Hi all,

I just adopted a female GSD. The breeder told me she trimmed the pups nails weekly while she was with her. I have heard it is a good idea to continue this practice. So I tried it a couple times. Im currently using nail cutting sheers. Not the guilatine type. My Pup doesnt really care for it.. She will tolerate a few but then she gets all squirmy and naws on my hand. not hard but just teething it a bit. I dont like it. I dont think I should tolerate this. I saw the link where the woman uses a dremel tool on her Dobies.. I cant believe how they just lay there while she does it. I would like my pup to act this way but Im not sure she will.. I'm wondering if it is worth it to just hold her till she submits. I have avoided doing this thus far.. For the most part I have not seen any other behavior that would warrent this. Do you think this might make her resentful or hurt our bond or lower her drive? I admit this is new territory for me so I would appreciate any advice. I did try it a little but the fight seemed to be escilating and I want sure how far I should push it.
I want Miera to undertand I'm the boss but I also want her to understand I am a fair guy. Im wondering what kind of reactions from a pup would warrent holding the pup till she submits.
thanks...

I guess I'm too easy to give up on this - I tried trimming my pup's nails weekly when we got him at 8 weeks old. However, by the third time of doing it, he was getting so "mouthy" that I decided it was a job best left to the vet.

Now that he is 9 months old and over 70 lbs, I do not mind paying $10 every 6 weeks for the vet to do it.

By the way, if you read the whole web site with the Dobe and the Dremel tool, it took TONS of patience and taking very very tiny baby steps in the process to get the dog to not mind having his nails done with the Dremel tool.

We had two bullmastiffs in our home for 10 months a few years back - their owner did their nails the same way with the Dremel but he had them so intimidated by him that they submitted (he would literally lay down on top of the dog and forcefully do the nails.) Was not pleasant to watch the procedure - he was lucky he did not get bit!

First of all, how old is your pup? I have had much experience with dog nail trimming, and I tell everyone that one of the best things that I have ever done is to make it a positive experience for them at a very young age.

It don't think that nail trimming should be an opportunity for dealing with establishing dominance with your dog. Two seperate issues, IMO. Also, if your pup is very young, you might just be dealing with normal puppy behavior and not necessarily a dominance display of any kind.

If you try to force her to submit during a nail trimming session, it's very possible that you could be making bad associations for your pup.

With most puppies that I was dealing with, I would take their favorite treats (American cheese) and say "settle" clip one nail and if they were calm, give them praise and a tiny piece of cheese after each nail. If they started to squirm or balk, I would make a disapproving sound (NOT yelling or anger), tell them to settle and then repeat. It honestly took very little time for them to understand that being still got the reward.

Eventually, I would give them a piece after each paw and now they get the cheese after all four paws are done. They're excited to see the clippers and that's the reaction I want, not a worried or cowering dog.

With my GSD pup, this tactic did not work because he was crazy, crazy, crazy for food when he was young and couldn't hold still if he smelled food at all.

With him, I made a regular pracitice of waiting until he was sleepy and content and I would handle his paws as I would when I would clip his nails. We did this every night. Then I started clipping his nails while he was sleepy and calm with zero problems or excitablity, he wouldn't do more than raise his head briefly to look at the clippers because he was already accustomed to the handling. Now he's 8 months old and it's a piece of cake to clip his nails, and always has been.

With any dog of any age or breed, don't forget your timing: Don't try it when the dog is excited or wound up in any way. Most dogs (except maybe the Fetz dog )have a calm period of day. Do the clipping then, and make it a positive experience.

It's much easier to build good experiences than it is to undo bad ones! In fact, the vet's office has a big note on my dog's file NOT to trim their nails because vet techs usually do it and they're not always the best at it...and I don't want my dog to have any bad experiences with it.

Good luck.

I started playing with my my 6mos GSD's feet when I first brought her home at 8 weeks. She was mouthy and I didn't push the issue - just a few minutes everyday touching the feet. She now will go into a down stay and lay on her side and I can trim her nails. I started slowly, only working on one foot at at time with the trimmer (not the guilatine type) and only trimmed off a little of the nail each time. I slowly progressed to doing all of her nails during once session. For each foot, she gets rewarded and she gets a lite correction using the pinch collar when she becomes mouthy.

I think if you start slowly and give lots of rewards, then your GSD should begin to tolerate it.

When I was a groomer I found that the best way to trim nails is to just do it without making a big fuss about it. I'm also one of those breeders who trims the nails of the tiny puppies as soon as they start to scratch their mom with them, and continue every week until they go home. Puppies squirm; they're just squirmy. The trick is to do it after excercise, do it quick without turning it into a production, and then when it's all done give them a reward. I do it with the dog standing up with me facing the rear of the dog (which makes it darn near impossible to get mouthy with my hands) and take each paw from the underside. It also helps if you talk to them matter-of-factly or sing to them while you do it. Sounds silly but it helps . All of my dogs have been great about their nails being done except one, though none of them would have tolerated it well had I had them laying down for it or did it slowly. In my mind it's just one of those things that my dogs have to tolerate weekly, so I don't really let them have an opinion about it. I realize that not everyone may not be comfortable doing it that way, but that's what has worked best for me.