# Puppy won't sit still



## Lightwingcreations (May 7, 2007)

Hello all, I've searched the forums to see if this issue has been talked about before (it probably has), but haven't found anything as of yet.

My soon to be 4 month old puppy (St. Bern. mix, approx. 35lbs) will not sit still when I want to clip her nails. In fact, she won't sit still period. She has never been a cuddler. If I sit on the floor she'll come lay by me or partially on me, but she still fidgets and moves. Because of this I have a very difficult time inspecting her mouth, cleaning her ears (only visible part), and trimming her nails. I've been conditioning her to accept a cordless dremel being around her feet so that I can forgo trimming her nails (which pinch and can cut quick) and start using the sanding drum on my dremel to grind down the nails a little at a time. That is my goal, as well as being able to inspect her closely.

My question is how should I go about conditioning her to sit still and not fidget, wiggle, worm and scoot around? I realize that she is just a baby at four months of age and will work with her accordingly. She's very smart, IMO, and picks up on things very quickly, but like all young pups her attention span is similar to a gnats.

Thanks for any advise you can share


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

A big spoonful of peanut butter worked for me. Have someone else hold it of course .


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## suzukigirl (Apr 9, 2007)

You can try first to get him use to people touching his feet by holding his back aganist your front. Rub his feet and such just so he can get use to someone touching him in those places. So he can feel a tad more comfortable with someone touching him on the feet and belly.

But I usually take mines to the groomers LOL


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## Lightwingcreations (May 7, 2007)

She has no problem with being touched; feet, ears, mouth, tail, etc. She just seems to be a perpetual motion dog. It's like she has ADHD. The only time she is truely still is when she is sound asleep and even then she has active puppy dreams. I'm hoping I can chalk this up to her being so young and see improvement with age. In the meantime I just wondered if there are any training methods I can use to help her along.

My main goal is to clean her ears, grind her nails, and inspect her mouth without having a moving target. I currently do all these things, it would just be much easier if she wasn't such a squirmy thing, lol.

I guess I've become spoiled by my older dog Cowboy who sits patiently while I do anything I want (with exception to him being very foot-shy, he still lets me work them though).


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## Jaylie (Mar 5, 2007)

You need to "cradle" her...That is, roll her over on her back, and sit on the floor with her between your legs. Just sit with her like that for a long time, (You will probably want to watch TV or something while doing this) She will wiggle at first, but just hold firm...Do NOT let her up if she is squirming. As soon as she is holding still (Which could take a while) start feeling in between her toes, and look at her ears, and just get her used to being touched. Once she is comfortable with being cradled, then clip her nails, clean her ears, whatever you need to do.


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## Lightwingcreations (May 7, 2007)

OOhhh, that sounds good, I'll have to start doing that. Thanks!


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## Dogstar (May 11, 2007)

Another thing that might help is more exercise.  (Yeah, I know..) And while you don't want to jog with a 4 month old pup, the more you can get her to wear herself out playing fetch, running around in the yard, and using her brain (puppy pushups, if you've got sit, down, and stand well-established, are great for this!) will all contribute to this. Mostly, though, it's just going to take patience. Try and work towards a 15 second sit, down, or stand-stay- and expect it to take quite a long time before she can go longer than 30-40 seconds. (And, just when you've gotten reliably to 10-15 minute downstays? Teenagerdom will hit and they'll disappear- don't worry, they come back. )

Another thing that might help is simply reinforcing calm behavior- I like to reinforce calm behavior by capturing it (if you use a clicker, great- if not, that works too.) Basically, whenever I see a pup being calm- even if it's for a 2 second interval- I click and treat (or praise and treat) *while the behavior is still going on*- that's the important part. You've got to deliver the marker (the click, or the praise/treat- clicker is so much more precise that it is easier) while the behavior is going on, so that you are reinforcing 'calm and not moving' behavior, not 'start moving'. Cookie Zen (I think there's a sticky about this in here?) might also be helpful- it's basically a way of teaching dogs' self control.


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