[CFrance]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

Kind words, thank you. Do not let my posts lead you to believe I am a dog trainer. I have read TOTV for years, there are many folks out here better than I.

I am OK at little stuff, e.g., come, heel, stay, etc., but pretty clueless with behavioral issues. I have learned quite a bit by how Cesar is around dogs, the way he stays calm and never gives up until the dog is calm... There are times I feel like I have no idea what to do...

Z's current challenge. Alan must cut her nails. For a 55 pound dog, she is like a slippery pig. I imagine she is, I have never held a slippery pig. If you try to hold her down and touch her nails, she will wriggle, try to get up, slip out from under you. She could be an all-state wrestler, I mean if they had dog wrestling. She is obviously scared of something.

I have never dealt with this. With past dogs, I said lay down, I put a little weight on them, enough so they could not pull away their paws and I 'Dremel'd' their nails. Caly would almost fall asleep. The Dremel was great. I used to use clippers, but no matter how I tried I would cut too much on one of them and then we had a bleeder ...

Z must not trust me enough, or I am not relaxed enough, or she is just too afraid. I can put her on her side and make her stay and pat her, I am working to be able to hold her there using some of my weight. This is progressing well. As soon as I touch a nail, we are back to slippery pig…

In addition I have started to make her stay near me while I touch her nails. Even using my fingernail to simulate a cut noise. This requires me holding her collar so she cannot flee. As we are just starting this whole session lasts a minute or so.

This could be a multi week process and I hope I am up for it.

Will let you know…

When we took in an abandoned 15-year-old golden last year, he had never had his nails cut in the two years his owner dumped him with her parents. It must have been quite painful for him to have nails that long, as he wouldn't let me touch his paws. he would pull his paws away even if you just stroked them. My solution was to have them done professionally by our mobile groomer. It preserved our bonded position (that had taken a while to achieve) because I wasn't doing it. I really didn't care if he bonded with the groomer, as long as his needs were met without harm done to him. And the groomer understood.

I have never felt comfortable with my level of expertise at nail clipping. All our dogs have relied on groomers for that.