I have a male GSD from Germany that absolutely refuses to let me cut his nails. This also happened to the last male GSD I had. So when I got my recent GSD at 10 weeks old, I immediately started to pet his paws , feel his nails, just to let him get used to me feeling his feet. Well it didn't work. I have resorted to the table, treats, having people try to hold him while I cut his nails. I have tried cornering him against a wall so he can't get away from me, but at 14 months old and already at 100 lbs, that doesn't last long. He manages to wiggle free. I have never cut into his quick( which is amazing with what I go through), so it can't be from getting hurt previously. I have also put his prong collar on and tried correcting him to stay still. Nothing works. I get a couple of nails cut and we resort back to the struggle. I get so exhausted from struggling with him that I stop and start again when I revive myself..LOL that's terrible! I thank god that I have a GSD that has the best temperment you could ever ask for. He is not shy, timid or has any fears with the exception of the nails. He has never growled at me or tried to bite me.My female GSD just lays there and lets me cut her nails. Is this mostly a male issue? Has anyone noticed this in mainly males? I am wondering if the breeder cut his quick once or twice before I got him. I am out of ideas on how to cut his nails without the big struggle. I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks(:

I just tried a Dremel tool on my GSD and it is wonderful! I was able to get very close to the quick and not hurt Auster. I can email or post the specifics of the setting I used if you are interested.

Having trimmed nails on MANY dogs of all breeds and having had this exact problem with my Rescue Giant Schnauzer I can give you a few recommendations that may help you. It will help if you have a grooming table or access to one. First suggestion: put a body harness on the dog... attach bungee type cord to ceiling or beam or whatever so that the dog is not able to bear all weight on the table. The reason this works is when the dog starts to move he feels as if he is falling and stops moving. With my girl this only took about 3 times before she went from biting and being totally abnoxious to me being able to do her nails sitting on the kitchen floor with no restraints. Another thing that works particurlarly well with dogs that like to try and bite is this; take a Halti headcollar and a double ended snap attach the snap to the post on the table so that when the dog is standing there is normal slack. When the dog tries to bite it corrects itself. I also use a dremel and prefer it, but you can do the job fine with a good pair of heavy duty Nail trimmers. Some dogs that are afraid of the nail clippers seem uneffected by the Dremel tool. Hope this helps <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I've got a question on this subject: I don't have a biting problem, but a kicking problem. My large male will not allow me to trim his back nails. He will tolerate the front, but when I get to his back feet, once I so much as even touch his toes he kicks like a horse. I've tried standing, laying down, even putting him in my lap (this is a 100 lb. dog we're talking about here!) and nothing works, he always finds a way to kick. Fortunately, his back nails wear down enough that they never get too long so I can skip a few trimmings now and then. Any suggestions?

Same problem here. We were doing just fine and I was able to trim the nails without any problems. However one time he jerked and I barely got the quick. Now it has become impossible to trim his nails. His naild do wear down some from playing but not enough. One of his nails on the rear paw has grown crooked and curved. I am told that he has dislocated his toe, something I am told is not uncommon if the nails get a little long. I usually mamged to get the front paws trimmed with bribes but the rear paws is a different story. So I have resorted to taking him to the vet and having them trim the nails. Well that worked once because they cut into the quick. So last time they tried they had 3 techs try to hold him while the 4th tryed to trim the nails. He was not happy with that at all. The end result was that they got two nails trimmed and cut into the quick on the 3rd nail due to the fight he put up. First off he has never liked being held down by anyone. The end result of this experience was that he got very pissed off and if he had not had a muzzle on some of the techs would have been serious bit. With me though he has never shown aggression. The end result was that they had to knock him out and trim all the nails as far back as they could especially the one that is growing crooked. This is not a long term solution and i am not sure what to do with him as far as nail trimming is concerned. With my last GSD I had the same problem but the problem was resolved once he was obediance trained. Then i would put him in a platz and trim his nails. I have not tried a dremel tool and I am not sure of his reaction for he hates vaccum cleaners, and blenders (anything with loud high pitched noise). His reaction to these is a constant barking until the vaccum or blender is turned off.

If you get your dog used to you handling his paws as a very young puppy, it sure helps down the road. Other than that, even the most well-trained best behaved dogs can hate having their nails trimmed. I am able to trim my dog's nails in the bathtub when its bathtime. For whatever reason he goes into a real mellow state while the water is on and I can get to each one of his nails without any fight. Of course you probably trim the dogs nails more often than give him a bath. I would get around that by faking the dog out. On those muddy ground days, I'd get him in the tub, turn the srayer on and just clean his paws off. Same effect. He'd let me trim his nails with no problems at all. Now if you have a dog that hates the bath equally, than your in trouble! My retrievers don't have any trouble with getting wet so all is fine on that end. Other than that, I pretty much made nail trimming a game. I'd cut one nail at a time, and reward with a treat after each nail. It works pretty good now as I don't need to use the bath trick just to get the nails cut anymore. Of course the original post states that many methods have been tried already so this one is a bigger challenge for sure.

Ok , only time will tell but i think I might have my GSD under control to let me trim his nails. I tried the dremel tool and that was a disaster with him because he kept trying to grab the tip of it. Rather than him getting hurt I stopped trying with the electric trimmer.
We started out by doing obediance work as we do daily. As long as the nail trimmer was in sight he refused any obediance commands regardless of what treats I had. I then put a pinch collar on him (first time he has ever worn one). Once again he refused any commands. I then gave him one good correction. He bucked like a bronco and then settled down. I gave him the platz command again, he refused again. I then placed the trimmer out of sight. Gave him the platz command and he immediately platz. I praised him like crazy and rewarded him with his favorite treats. So we continued working on platz and sitz commands for the next 10 minutes. I then reintroduced the nail trimmer. Gave him the platz command again, he again refused, and the command was followed by a correction. This time he complied and was praised and rewarded. After a couple of successful platz and sitz we took a break. Later on we started the same routine but after a couple of platz I attempted to trim his nails. I placed my foot on the lead so that he would not be able to get up without correcting himself. Finally we got one nail trimmed then another then another without to much resistance. Each time we trimmed a nail it was followed by treats and praises. It took some time to do but we got all of the nails done. I only cut the very tip so as to make sure to not cut into any quick. Next week we will try this again and hopefully we will get the nail trimming done without any more problems. I am not sure if I did the right thing but I sure can not have him knocked out once a month so that the vet can trim my GSD's nail! As a put i always handled his paws and never had problem until one day he jerked and I barely cut into the quick. He still has no problems with me handling his paws as long as there is no nail trimmer in sight.

Approximately one mile daily on hard surface does the job for me, there are only two nails left to trim <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Deanna
Great ideas with the harness, bungie and halty harness. I've always started with pups and lots of treats,trim, treats etc. I also scale teeth the same way. No problems.

Yeah. I can't take all the credit for that though. I learned that whole get-up from a german. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> They are the masters at working around a problem. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />