Radical Canines

Technically my boys aren’t puppies anymore but they still get pedicures. Nail care is super important as nails that are too long change the way the dogs walk which can lead to discomfort and if neglected long enough can cause serious long term issues. That said, I’m not nearly as good with nails as I should be BUT I’m working on getting better. I tend to be on top of it during the spring, summer, and fall and then slack off in the winter months. It’s not great, I know, but I don’t play as much freestyle in the winter so I don’t notice when the nails are starting to get long. Last week, Rumor and I started working up some of our freestyle in preparation for disc season which is right around the corner. We did some work with overs and through flips before I thought, let’s just review vaults really quick. The leg vault wasn’t terrible but I was immediately reminded that Rumor likes to push off of my stomach with his inside leg. It was not pleasant but I chalked it up to just wearing a t-shirt (I usually don’t work vaults without a cami and a t-shirt) and attempted a back vault. Rumor’s back vaults are not as nice because they are newer for him so he’s not as confident with them. As he dug in to launch I was quickly reminded that on our last nail day, I had rewarded his cooperation of the front feet by delaying the back feet and hadn’t gotten to them!

Rumor used to be TERRIBLE with getting his nails done. I remember going to work when he was a puppy covered in scratches from holding him while he thrashed around having his nails trimmed. As he got older and his nails got thicker, guillotine clippers became harder and hard to use. This is when I discovered the wonder of the nail grinder! Neither Ryder nor Rumor loved the grinder but it was preferred to the clippers, so we went with that. I use Rumor and prefferred loosely. It was still a battle. After a few times of attempting to hold him in my lap, him squirming and then his tail hair getting caught in the spinning grinder, I discovered if I pined him to the floor it went quicker and I didn’t catch his tail fur. He would scream the whole time, even if he was just laying on his side without being pinned in anticipation of what was coming. It was awful. I wish I’d known then what I know now, but you learn better and you do better.

About 4-5 years ago I started working on more cooperative care for pedicures. Front feet have always been easy (likely due to his tail getting caught on the back feet), so we started there. I had him shake and rewarded it with the clippers and grinder by my side. Once he was comfortable with that, we progressed to me holding them while asking for shake, then holding them turned on while asking for shake, then touching his foot so he felt the vibrations while asking for shake and finally it touching his nail. It was terribly SLOW but I can now have him sit in front of me, offer paw and grind away without much incident. We go slower because I don’t rush him through the process but there’s no screaming and no pinning!

I tried a similar progression with the back feet but he really struggled and the tail, his fluffy furry tail, kept getting dangerously close to the spinning grinder. At that point I realized having him on his side was the best position. Unfortunately this meant not only conditioning him to tolerate the grinder on his back feet but also changing this previously traumatic position into something positive. It took a while for sure BUT we are finally at a point where I can ask him to play dead, scoot him over in front of me, and grind away. I rest my arm on his chest but he’s free to get up at any point. Getting up just means no cookies and Rumor will do anything for food so he stays where he’s at. It’s so much nicer to do his nails and it makes me feel much better that he’s participating in having his nails done vs me forcing it on him (even though it is a necessary part of life).

Ryder has always been pretty easy to do his nails. Rugby attempting to bite the nail grinder once as a puppy, immediately realized it was a bad life choice and it did not taste good and has been pretty easy ever since. Both Ryder and Rugby sit in my lap while I do their’s so its not as “free” as Rumor but they both do really well with this method and could leave if they wanted to (but again no cookies for leaving, only cookies for ground nails!). None of them enjoy it but they will willingly engage in it for the cookies, and that works for me.

I had planned on writing this post about my new nail grinder that I absolutely LOVE but it’s already long enough so I’ll save that for another day!

Do you prefer clippers or nail grinder/dremel? Does your dog enjoy having their nails done, is it simply tolerated, or is it a struggle?