'll notice that I'm feeding her a lot of treats here.
And what I'm doing is I'm trying to build a little bit of a relationship with
Lucy. I want her to understand that I'm a good person.
I am offering some goodies here and you can see that I have what we call a
house leash on Lucy now, because we don't know how Lucy's going to react.
What we don't wanna do, have an opportunity where she can suddenly say,
I'm outta here.
I don't want her to learn that she can just exit stage left when she's not sure
about something.
So I'll just have this house-line or house leash drag on the floor.
So if something happens and she gets worried and tries to leave,
I can just prevent her from leaving.
So what I'm feeding Lucy right now is just kibble.
We would consider this to be a low value treat and you can see she still really
likes it,
but when it gets to the trimming part or the handling part of the exercise where
it's more challenging for her,
we're gonna need something more high value to let her know that it really is
worth her while to allow us to handle her feet and to trim her toenails.
So in my pockets, in both pockets, as a matter of fact,
I have some extra treats in there. I have high value treats.
I have some cheese cut up and some other treats that Lucy really loves in
addition to the kibble. Yes. Good girl.
Now you can see that Lucy is actually quite happy to hand me her paw. Yes.
Good girl. And what this tells me is that when it's her idea, things are great.
But when it's our idea, you know, if I was to just reach in,
pick up her foot and start clipping her toenails,
I'm willing to bet that it would not go quite that smoothly because I know
Lucy's had issues with this in the past. What I don't wanna do is just,
thank you. Good girl. I don't wanna just reach in there, grab her foot and say,
now you must allow me to trim your nails.
There's a lot of prep work I need to do ahead of time. Yes.
In order to teach her that when it's my idea, that life is still good.
Now in order to trim Lucy's nails and to be able to reward her with good timing,
I need to make sure that I can mark with my voice when Lucy does something
right. And with the McCann method, what we do is we use the word yes.
To mark correct behaviors. So before I even begin with any handling, yes,
I need to take an opportunity to teach Lucy. Yes.
That yes means food is on its way.
I want this word to be very meaningful to her.
So what I do is I say the word yes, one second later I hand her treat. Yes.
Reward.
Yes, yes.
Good girl. So I say the word yes. And then I hand the treat to Lucy.
And in time she's going to learn that. Yes. Means food is on its way.
And the important thing about handling and nail trimming is that we need to be
able to pinpoint with our voice, when the dog is doing something right.
And that's where the yes comes in a huge mistake that people make when they're
handling or trimming the dog's nails is they do what they need to do.
They let go. And then they get the food out to reward.
And the dog actually thinks they're getting the reinforcement because we've
stopped handling or because we've let go of their foot.
We want the dogs to know that it's because we're holding their foot or we're
handling them. That's, what's earning them the reward.
So I would need to mark with my yes, as I'm touching or as I'm trimming,
or as I'm holding her foot that lets her know she's right while I'm doing all of
these things, then I can get the food out to reward her.
Before I actually start trimming her toenails.
There's a lot of handling prep work that I need to do with Lucy. First.
I need to make sure that she's comfortable with me handling and touching her.
And what I'm going to do is I'll use that. Yes.
When she's relaxed and allowing me to do what I wanna do to mark the correct
behavior, and then I'll get the treat out to reward.
So I'm not going to hold treats in my hand, I'm gonna leave the food in,
in my pocket. Do whatever handling I need to practice with her mark. Yes.
And then get the treat to reward. I'll begin with just a very simple exercise,
which is holding her collar.
I wanna make sure that I can slip my hand inside her collar,
hold her collar and have her remain calm and relaxed. Yes.
Good girl. I can mark with my yes. And then I can reward her.
So I slip my hand in her collar. Wanna make sure I can control her.
And she's nice and relaxed about it. Good girl. Yes.
Then I can release and reward.
Now when it's time for me to handle her feet,
what I don't wanna do is just reach in and grab a foot.
I need to break this down and to little pieces.
I'm gonna start by holding her collar. Yes.
I can reward her for allowing me to hold her collar then without food in my hand
to distract her or to bribe her, I'm going to start by just touching her leg.
Yes. And I'll reward that good girl.
Yes. Good girl. Nice.
Yes. That time I grabbed a hold of her foot.
I just held it for a moment marked with my yes. Rewarded her.
Yes. Good job. Good girl.
Yes. Very nice. Good girl.
Now I'm increasing the duration slide down. Pick up her foot.
Good girl. Very nice. Yes. Wonderful job.
Good girl. And then I'll try the other foot
Slide down. Pick up her foot. Good girl. Yes.
So that was excellent. I felt complete relaxation.
When I picked up her foot and held it, there was no pulling back.
She was completely relaxed. Had she tried to pull back?
I would've simply held onto her foot waited until she relaxed,
marked with my yes. And then I could have rewarded her from there.
I'm also gonna try these exercises with Lucy in a standing position.
The clippers have been in view the entire time.
You may have noticed them there on the couch.
I know for a fact that Lucy's noticed them and that's good.
I want her to see that they're there, but they're not part of the equation yet.
My goal is to work on building her confidence with the handling exercises.
You are going to need to decide for your dog,
whether or not you want your dog to sit or to stand,
to have their nails trimmed.
Now Lucy has black toenails and because she has black toenails,
I know for my sake,
it's going to be a lot easier to have Lucy in a standing position.
And the reason for that is because when standing and I'm able to look at her
toenail from the underside,
I'll be able to see the quick and when I'm trimming her toenails.
The last thing I wanna do is cut into the quick,
because it is a little bit painful for the dog and it can certainly turn the dog
off.
We know a lot of dogs and maybe your dog has had their nails clipped a little
bit too short. It's bled. It's not been pleasant for them.
And now the sight of those clippers causes your dog to leave town.
Lucy's doing a fantastic job, accepting her food rewards on this exercise,
but your dog might not.
If you find that your dog is normally food motivated and then suddenly decides
somewhere along the way that they are no longer interested in the food that you
have to offer, then that's good information for you.
And what that tells you that your dog is no longer comfortable with the
situation. And what you'll need to do is backtrack.
You'll need to go back a few steps to the point where your dog can be
successful, reward that, and then slowly make your progressions from there.
Now we're ready for the big step.
And the big step is involving those clippers over there.
Before I actually reach for the clippers.
I wanna take a moment just to reward Lucy for hanging in calmly, here with me.
What a good girl. Yes. Good girl.
Yes. Good girl.
So I wanna show her the clippers and let her know yes.
That these things bring about good stuff. Yes.
Good girl. Very nice. As you can see,
Lucy is quite interested in these clippers.
She's suddenly realized that they bring about good things,
but a lot of dogs and maybe your dog included gets really worried about the
sound that the clippers make when they're actually clipping the nail.
So before I actually try to clip her nails,
I wanna make sure she's comfortable with this sound and what I can do to
simulate it is a little clip of the clipper. So I'll do yes.
And reward her. Yes,
Yes, Yes.
Good girl, Lucy. Good girl. We're on to the next big step?
And the next big step is combining the sound of the clippers with the handling
exercises that I've been working on.
And what I'll do for this is I'll pick up her foot.
I'll hold her foot and I'll make the sound with the clippers.
And then I'll reinforce that. So I'm not clipping.
I'm just associating the holding of the foot,
the sound of the clipper with the reward. So pick up her foot.
Yes. Good girl.
Yes. Good girl. So she's a little bit licking there, which is totally fine.
Good girl. Yes. I make that sound and something.
Good's gonna happen. Good girl Lucy.
My next step is gonna be even more challenging for Lucy this time.
I'm going to hold her foot and see if I can touch these clippers to a toenail.
We'll see what we get.
See if our prior handling experience and clipper work is paying off. Good girl.
Good job.
Good girl. Very nice. So you can see when I first picked up her foot,
she was comfortable with it. The moment the clippers got close,
you saw that moment of apprehension.
And her first instinct was to start to move away.
And all I did is I held on and the moment I felt her go, okay,
I was quick to yes. And reward it.
I did not push the envelope and ask her to remain there longer and longer.
I wanted that brief moment where she said, okay, I can handle this yes reward.
There was a little bit of avoidance behavior. She looked away a little bit,
but she was still demonstrating to me that she was willing to hang in there and
trust that things were gonna be okay.
So that was an excellent first step for her. Now you can see from that last rep,
that Lucy was a little bit worried.
So that tells me that I'm not ready to progress and ask for more.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to repeat that same little exercise and see
how she handles it.
It'll be good information for me as a trainer to tell me whether she's starting
to get the idea,
or I need to do some more repetition to help her good girl.
Good. Yes. Excellent job. Good girl.
So that was much better. I felt there was less hesitation on her part.
She did not try to pull her foot away. She said, okay, I'm starting to get it.
So I'm gonna try that same thing again. Good girl.
Yes. Excellent girl. In that time, I was very pleased.
She didn't even look away. She's like, okay, I'm starting to get this.
These clippers touching my toenail brings about something good.
And what I'm doing right now is I'm giving her a little jackpot.
I want her to know I was thrilled with that effort.
So I'm giving her a jackpot to make that effort very meaningful for her.
What a good girl, Lucy. That was awesome.
She did a great job on that last round.
So I feel like I'm ready to move on and actually try clipping a nail.
So we'll see how it goes. You ready? Good girl. Good girl. Yes.
Good girl. Good. Good job.
Good girl. Whoops. Now she's a little worried. So now I'm gonna back off,
but I don't wanna let go. Good girl. Yes. That's better.
So I didn't let go. I waited until she said, okay, you can have my foot.
She was by no means confident there, but she allowed me.
So I'm gonna reward that. Now I need to backtrack.
I wanna go back working some basic handling exercises in order to start building
her confidence back up again. As trainers, we know that slow and right beats,
fast and wrong. I've gone back.
I've worked some basic handling exercises with her and she's showing me that
she's more comfortable with it. So I'm gonna go for it.
And I'm going to try the second clip.
Good girl.
Good girl. Nice.
Yes. Good girl. Very well done. Good job.
So she wasn't completely comfortable, but she allowed me to do it. Good girl.
And with more repetition over time guaranteed she'll become more and more
relaxed about it. I'll bet you were expecting me to trim all of our nails.
And that's a big mistake that a lot of people make.
Once they find that their dog is starting to have success,
they start to ask for more and more and more.
And eventually the dog reaches a point where they just can't handle it anymore.
And basically what we do is we wind up setting the dog up for failure.
And our goal as trainers with the McCann method is to set the dog up for
success.
So I wanna quit while I'm ahead because I know the next time I come back to
this, it's gonna be even better. It's about taking it slow,
building it gradually, and worrying about the confidence,
not about getting the job done right now.
My goal is confidence because I know when I have confidence and accepting
getting the job done will be much easier. Now that you've ended on a win.
And you've learned about how to develop your dog's confidence for nail trimming.
It's time to learn about how to properly trim your dog's nails.
And if you want some help with that, we've got the video for you.
Click that card right there.
If you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed by all of this dog training
information, and you need a little bit of extra support,
you can come and work with me and the rest of our McCann dogs team online.
If you click the link below. And on that note, I'm instructor Robbie,
this is Lucy happy training.