In one of Ed's videos (I think it's Your puppy 8wks to 8mos) he shows how to trim nails while dealing with a squirmy little puppy. He says "I don't let them act like an idiot", lol I got a kick out of that.

With my 3 dogs, Lily loves getting brushed and having her nails trimmed, Otto does ok, and Shaed doesn't care for it, but puts up with it. I have mine lay on the floor and I try to be as quick as possible and try not to hit the quick-I don't use the guillotine style trimmer, too slow and, IMO, not a good tool. Using a dremel drill might be your best bet-dog will have to get used to the noise and feeling, but that's all in the training

Ok - common problem alright.

I too have a Dobe and he doesn't much like it either.

Connie's suggestions are very good.

I would NOT give a treat while the dog is panicking! That would simply reinforce the panicked state of mind. Only give a treat when they are CALM.

Sometimes, and I'm not sure how many will agree with this or not, you have to let the dog go through his fear until he relaxes. Which may mean that he needs to confront his fear and then realize that you are still there and the "procedure was ok". He may simply have a great phobia or anxiety about this. I know mine does with the dremmel type tool - I don't use that as it freaks him out too much. I use clippers with a metal stop and the back of the blades so that I don't cut too deep. (The placement of the stop isn't perfect and you still have to pay attention not to nick the quick).

This weekend I actually had to insist that this be done, meaning that I was not going to quit until the job was done. If I quit, I reinforce that if the dog acts up enough he wins. NOT the scenario I'm looking to develop. So, I kept at him. It lasted almost 20-25 minutes, he FINALLY just gave up and laid on his side and let me do it. BUT it was only after he realized that he was NOT going to win the battle.

I know that may seem a bit rough but it's a learned response. You go in to do the cut and he resists, you wait, try again, he resists. It becomes a battle of wills and who ever wins keeps that behavior.

It boils down to, either the dog wins or the human wins.

JM2C

Steve's link is one that I referred to when I started dremeling some of my dogs' nails. I still trim Frost's nails with clippers as they are very small. ACDs are notorious for being jerks about their nails and I have varying degrees of tolerance in my group. I train mine that they get a treat as soon as we are done. The longer they struggle, the longer it takes to get a treat. I treat it like picking a horse's hooves, I don't drop the foot until I am done and I don't let them yank their paw away. My friends did not believe that Frost is actually pretty decent about her nails so I whipped out a quick video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWtFT5AbH24

Please ignore the high pitched voice and bathrobe attire, it was late in the evening

PS - Yes, it does appear that there is a Frost video for every occasion

 Quote: Ingrid Rosenquist

PS - Yes, it does appear that there is a Frost video for every occasion

LOL! I was just thinking the same thing! BTW, is trimming the back feed not important?

I trim the back nails as well generally but if I did that in the video it would have shown more of me in my bathrobe :-p And actually, my guys tend to keep their back nails shorter for whatever reason.