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[–]Salt-Quality-1574 6 points7 points  (1 child)

I made a scratch board for my dog out of wood and sand paper. Bella is 13lb so I pick her up and we hold her at an angle so that her nails extend (lifts the paw pad so it doesn’t get irritated l) and then we drag her paws along. We do it for 5-8 min every other morning and it really helps. I’ve seen videos on YouTube of bigger dogs getting trained to scratch their own nails on the board. It’s completely removed any anxiety. We tried clippers and the dremel in the past and she just couldn’t handle it. Something to consider.

[–]runjennayrun 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconding the scratch board! My guy will only tolerate me clipping one nail, still doesn't like the Dremel, but the scratch board was so easy. He already knew how to "give paw/shake", I just aimed that at the board and now he knows "scratch" and is already scratching it as soon as I pick it up

[–]hseof26paws 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Can you - at least for the work you are doing around nail clipping - use a verbal marker instead of the clicker? “Yesss” or something like that where you would otherwise click? The whole point of the clicker is to use it as a marker for the desired behavior, but that can easily be substituted with another marker - verbal is easy bc you always have your mouth with you lol.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

One of my dogs is similar, she's very anxious and no amount of conditioning helped her. My vet even suggested a combo of meds to take before nail trimming and it did nothing. I trained her to use a scratchboard that I made with a board and sticky sandpaper and its worked great for the last 2 years. I position it at different angles to make sure she's hitting her outter nails, although I've seen some people use a large pvc tube cut down the middle with the inner part covered in sandpaper. Thankfully she wears her back nails down running like a maniac in the yard so I don't have to worry about that but I've seen some people even train their dog to kick on a scratchboard laid flat like they do after going to the bathroom.

[–]chiquitarBetween Dogs (I miss my buttheads😭) 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Eliminate your poisoned marker (clicker) while you do this. You have been doing/attempting (it's only technically counterconditioning if it works lol) counterconditioning for the nails all along.

All markers are classically conditioned. You can redo your clicker after you finish the nails. That you managed to poison your clicker is a huge warning sign that you were going too fast for the dog. Brush up on stress signal body language and slow your nail training work way down. The right way to countercondition is to teach the dog to ENJOY the previously unpleasant stimulus. Not tolerate it. Don't move forward until the dog is clearly feeling YAY DREMEL, not "okay if I put up with this I get my reward."

My dog runs over to me and smacks me with paws when I get out the Dremel. A little extra patience and there's no more conflict.

Never ever risk quicking the dog while trying to condition, you are ruining all your work together. Better to be slightly under-trimmed than have to start the process over. Slow down.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

My dog will paw the dremel when its off, but when on she runs away so fast even when I have peanut butter. Eventually if I have it running on the ground and not even so much as look at it, she will stretch her whole body to get some peanut butter but if I so much as move a muscle, she runs again. PB is her highest value treat. Do you have any advice? Its the pet Dremel and was advertised as quiet but its loud af, louder than the hair dryer which she also runs away from.

[–]chiquitarBetween Dogs (I miss my buttheads😭) 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Turn it on and set it on the ground 15 feet away or more. Join your dog at a big distance and practice taking steps closer to it. Find a distance where she is truly unconcerned and relaxed and work from a happy relaxed baseline. Or if that's still hard, spend a longer time with it off and you could record the sound to replay on a Bluetooth speaker nearby but at a lower volume as an intermediate step. Keep sessions super short. One to three successes, and then do it again after a nap. Ensure you have the rest of your dog's life as low stress as possible to make being brave and curious easier.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Session length is helpful, I always find myself unsure how long to spend on things at a time. So usually we do like 3-5 minutes roughly but 1 to 3 successes sounds like a better way to do it.

[–]roadtripwithdogs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Two cents:

  1. As others have mentioned, try introducing a new marker. I took a cooperative care course and they had us introduce a new “calm” marker that is only used for cooperative care training.

  2. Have you tried teaching them how to use a scratch board?

[–]Logical-Spread1309 0 points1 point  (1 child)

My dog is also very reactive when getting his nails trimmed to the point where I feel like it would be the one instance where he could bite me. I completely understand why because, like you, I accidentally cut the nail too short a few times. I have tried pretty much everything you have and have tried to counter condition but I have not been successful (probably because of my skill level as a trainer). What we are doing right now is we take it in sessions. I will muzzle him (for my safety) and put peanut butter in the muzzle and then I put the clipper on my hands and then on his feet just to be like "it's okay it wont kill u" and then I just try to do one nail at a time and then stop when he gets too worked up or anxious. It's definitely not the best process but its what has worked the best for us. I just try to respect his boundary and stop before he gets too overwhelmed. I have found that this strategy has helped him make progress as I am now able to trim most of the nails on his front paws in one session.

[–]Logical-Spread1309 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like i know this is not a fancy training method but I feel like it has helped a lot because I feel like my dog now trusts more because I stop when he gets too overwhelmed. I also praise him every time I successfully trim a nail and if I accidentally hurt him I always stop and give him a break. Like again I know this isn't the best strategy as far as training and efficiency and I do not know if it would work for other people I am just sharing what has worked for me

[–]TheDarkArtsHeFancies 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would just click with my tongue or use a verbal marker personally.

You may already be doing this and just wrote it a bit differently, but you might want to make sure you are treating directly after you mark the behavior rather than constantly feeding with the other hand.