I pride myself on my dogs being well behaved. They're pretty well trained, great with kids, obey on and off-leash, potty-trained, crate trained... etc.
Toenail clipping. NOT SO MUCH.
I've tried sanding them down. Our every day walks keep them low, but they still need trimmed... (Chaucer's toenails need clipped twice a week. His toenails grow almost as fast as NASCAR racers drive.)
Gatsby will lay down in front of me when I get the clippers and stick his feet out. When I start to put them near his toes, he starts this fake crying and kicks me in the face. If I sit on him, the back feet dig me off. I can get them clipped, but it takes me 20 minutes.
Chaucer will lay down and won't really flinch. However, he lets out these terrible screams while I'm clipping and he doesn't even get quicked!!! And when he screams, he flinches.
Delilah is almost 5 months old and kicks like a kangaroo. No crying. A little bit of gnawing... but there is definately kicking.
my rottweiler hates it as well and so I sit on the floor on sit behind her. Reaching forward i grab a paw and start clipping. This way i can use my body weight to hold them down. It's hard for them to throw their weight around if you have them down on their side with you pressing on them.
If my dog even sees clippers she'll run and hide, and once you caught her she would try to rip you to shreds if you held her. Now it's different I got tired of her trying to hurt me, so I went online and looked into Peticure a nail trimmer for dogs and cats. It is a great thing and it was worth the money they tell you how to use it and how to get your dog adjusted to it all on their web page www.peticure.com My dog will now hold still like a little angle to get her nails done. I love the product and would recommend it to anyone that wants to do their dogs nails with ease. The filing bands that it uses can be bought at any hardware store.
Cantebury, You might get the same dog catalogs that I get. Look in the catalog for a spray that has pheromone that calms down the dog. Your dogs see the nail clipper and they are anxious even before you sit on the floor. The pheromone might calm them down before that. I am not sure I can mention the name of the catalog on this site.
You're right. Out comes the clippers and everyone starts panting hard and working themselves up... and even though they'll lay down if I ask them... they still fight.
I'll look for that pheremone. I used to have a plug-in that released a calming pheremone for when Gatsby had a bad bout of separation anxiety.
