The dreaded nail clippers

[Pigeon124]

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Hello. I am at my wits end here. I’ve trained all kind of breeds from saluki to shaffy. But now I have a Saint Bernard, he’s 5. Since he was a puppy I’ve always clipped his nails and he’s never had an issue with it until covid and he had to go to the vet himself as we weren’t allowed in. And now not only will he refuse point blank to let anyone come near him with clippers (he runs away, he’s super non aggressive) and he now hates the vets and will not settle at all once in the room. The vet issue is mostly whatever seeing as he’s the picture of health. But his nails are getting out of hand. I’ve gone back to basics by trying to desensitise him to clippers, trying a file, everything but as soon as that implement touches his food, poof, gone. He will be more than happy to have you cuddle pet play whatever with him in your hand but as soon and they make contact with him he’s gone quicker than you can say wait.
Other than this he’s super obedient, best temperament and will do whatever you ask him to do. It’s just his front paws that are long because he scrapes his back feet across the floor once he’s been to the loo. Any ideas? It’s been a good couple years now and 0 progress. He’s far too big to just well sorry mate but it’s not that bad see, make him let me cut one and make a huge amazing fuss about just one nail cut and with my other difficult tries that’s been a really good last ditch effort to win them over.

 

[JoanneF]

I totally sympathise.

A dog's instinct is that no foot = no food so I see why it's happening.

Just a few random thoughts.

Clipping dry spaghetti nearby helps desensitise some dogs (probably not yours, but in case anyone else reads).

A dremel?

A different vet?

A gutter pipe lined with sandpaper to try to train him to scratch with his front feet?

Again, this is more for people reading by chance, but if your dog ever needs a general anaesthetic for anything else, it's a good opportunity to get nails clipped - and other things, like perhaps teeth cleaned - although that's not always possible due to infection risk.

Sorry, that probably isn't helpful.

 

[JudyN]

Welcome to the forum. There's a Facebook group called Nail Maintenance for Dogs that is really good, and very thorough. Timing is absolutely key when linking treats and clippers - it's not a case of 'clip then treat', and getting the dog to tolerate the clip - the treat comes alongside the clip, and the dog begins to associate the clippers with something great and thus to love the clippers too. My guess is that you moved forwards too quickly when your dog was just tolerating the clippers rather than loving them. It's worth checking out the group because there is a LOT more detail than that.

However... it didn't work for my dog, quite possibly because I did try to go too fast, but I found the perfect solution for us - a scratchboard. Glue a sheet of sandpaper to a board, reward him for touching the board with his paws, and gradually encourage him to move his paw down the sandpaper, thus filing his own nails. You can even glue the sandpaper to something curved, like half of a length of plastic guttering, to do his side claws.

There's a vid of my dog in the early stages of training here:

And later:

And for the side claws:

If you look online for info on training your dog to use a scratchboard you'll find more detailed instructions, and vids of doing it a lot more efficiently than we ever managed! But it did the job.

 

[Pigeon124]

Welcome to the forum. There's a Facebook group called Nail Maintenance for Dogs that is really good, and very thorough. Timing is absolutely key when linking treats and clippers - it's not a case of 'clip then treat', and getting the dog to tolerate the clip - the treat comes alongside the clip, and the dog begins to associate the clippers with something great and thus to love the clippers too. My guess is that you moved forwards too quickly when your dog was just tolerating the clippers rather than loving them. It's worth checking out the group because there is a LOT more detail than that.

However... it didn't work for my dog, quite possibly because I did try to go too fast, but I found the perfect solution for us - a scratchboard. Glue a sheet of sandpaper to a board, reward him for touching the board with his paws, and gradually encourage him to move his paw down the sandpaper, thus filing his own nails. You can even glue the sandpaper to something curved, like half of a length of plastic guttering, to do his side claws.

There's a vid of my dog in the early stages of training here:

And later:

And for the side claws:

If you look online for info on training your dog to use a scratchboard you'll find more detailed instructions, and vids of doing it a lot more efficiently than we ever managed! But it did the job.

When he was a pup (I got him super young) he was always an attention based reward never really a foodie. Treats just never work with him otherwise it would have likely been easier.
He used to love getting his teeth cleaned, nails clipped, ears cleaned, eye boobies wiped and feet and sensitive areas checked over for any potential injuries and such (probably very overboard but I like my dogs to be tolerant and enjoy every part of getting checked over incase the worst ever happens) because he was get this massive fuss and cuddle with it. We have a new vet, new groomer, tried all kinds of different tools, toys, treats, new people (he loves meeting new people), snipping my other dogs nails with him watching so he knows it just means for attention but as soon as its his turn off he runs.
I have no idea what happened but he went in to the vet for a general quick and easy check up as he has regularly and had never had any kind of issue previously but since then vets or nails is a nono. Frankly I’m furious with that vet and have insisted they told me what happened, to which they replied “we fired to do his nails and he refused and he got a little aggressive” which is a blatant lie. He’s a therapy dog, he’s the most unreactive dog you’ll ever meet, he’s had other dogs try to get mouthy with him, kids and adults with learning disabilities tugging and pulling and shouldn’t screaming, other dogs teying to hump him and dominate him bc he’s so big but he’s never reacted to anything other than walking away or just ignoring it because he loves anything that lives. He even has a bird friend he hangs out with in the garden every morning. But as soon as clippers are out, gone. It’s the most frustrating thing I’ve ever experienced. And short of getting him out under to get them done (which I do not want to do. Far too risky) . I’m just contented he will start getting issues with his feet if he nails continue to get get longer and spring/summer temps are coming ip wifi means less walks for him being a Saint Bernard : (

 

[Pigeon124]

Welcome to the forum. There's a Facebook group called Nail Maintenance for Dogs that is really good, and very thorough. Timing is absolutely key when linking treats and clippers - it's not a case of 'clip then treat', and getting the dog to tolerate the clip - the treat comes alongside the clip, and the dog begins to associate the clippers with something great and thus to love the clippers too. My guess is that you moved forwards too quickly when your dog was just tolerating the clippers rather than loving them. It's worth checking out the group because there is a LOT more detail than that.

However... it didn't work for my dog, quite possibly because I did try to go too fast, but I found the perfect solution for us - a scratchboard. Glue a sheet of sandpaper to a board, reward him for touching the board with his paws, and gradually encourage him to move his paw down the sandpaper, thus filing his own nails. You can even glue the sandpaper to something curved, like half of a length of plastic guttering, to do his side claws.

There's a vid of my dog in the early stages of training here:

And later:

And for the side claws:

If you look online for info on training your dog to use a scratchboard you'll find more detailed instructions, and vids of doing it a lot more efficiently than we ever managed! But it did the job.

Sorry I forgot to mention this. I’ve never tried a scratching board, so I will try that and give an update! Thank you!!

 

[JudyN]

When he was a pup (I got him super young) he was always an attention based reward never really a foodie. Treats just never work with him otherwise it would have likely been easier.

Ah, I must admit, Jasper was food obsessed so I wouldn't know where to start with a dog who wasn't food motivated! Do let us know how you get on with the scratchboard - It'd be interesting to see how it works with a non-food-motivated dog.

 

[carl99]

Hello. I am at my wits end here. I’ve trained all kind of breeds from saluki to shaffy. But now I have a Saint Bernard, he’s 5. Since he was a puppy I’ve always clipped his nails and he’s never had an issue with it until covid and he had to go to the vet himself as we weren’t allowed in. And now not only will he refuse point blank to let anyone come near him with clippers (he runs away, he’s super non aggressive) and he now hates the vets and will not settle at all once in the room. The vet issue is mostly whatever seeing as he’s the picture of health. But his nails are getting out of hand. I’ve gone back to basics by trying to desensitise him to clippers, trying a file, everything but as soon as that implement touches his food, poof, gone. He will be more than happy to have you cuddle pet play whatever with him in your hand but as soon and they make contact with him he’s gone quicker than you can say wait.
Other than this he’s super obedient, best temperament and will do whatever you ask him to do. It’s just his front paws that are long because he scrapes his back feet across the floor once he’s been to the loo. Any ideas? It’s been a good couple years now and 0 progress. He’s far too big to just well sorry mate but it’s not that bad see, make him let me cut one and make a huge amazing fuss about just one nail cut and with my other difficult tries that’s been a really good last ditch effort to win them over.

What happens if you hold his paw still and just try to do it without letting him pull away?