Nail Trimmers = Tazmanian Devil

Fido puts his paw on you to say "I need to go outside and potty", before you process that information, the sensation of his long, sharp toe-nails scratching your leg takes over...ouch! You go to the tool drawer and pull out the nail trimmers and boom, Fido turns into a tazmanian devil; it takes everyone in the house to hold him down and get those nails trimmed up. Weeks later, same thing, finally, you take him to the veterinarian to have it done but he's horrible there, too. The veterinarian says, we'll need to sedate Fido, next time, for his nail trim, he was biting everyone and he really doesn't like to have it done. Far too many of us can relate to that little scenario.

I recently read an article by Dr. Sophia Yin, DVM, MS about training your pet to enjoy a nail trim. It's really an article about counter-conditioning your pet's behavior, specifically his/her loathsome outbursts during nail-trimming. It's really good, so I'm gonna let you read it and watch the video. Even if your pet isn't bad during nail-trims, it's still a good read, the concepts she's using here can be extrapolated to other negative behaviors as well.

Find the article and video here.

Dr. Sophia Yin is a veterinary behaviorist and currently sees behavior house calls, works at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists (www.SFVS.net), writes for several veterinary and popular magazines and has consulted for several zoos. She also lectures and teaches workshops internationally on animal behavior and low stress handling and has served as a behavior expert for shows such as Dogs 101 on Animal Planet. She is also on the executive board for the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) Handling Guidelines Committee, and the American Humane Association (AHA) Animal Behavior and Training Advisory Committee.

One thing that the article and video don't mention, that I'd like to add, is that although the dog in the video was counter-conditioned in about 4 minutes, your dog may require a little more patience and training to overcome his anxiety or negative behavior. The principles she uses here are excellent, but I'd say take your time and your dog will learn to love his nail trims too.