Nail Trimming Hack

Do you have a dog who hates having his nails trimmed? You can teach your dog to sand his own nails! This is a great way to keep the nails short as you train your dog to be comfortable with actual nail trimming in small approximations. It also can speed up the training process for some dogs by first teaching them to do the behavior themselves it can build their trust and confidence in having their handler do their nails. I use back foot targeting to teach the dog to hit the sand pad I created with their back feet. My dog trainer friend from Australia Peta Clarke uses a sand board at an angle and then just gets the dog to put their front feet up on a platform behind the board and act as if they are going to step up with the back feet in order to sand the nails. She has a video on facebook but not on youtube of this behavior. This one should be much easier for some dogs as you wouldnt have to train back foot targeting.
Most dogs are more sensitive having their front nails trimmed rather than their back nails, so sanding the front on their own and clipping the back is an option.
grooming tool recall game
• FIRST TRAINING GAME fo...
Teaching your dog to accept handling and grooming
• Handling and Grooming ...
5 tips for getting your dog to be comfortable with nail trimming
• 5 TIPS for training yo...
#dogtraining #professionaldogtraining #dog

[@cyborg8623]

Perfect timing! I just taught this behavior to my dog. He loves doing it and his nails actually look great! We do have to manipulate the target a bit to shape the nails properly and avoid scraping his pawpads.

[@tlhenderson9578]

Hi Emily, Thanks for this useful hack! Many of us are wondering what grit of sandpaper to use?

[@alikatskye7871]

VERY cool idea! Thank you!

[@kikopup]

Glad you like it!

[@internetshaquille]

I had seen this on tiktok but I didn’t trust that it actually worked until you vouched for it :)

[@mirandagarrett4231]

Oh my goodness this video literally just made my life so much easier I do animal rescue and 2 of my dogs that I rescued one is a beagle and 1 is a great pyrenees and they both are terrified of trimmers because they came from a situation where they got no type of grooming whatsoever so it is so foreign to them in so scary I have tried every nail tremor nail filer you can think of and I gave this a shot thinking what's the worst case I'm already not being able to do it lol and it worked oh my goodness it worked 🙃 I used a Frisbee from the Dollar Tree

[@BarkedBeans]

Thank you! Love it! You ALWAYS have the best tricks up your sleeve. Like moving the nail file while he's using it to wear the nails down more. I'm looking forward to trying that! I've been using a pre made board, ScratchPad, but now I absolutely must make one like yours with the handle. Looks so much easier for both of you to do rather than the dog moving around the board or moving the heavy thing myself.

[@KellyKeeney27]

what a great tip Emily! I never would have thought of that modification. Thanks as always. kelly

[@vaironxxrd]

Do you have more in-depth videos for the hind leg behavior?

[@ffocasffocas8680]

Same question!

[@bretyoung1869]

You are amazing Emily !!!

[@wendyanderson8169]

So awesome! Thank you! My big coonhound doesn't like his nails trimmed. We are working on paw handling, but this is a great tool to have in the drawer, making one tomorrow and we will try it. He targets with his front paws already so will start with them. I'll look in your videos to see if there's one to train hind leg paw targets!

[@user-mj8ml2vs5d]

Love this! I’ve just taught my dog how to sit still for a few swipes of the nail file so I can get the shape I want. It’s going wayyyy better than the clippers because the noise is softer and there isn’t a long pause for me to aim.

[@supermilena2846]

how coarse should the sandpaper be?

[@kaycee557]

I'm wondering what the grit should be, too.

[@chaampmalamuterescue8566]

Thank you so much for this!!!!

[@SusanneBark]

Brilliant once again.

[@Caniacaniago007]

I really like watching your videos

[@analarson2920]

Love, just wondering plus it's a game so we can keep them in great shape. Thanks Tug n Emily. Prayers and blessings 🙏

[@erinelzey5153]

Can we see a video on how you taught your dog "hind leg?"

[@paulasunday8955]

What grain of sandpaper do you use? Coursest or finer?

[@bethcolman1980]

Did this yesterday (I'm still getting our rescue accustomed to the dremel and don't want to rush her) and it worked great! Thanks so much for the video.

[@kikopup]

Fantastic!

[@kibummmm]

This is genius!

[@manolopapas]

Very clever

[@vanihansen2136]

I like this. I have a pup and his nails are getting long.. they definitely need cut but not all of them. I've been touching his paws since he was 2 weeks old .. but I'm afraid i might cut too much. Thank you

[@vongtaynhanaikptt6066]

Great upload my friend thank you so much for sharing always stay blessed

[@kikopup]

Thank you! You too!

[@mugdhadokhale9972]

Love these nifty and DIY ideas!

[@tedjack9184]

I wonder: what about the cushions under the feet? Won't they get damaged? So good to see Tucky again. He is still one of my favs.

[@kikopup]

Not from the dog offering the behavior, but what can happen is they might quick themselves so you have to make sure to check the progress of the nails. I did experiment with having a dog play tug on sand paper to sand their nails and it went great with wish, because she digs in her nails when tugging so it worked a dream, but when I tried it with others, they just stood normally so it would obviously sand their pads... so I would suggest for someone to try doing weight pulling with their dog in a weight pulling harness on cement as that could sand the nails without the dog having to have their feet touched

[@cyborg8623]

I did notice a bit of damage to the pawpads on my dog who is super eager to paw at (but not dig) the board. Tilting it more vertically helps. I also made a scratch tube which gets the outer claws without damaging his feet. All good now after a month of using the board.

[@secession77]

Haha yeah that's cool. I've introduced similar patent to my dog this spring. It loves to jump out of excitement so I redirected this behavior onto... TREES! The tree bark (oh irony) works just like the sandpaper 👌 As a level up I want to trigger the natural behavior of grass scratching after peeing but on pavement 😊

[@lexiyoutube]

Briljant! Thx.

[@kikopup]

thanks for the comment!

[@kyatracysadventures]

Random question Emily, I watched a video on your channel awhile back where you taught how to teach a stalk behavior with toys. I've been looking for that video again as I want to teach that but you have a ton of wonderful videos and I can't seem to find that particular one. If you could could please share the title of that one again with me? Thank you!

[@kikopup]

Awe, its on my instagram... I used to have youtube shorts on my channel, but when I started doing them, my channel views went down 50% because the algorithms saw my average view time per video plummeted with the short videos... It was super sad, my channel is still recovering. I really thought doing shorts would boost my channel but instead it hurt my channel badly.

[@mastiffsal8185]

One of my dogs has back dew claws and he hates them being cut -he's a 60kg boerboel so they are thick! And jet black so I hate doing it too, while he's jerking his foot around. Don't suppose you have any sneaky little tips for shortening them? Love your tips.

[@ClaireNic]

Another brilliant idea! The way you break things down into fun little steps that aren’t overpowering is a game changer. We can’t wait to try it. My vets advised my Shar Pei has the smallest ear canals they have ever seen. He’s constant at his ear’s due them being sore & is getting infections. He love’s me rubbing them & i can clean the top with water wipes easily, but if I try to put drops or cleaner into the canals he try’s to bite me.
 Our vet recommends ear flushing with cleaner every 4 days…..but I just can’t get the liquid in! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do a video on cleaning small painful ears with a reluctant dog!

[@thankmelater1254]

Have you tried slow gradual approach to the ears area day after day to allow much less intrusive manipulations first? Every day getting closer and closer with very short touches and rewards and distractions and play without trying any treatments or forcing when your dog shows distrust?

[@ClaireNic]

Thanks for your reply. We started by working on a game where he learnt to place his chin in my hand & get a reward. Then id touch the ear while holding his head. Then finger in ear. Finger moved around. Water wipe's used on finger to help clean. Now am working on hiding a cotton bud inside the wipe to try and clean the canal (My vet has recommended we try this just due to the canal shape). So i take him giving me his chin as a sign its ok to progress. But with the liquid as soon as i get it out and he smells it he's not interested in even high value treats like ham/beef/cheese, just how he can get out of the room. I believe he also has some trauma/fear from a knee operation he had at just 13 months old. He's only 18months now.

[@thankmelater1254]

@@ClaireNic good work. I'm just now getting a rescue dog's ears cleaned right out. Week by week, filth came out with a handful of Q-tips used. No fighting, just slow approach.

[@danahorne8047]

Indeed this is awesome! Love your 'make-shift' tool! I am teaching my dog to file her nails and we have been doing it daily for about a week. How often would you say we should be doing this from here on out? Daily or maybe 2-3 times a week..or?....Thanks for your thoughts!

[@kikopup]

Really depends on their nails and how much they wear down in the environment.

[@danahorne8047]

@@kikopup awe thanks kikopup! minimal walks on the road and more walks on the trail...back nails hardly need a trim at all....must be due to her stride :) I just don't want to overdo it on the scratch board training!

[@lovemefool]

My pup does great with her front paws but struggles with her hind legs. Any tips on how to do that?

[@EW-ed6kd]

I know this is an older clip, but I have a question. My puppy is great with having his nails clipped and I’ve used treats to condition him to like his feet handled. However, I’d like to dremel them. I have been slowly teaching him to be indifferent to the dremel (food seeing it, food investigating it, food hearing it on, food having it touch him while off, food having it in and near him). We have been stuck at touching him with it on. I’m assuming the vibration is unsettling for him. I can touch him nails with it off and go very close with it on. What should I do?

[@mariaa.bryson8126]

It's not easy teaching the back nails 😔