# Vet Problem! Puppy nail clipping



## Picasso8 (Sep 21, 2012)

Hi all! This is my first post, so be kind. 

Any tips on restraining my dog while he is getting his nails clipped? He is obviously terrified of the process. Any way to get him used to clippers or a drummel now that he is scarred by previous experiences?

SHORT STORY: We recently took our 4 month old lab mix puppy named Picasso to the vet. This appointment was for bloodwork for getting him fixed & to get his nails clipped.
The vet said he had to physically "head lock" our dog so they could clip his nails. Our puppy Picasso literally pooped himself because he was so scared. We could hear the dog screaming from down the hall. Picasso was return to us with poop still on his butt and tail, and blood coming from two nails. The vet told us "This is the worst dog I have seen in 21 years." We proceeded to try and have a conversation with our vet, who just talked down to us and raised his voice. I don't think this is the kind of behavior I want from my vet, so I told him he was being unprofessional and I would find another vet. He yelled, "GOOD!" 


LONG BACKGROUND STORY: We adopted our puppy at 8 weeks old, and have been taking him to this vet (in Commerce, MI) since then. Picasso is a very sweet natured dog, and we took him to Petsmart for training classes since we were a little clueless on where to get started with him. He completed the class (with flying colors!) 
Either way, he is a good pup. Well, one day at Petsmart, I had his nails clipped. The girl told me she was new at this, but she knew what she was doing... and she accidently clipped the quick and he started bleeding everywhere and flailing. He was so very scared of being restrained (held tightly) in the first place, and he was basically screaming. We let him take a break and then she finished the rest of his nails. He was shaking for the next 1/2 hour. Clearly he was really unhappy with this experience.
A few weeks later, his nails had grown out and hooked at the end. We decided to take him to the vet to get them done. Two vet assistants held him very tightly and they clipped his nails in the room with us there. I think he was comforted by me and my boyfriend telling him in a calm voice "It is ok." He survived the first 10 nails with a lot of fussing. The vet assistants decided that the back claws did not need to be trimmed. I think they found it difficult to restrain him. They told us to play with his nails and paws when we were at home with him to get him used to the feeling. We told them that we do this all the time since we adopted him at 8 weeks.
The next visit, as I described above did not go well. Our dog freaked out after being restrained and trimmed too short, pooped on the vet, and the vet blew up at us. He told us we have the worst dog he has ever seen and we need to take him to puppy training classes immediately. (We do! And he is a fast learner.) The vet was extremely rude to me about this. He yelled at me that I know nothing about being a vet, and that he is not here to please people. He said we have a huge problem on our hands and he is just being honest. I think he was out of line, raising his voice... This is a small vet facility and I don't think they should treat people or animals like this. This is especially frustrating because we have been seeing him every three weeks with our puppy and he has never mentioned at behavior problems! Ugh. Why didn't he tell us "I won't clip his nails." Rather than hold him down until he poops himself? Ugh.

I am going to find another vet because I pretty much burned that bridge after he blew up at me. But can my dog be trained to be ok with nail clippings after such a traumatic experience?

Reality checks and advice welcome.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Good Grief! Poor puppy! There is a way to try and undo what has been done. It may take a long while though IMHO.

I have the same issue with Eddee. I have been showing him the clippers ... when he remains calm ... I give him a treat ... which is a tiny cut up piece of cheese. Cheese is his high value treat. I do not cut his nails. I do this for about a week.

Then I slowly progress to trying and touch his nail with the clippers ... but not cutting ... if he remains calm ... I give a treat. I do this until I feel he is comfortable with the touch.

I haven't gotten past this yet ... but when I had him on my grooming table the other day ... I took out the clippers as he was standing ... showed them to him ... and touched his back foot nail and clipped. I immediately treated him! He got all antsy and weirded out with me .... so it is back to the step before this. He has one clipped nail this week.

I would find a new vet for sure ... it sounds as if they are terribly rough on the dogs.

EDIT: I almost forgot ... Hello and welcome!  Pictures would be great too!


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Find a new vet.

Use a dremel since it makes it sooo much harder to clip the quick and if the pup yanks a paw away, it won't yank the nail or catch on it.

Treats- hold the dremel (while off) and let the puppy sniff it. Give a treat. Do that a few times. Touch the (OFF) dremel to the dog's shoulder. Give a treat. Hold the the (OFF) dremel in one hand and touch the dog's paw with the other hand. Give a treat. Repeat a few times. The next day, touch the (OFF) dremel to the dog's paw and give a treat. Hold the dremel and pick up a paw. Give a treat. Repeat a few times.
If the dog is okay so far, turn the dremel on. Give a treat. Don't touch the dog with it and don't touch his feet yet. Just hold the dremel maybe 2 feet away and let it run while feeding treats. Do this for 5 minutes or so, 3 days in a row.
If the dog is okay so far, pick up a foot while the dremel is running and give a treat. Don't put it near the foot yet. Repeat on all 4 feet, do this a couple days in a row.
If the dog is okay so far, pick up a foot and touch the back end (the handle side) of the ON dremel to his paw. He will feel the vibrations. Give a treat. Make this very brief contact. If he doesn't get too scared, repeat on each paw. 

Now, have one person hold a peanut butter filled KONG or peanut butter smeared on a chew bone. The other person pick up one front foot and hold gently but firmly at the base of the toenail. Touch the (ON) dremel sander to the toenail tip. 1 second of contact. If he's okay with this, touch each toenail on one foot for 1-2 seconds max. That's it for the day. If he flinches, distract with the treat and do one other nail and then stop. If he's made progress, you should be able to do one foot per day. Then start back at the first foot. You won't be taking much nail off which each grinding so you can do it daily for the first bit to get him really used to it. 
Some dogs are more comfortable laying across your lap and hold out a paw sideways. Others standing up and having their feet picked up like a horse getting shoes.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Wow Shell .... I too need a dremel and a second person! Great advice!


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

Also, totally separate from nail clipping, teach the dog to be restrained. That may have been the biggest issue to begin with, and then causing him pain from the nail quicking reinforced his fear. 

All of mine are taught to he comfortable restrained upright, on their side, even on their back, get comfortable with a muzzle, etc.


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## Picasso8 (Sep 21, 2012)

juliemule,
Thank you for the tip! Any advice on how to get my dog to be comfortable with restraining?


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## Picasso8 (Sep 21, 2012)

Thank you all for your advice. Any and all advice is welcome! The step by step instructions are SO helpful Abbylynn & Shell!

I think I have some real work to do with this pup, but I don't think he is a bad dog. I will have to teach him to be ok with the drummel or the clippers, one way or another. I have some time before he is ready to be clipped again.

In addition to that, as juliemule said, I have to teach him it is ok to be handled. It is strange that he is ok with some handling but not others. I can hug him and wrestle with him. I can pick him up just fine. (He is 35 pounds now, so soon enough this will end.) I can play with his ears, tail, nails, paws, tummy, etc, but it is very different from being held down. I have a sneaking suspicion that this vet may not have been very gentle with him and I don't think my 4 month old puppy was ready for that kind of roughness. The vet said he literally had to put my doggie in a head lock and squeeze. Ugh! 

Thanks again & any other advice is welcome!


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## juliemule (Dec 10, 2011)

Start in a comfortable environment with you or someone he knows well. Place him up on a table or counter, and hug him in close to you, reward and praise. Move on to him lying on his side, with a hand loose around his neck, handling him everywhere. Be sure you only do what he is comfortable with and go slowly. Eventually you want to do this places as the vet clinic, a park, a pet store, etc. Begin using a new person as well.

I use the command wait. I teach this first. It means temporarily freeze. Once this is down pat, I incorporate it into being.restrained.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Here's a long, but informative youtube video on using a dremel. Obviously her dog is already comfortable with the tool, but it shows close-ups of how to angle it and tips for using it.

YouTube nail dremel


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## hamandeggs (Aug 11, 2011)

Shell said:


> Here's a long, but informative youtube video on using a dremel. Obviously her dog is already comfortable with the tool, but it shows close-ups of how to angle it and tips for using it.
> 
> YouTube nail dremel


Shell, thanks for posting this! I've been thinking about getting a Dremel, but Biscuit really dislikes noisy things (e.g. hair dryer), so I've stuck with nail clippers for now. She's not so bad with nail clippers, but I get so stressed about it! You did a great job describing what sounds like an accessible way to get the dog used to the dremel.

One question. Have you ever used the Dremel on a dog with furry feet? Biscuit has some longish toe fur, particularly around her dewclaws (which she has on all four feet), and I worry about the fur getting caught in the Dremel. How do you avoid that?


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

I haven't since all the dogs that come my way are short haired. However, I was trying to figure that problem out on a friend's collie. My solution was trimming with mustache scissors (or other, short and blunt tipped small scissors) the extra length of hair around the toes and then wrapping a quick loop of vet wrap around the foot to keep everything out of the way. You could also use vasoline to slick back a bit of errant fur (of course, too much and the foot would be all slippery- I mean just a tad to clear around the nail).


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## LuvMyAngels (May 24, 2009)

Poke the nail through an old pair of nylons  

I just hold the fur away from the nail while grinding. Buster has been dremeled regularly since he was a puppy so he's very used to it (I usually dremel him without anyone else in the house) and rarely yanks his paws away from me (except the back feet, the vibration tickles!).


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## So Cavalier (Jul 23, 2010)

> One question. Have you ever used the Dremel on a dog with furry feet? Biscuit has some longish toe fur, particularly around her dewclaws (which she has on all four feet), and I worry about the fur getting caught in the Dremel. How do you avoid that?


I have Cavaliers...with very long slippers. When the Peticure came out, they sold both the grinder and cap unit together but they also sold just the cap. I was going to link to their site but it looks like they are going out of business. I bought the cap by itself and it screws onto my variable dremel. I have yet to get any fur caught in the head. Now that I see that I can't buy a replacement cap....I am really going to be super careful with the one I have. Amazon is still selling the entire unit. I don't know if you can unscrew the cap and screw it onto a real dremel, It might be worth the $20 to find out.


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## MafiaPrincess (Jul 1, 2009)

I dremel cocker feet regularly.. I hear nylons often. I manage to hold the foot with most of their furnishings above my hand. My girl has dews, my boy doesn't. The angle for her rarely works right, so I clip them the conventional way.


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## jersey_gray (Dec 8, 2011)

Get a new vet pronto. Poor pup.


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## hamandeggs (Aug 11, 2011)

MafiaPrincess said:


> I dremel cocker feet regularly.. I hear nylons often. I manage to hold the foot with most of their furnishings above my hand. My girl has dews, my boy doesn't. The angle for her rarely works right, so I clip them the conventional way.


Nylons, makes sense. Biscuit isn't longhaired and she doesn't have slippers...more like golden retriever foot fuzz. But it grows right around her dewclaws, which are hard to trim in the first place because of the angle and because the quick looks different on the dewclaws. Thanks all -- I shall consider this further. 

Sorry for the threadjack! To the OP, I agree with what everyone else is saying. Dremel, because he's probably too scared of the clippers, and find a new vet! You have to be able to trust your vet!


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## agility collie mom (Jan 26, 2008)

juliemule said:


> Also, totally separate from nail clipping, teach the dog to be restrained. That may have been the biggest issue to begin with, and then causing him pain from the nail quicking reinforced his fear.
> 
> All of mine are taught to he comfortable restrained upright, on their side, even on their back, get comfortable with a muzzle, etc.


I agree that the restraining part is a hugh factor with anything new to a puppy. Here is a great article on teaching a puppy to be comfortable with restraining. http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/handling-gentling


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## Picasso8 (Sep 21, 2012)

Thanks for the advice on restraining!
Also, thanks for all the support! The vet made me feel very small, and insecure. It doesn't help when someone yells at you, "You know nothing about this!" However, after mulling this over, I have decided he is a bit of a sociopath. He has terrible reviews on the internet for a reason (and just gained one more!) 

I think it will be helpful to teach my dog to be comfortable to with restraining before I go at him with clippers or a dremel any time soon. I hug him daily. I pick him up all the time, but I rarely lay him on his side or restrain him for long because overall he is a good puppy.


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