My 11 week old Belgian Malinois is doing well. Friendly, I tell him no don't bite and he does not abuse my hands or feet. But, if I try to cut his nails he freaks out and aggressively bites me. Last vet visit they did the nail cutting, and one was in the quick. They put a dab of stop on it while I was holding him and he bit my face.

The Vet said I should hold him down upside down until he submits. She said it is a dominance issue.

My idea is to be patient and train with the treats as I am training everything else to allow me to first hold his paws, then work into cutting the nails.

I just don't buy into the whole "Alpha Roll" thing.

What are your thoughts on this???

11 weeks of age, and the vet recommended strong dominance techniques.

Oh well... I have a dog, a rescue, that was willing to bite. Nail clipping was a challenge, and he was and is an adult dog.

Really didn't like any touching of paws, tail, ears, etc. Not a lot of touching at all, for that matter.

So, over time, I was persistent. In a petting session, I'd touch his ears, and his paws, and his tail, etc. Not much at first but more and more, and gently.

Now I clip his nails, scratch his ears inside and out and he tolerates it, though I don't claim he likes it.

He was two years old when I got him. Not an overnight thing.

Your dog is 11 weeks old. When you pet him, gently pet his feet. After awhile, investigate his toes, and his nails. Once he gets used to you touching him, without clipping, pretend to clip with the clippers in sight. Sooner or later you can clip his nails but be careful. And I'm not talking months.

The dog has to trust you for the rest of its life. Take the time to bond with the dog so that the things you want him to do will be willingly done. 11 weeks ain't the time to be doing harsh dominance stuff. But that's only my opinion.

And small treats might grease the skids. Marker training would be the approach to take with a new puppy, in my opinion.

The dog should not be conditioned to do stuff because the alternative is dominance.

Now, I'm not averse to getting a dog's attention but at 11 weeks it is a time of bonding. And you did decide to take on a dog that ain't a pansy.

 Quote: Jeffrey Eggenberger

My 11 week old Belgian Malinois is doing well. Friendly, I tell him no don't bite and he does not abuse my hands or feet. But, if I try to cut his nails he freaks out and aggressively bites me. Last vet visit they did the nail cutting, and one was in the quick. They put a dab of stop on it while I was holding him and he bit my face.

The Vet said I should hold him down upside down until he submits. She said it is a dominance issue.

My idea is to be patient and train with the treats as I am training everything else to allow me to first hold his paws, then work into cutting the nails.

I just don't buy into the whole "Alpha Roll" thing.

What are your thoughts on this???

I would be shopping for a much more Up-to-Date and ENLIGHTENED vet, because what she told you is BAD information to use on a Malinois, IMHO

I'm 100% with Mike on this one !!!

One of my 2 rescue Dobermans whom I adopted as a 2 year old, who had been a long term stray, has "personal space" issues -- She's the female (Adobe) in my sig tag PIX ... Can you sense a little bit of her Attitude in the photo ???

Anyway, she would let a groomer grind her nails UNTIL they hit the quick one time & she went postal on them -- Wouldn't let me near any of her extremities afterwards either...

But since she will do ANYTHING for a soft-style treat, I switched groomers, and they can now grind Adobe's nails with one person "jackpotting" soft liver treats while another person does the nail-job

This vet is very likely incompetent in other areas too.

Don't let her screw up your dog.

Get rid of her.

My brother got his Presa when the dog was 3 yrs old.

I put the dog through a lot of test to determine his temperament and he passed all but touching his feet.

We were told the previous owner couldn't do his nails unless he was hog tied.

The vet and different groomers wouldn't touch him.

Similar to what Mike did and we used markers.

It was a matter of a few weeks and the dog was laying on his side quietly while his nails get trimmed.

I had a dog that would willingly let me trim his nails until he broke a toe last fall - now he falls onto his side in a rigid, pleading submission position if I try to approach his feet with the clippers because he is exceedingly fearful. He would absolutely bite me if I insisted and he is a fearful dog, I would make things just yards worse if I tried to force it on him. Screw your vet for not recognizing what a bad idea that is. (We're working on desensitizing foot handling now with tons of cooked chicken and a nail grinder. It's going well, but SLOW, like all things with this dog do.)

I suspect that time will let you go back to normal using your "desensitizing foot handling" given the fact that he willingly let you do it in the past.

@15wks now, he is much better, I am always working on touching his feet when handling him, been using the muzzle for nail cutting time, but he doesn't scream or fuss like he used to, perhaps I'll drop the muzzle and see.

Marker training, marker training, marker training. Can't say it enough.

Sounds like you've made progress but I can't stress enough, like the other folks have said, the success you can have with lots of desensitizing (touching, handling, examining, playing with your dog's paws) and the use of marker training to get your dog comfortable with the act of cutting nails and the tools you use for it.

Our dog was fearful of it also and now she obediently sits and voluntarily offers one paw after another to be trimmed with me using a rotary tool. Didn't take that long either, just a few weeks. Don't try to do too much either in a single session. One or two nails in a session is plenty to get him comfortable and quit on a high note. Build up from there, always quitting while things are positive.

If the pup is fine with the muzzle I'd leave it on until you're absolutely convinced that it isn't needed. Keeping the muzzle on longer doesn't really inhibit your progress but a bad experience because you took it off too early can destroy the work you've done. Muzzles have a calming influence on a lot of dogs.

Don't let vets give you training advise. You said they quicked him. That hurts! It's also pretty hard to do if you know how to clip nails properly. I wouldn't return to that vet but definitely don't let them give you training advise or trim the pups nails again.

A vet who believes in alpha rolls is liable to encourage them in her staff and it's likely that forcing a dog to "submit" is considered a valid handling technique there.

Seriously, don't go back to that vet. They can do a lot of damage with bad handling.