Is Your Dog Sensitive About
Having Its Feet Touched?

When I got her last year I joined a Yahoo Group about greyhounds as I was hoping I'd pick up some useful tips.

Some weeks back somebody posted onto the list asking for help. Her dog absolutely freaked out whenever she had to clip its nails. Things were so bad that she had to have a burly helper rugby tackle the dog to hold it down while the nail clipper went to work. She was asking for advice to overcome this problem.

Another list member, who coincidentally also happens to receive this newsletter, posted this advice -

"This nail cutting saga can be sad indeed but can be remedied if YOU really want it. It'll take time and a lot of patience too.

I have Shadow, who was exactly the same, he had paw paranoia! He had been sat upon by burly men and eventually had to go to the vet and be drugged!!! He is a large, young gt dane male. There was no way that i could do that on my own or even with the help from my son. There is no way either that I would take him to the vet and be drugged either.........

So I worked with him on the basis of "one nail per day".... and now he's not a problem at all. We have reached a stage whereby "nail cutting" is a fairly special and pleasurable event too. He now has his nails clipped approx. every 10 days and sometimes, if he gets stressed, we only do the number of nails up to his level of comfort.

Firstly you'll need to decide when and where you'll do it, what time of the day + if you'll get hubby to help. Then daily, at approx the same time of day, you go to the "special room" (be it the kitchen or wherever but always use the same room + no other dogs there either) and you start the preparation with excitement and full of positivety from you (both of you). The general atmosphere needs to be calm and positive, so that the dog gets the feeling of something "nice" to happen.

You will use one specific type of treat, whatever it may be. It must be something he REALLY loves, perhaps a little cube of ham or cheese or whatever. Keep that treat for ONLY this exercise.

Start with giving treat and touching paw (lightly). Take your hand from in the middle of the shoulder and gently move it down the leg onto the paw. At this stage, touch do not lift. Give treat whilst doing this. Then continue to all 4 paws and I would say start with the hind paws ie place hand in middle of back at the height of hips and lower towards paw....

Do that daily until he feel comfortable, then put fingers in between toes, then slightly lift paw, always giving treats, bearing in mind the above.

Then continue above but lift back paw, then front paws etc... If he stresses, do NOT fight with him, finish exercise on a positive note ie, just a stroke towards paw and treat.

Make sure that you have the nail clippers availalbe, next to dog, near dog whatever. Start having the clippers in your hand and continue this way. Open and close clippers, as sometimes just the noise the clippers make might freak the dog.

Once he's fairly confident with above, then bend down and clip one nail.....if he freaks just finish off with a positive stroke towards paw + reward.

If the dog does not like his paw to be lifted, with scissor clippers you can clip the nail, keeping the paw more or less on the floor.

I guarantee you that if you do this as above, there will be a time whereby you'll be able to cut nails without all the trauma of now. It WILL take time. You will have so called good days and days when he'll bring tears to your eyes too.....because you'll suddenly see the confidence in his eyes and the trust too...

The key to the whole procedure is at ALL times to be positive never to feel irritable or rush the dog. It's a labour of love in many ways but will bring success and the reward will far exceed just being able to cut his nails :))

It took me nearly 9 months with Shadow. Now I still make it a little bit of an event and don't do it daily certainly but weekly or when required. We do it in the kitchen and I put a chair in the middle of the room and place his treats on the chair whilst I clip nails. Sometimes I do all paws, sometimes he's had enough after 2 or 3. I don't force him and ensure that he doesn't get stressed either.

Sorry to be so long but I feel sad for the dogs, when in fact it is possible to turn this around."

Somebody else joined in the thread and went on to add -

"A good way to desensitize a dog to foot handling is to smear some peanut butter on the front of your refrigerator. Stand the dog where he can lick the fridge while you play with his feet. It's almost a given that he won't even notice what you're doing.

If you don't want to paint the fridge with food, you can buy the dog his own small jar of peanut butter. Never EVER give him any peanut butter unless you're going to do dog-foot-things. The idea is to link foot experiences with yummies that he never gets any other time, so he looks forward to foot handling.

Have one person hold the jar in front of his nose while the other person messes with his feet. You STILL would not want to START with clipping the nails. Start out with just lifting a foot, touch it and put it down again. Then stop. Do it again later, maybe pick up two feet (one at a time, of course ), then quit.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Gradually work up to clipping ONE NAIL and then stop immediately. Go back later and do another one. It may take a couple days to get all the nails done the first few times, but eventually he'll begin to look forward to seeing those nail clippers because it means he's going to get peanut butter. Variations include using butter, cream cheese, anchovy paste and mayonnaise."

I might add that in all the years I've owned dogs I've never once had to clip any of their nails, but that's because they always get regular walks on the lead around the roads in addition to plenty of free running across the fields. Doing that keeps the nails worn short.

But the reason I wanted to include these 2 bits of advice is because they illustrate beautifully the general principle of how to modify a behaviour pattern. Take things one step at a time, and be sure the dog always associates pleasure with whatever the action is you're trying to get it used to. Just because this particular piece of advice was aimed at a dog that was terrified of having its feet touched doesn't mean you can't adapt it to suit your circumstances.

Just use the general principle and apply it to your own situation.

Recommended reading - "Dog Training Blueprint To Success".

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