Dog training advice

[tizabel_]

I know this is supposed to be about chickens/ranching but I’ve seen some dog experienced people on here and I don’t know where else to ask.
One of my dogs has fear based aggression towards people that started at the vet when he was a puppy, he had tons of bad experiences with being held down and prodded and not enough good experiences with people.
He also absolutely will not tolerate having his nails clipped. We’ve tried waiting until he’s good with people again (we are slowly trying to re-socialize him) so he can get put to sleep at the vet while they clip his nails but he’s not to that point yet and his nails are too long to wait any longer. I heard the longer his nails get the more painful it gets to walk so I have to do it soon.
So does anyone have advice on clipping his nails that doesn’t involve strangers and isn’t too stressful for both me and the dog? I’ve spent $30 on a hammock and that didn’t work, I’ve tried holding him down in different positions but he either escapes, bites me, or yanks his paws away so I can’t get a good grip on them. I’m seriously at a loss here but I don’t want to sacrifice his training by taking him to the vet or groomer. Please help.

 

[CluckerFamily]

If you give treats, stop giving treats for this idea to work. What I would do and this may take days or weeks with this plan but he has anxiety so you need to go slow. Step 1: I would massage his paws then give 1 treat as a reward (do this throughout the day or many days)... Step 2: start massaging paws with clippers in other hand then give 1 treat as a reward (do this through the day or many days, no clipping yet)... Step 3: start massaging paw with clippers in other hand and slowly touch clipper to paw but no clipping, reward with 1 treat. Step 4: When you feel he is ready I would massage paw bring clipper to paw and clip 1 nail a day and after each nail give him a treat. Don't rush him, it is tough to change his anxiety when he has good reasons for it.

 

[MarkJr]

Start playing with his feet and praising when he lets you.
Scold ONLY if he uses his mouth to discourage you.
Say nothing/don’t react when he pulls away. Also don’t force it.

There will come a time when you can lift his paw, check between all toes and pads on one foot. When you get to that point, make a huge deal about it and reward him with his absolute most favorite treat/activity/toy.

I would strongly suggest having his nails trimmed. All it’s going to take is once of you nicking the quick and he will be done with you messing with paws all together.

Complete foot inspections and no food aggression are trained on every dog around here right along with ‘here’ and sit. We are in foxtail country and a few days can mean a lame dog for a couple weeks.

Make it fun. Show him he’s not going to hurt.

 

[Gaugedgun]

I agree with clucker family. Take your time and once you get to the part of touching his paw with the clippers reward your dog with a jackpot(multiple treats at once). Teach your dog to associate the clippers with a reward and that nothing bad will happen to it.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Make it a positive experience.
Start by just holding his paw and rewarding with praise and treats if he does good. Repeat this with all his paws. Take your time. Do one a day if you have to. Wait until you get the behavior you like.
He'll learn that 5his is a good thing. Eventually you can trim one nail. Again, reward heavily. Be patient. Take your time.
Do this until you can trim all his nails.
Make it quick and fun.
Hope this helps

@KDOGG331

Thanks for the tag! Seems like there’s a lot of good advice here already including yours so I won’t really add to it but I do agree with making it a positive experience and going SLOW. If one step is too much and he starts freaking out again or whatever, go back a step. You don’t want to overwhelm him or go too fast.

If you do that or he goes past his threshold and has another bad experience, it’s just going to set him back which you don’t want. So go as slow as possible. If you can’t even touch his feet then start by just putting your hand near his feet or something and if he doesn’t pull back, reward. If you can’t get the clippers anywhere near his feet, just start by showing him them, etc. etc.

It might also help to possibly get a new pair of clippers that look different so he doesn’t have the same negative association with them. You’re starting off at a bit of a disadvantage that way. But just go slow and make it positive and fun.

Actually, speaking of fun, I just discovered something with my brother’s dog the other day. He’s a bit of a nervous/anxious/fearful type so they can’t trim his nails as often as the other two. Also hates having his feet touched.

Anyway, I did an experiment and sure enough, the second I grabbed his paw, without even doing anything, he ran downstairs and sulked even though he was having fun a second ago and when he came inside later he ran right past me

He LOVES me and normally doesn’t give me the cold shoulder LOL

ANYWAY! I went and made up to him with treats and training and I discovered that when I made it super duper fun and got excited and asked him to wave (his favorite trick) and do some obedience, etc. and had a happy excited voice, HE LET ME TOUCH HIS PAWS IN THE WAVE!! He didn’t even care because he was having SO MUCH FUN. So I gave him lots of treats and praise and ended it. So maybe something like that could work for you??? When it was made to be FUN, he didn’t even seem to notice I was touching his feet

I guess I did have something to add after all

 

[thepick4uchicks]

I know this is supposed to be about chickens/ranching but I’ve seen some dog experienced people on here and I don’t know where else to ask.
One of my dogs has fear based aggression towards people that started at the vet when he was a puppy, he had tons of bad experiences with being held down and prodded and not enough good experiences with people.
He also absolutely will not tolerate having his nails clipped. We’ve tried waiting until he’s good with people again (we are slowly trying to re-socialize him) so he can get put to sleep at the vet while they clip his nails but he’s not to that point yet and his nails are too long to wait any longer. I heard the longer his nails get the more painful it gets to walk so I have to do it soon.
So does anyone have advice on clipping his nails that doesn’t involve strangers and isn’t too stressful for both me and the dog? I’ve spent $30 on a hammock and that didn’t work, I’ve tried holding him down in different positions but he either escapes, bites me, or yanks his paws away so I can’t get a good grip on them. I’m seriously at a loss here but I don’t want to sacrifice his training by taking him to the vet or groomer. Please help.

Does he get relaxed at all with Benadryl for you? Or does it make him agitated? If you haven’t ever tried him on any based on his weight try giving him a single tablet per thirty pounds of weight and if it relaxes him introduce the nail clippers to him via you or someone he really loves to play with and absolutely will not bite under any circumstances. Then try clipping the nails. If he won’t tolerate the clippers maybe he will be relaxed enough to tolerate the nail file though or the grinder from your husbands tool kit. Would that be something doable for you guys?

 

[MrFluffyandGirls]

I know this is supposed to be about chickens/ranching but I’ve seen some dog experienced people on here and I don’t know where else to ask.
One of my dogs has fear based aggression towards people that started at the vet when he was a puppy, he had tons of bad experiences with being held down and prodded and not enough good experiences with people.
He also absolutely will not tolerate having his nails clipped. We’ve tried waiting until he’s good with people again (we are slowly trying to re-socialize him) so he can get put to sleep at the vet while they clip his nails but he’s not to that point yet and his nails are too long to wait any longer. I heard the longer his nails get the more painful it gets to walk so I have to do it soon.
So does anyone have advice on clipping his nails that doesn’t involve strangers and isn’t too stressful for both me and the dog? I’ve spent $30 on a hammock and that didn’t work, I’ve tried holding him down in different positions but he either escapes, bites me, or yanks his paws away so I can’t get a good grip on them. I’m seriously at a loss here but I don’t want to sacrifice his training by taking him to the vet or groomer. Please help.

I'm surprised your vet did not recommend a muzzle and prescribe a oral sedative you could give the dog before the appointment. Your dog would be on cloud nine during the vet visit.

 

[EverythingDucks]

Make it a positive experience.
Start by just holding his paw and rewarding with praise and treats if he does good. Repeat this with all his paws. Take your time. Do one a day if you have to. Wait until you get the behavior you like.
He'll learn that 5his is a good thing. Eventually you can trim one nail. Again, reward heavily. Be patient. Take your time.
Do this until you can trim all his nails.
Make it quick and fun.
Hope this helps

@KDOGG331

 

[thepick4uchicks]

Start playing with his feet and praising when he lets you.
Scold ONLY if he uses his mouth to discourage you.
Say nothing/don’t react when he pulls away. Also don’t force it.

There will come a time when you can lift his paw, check between all toes and pads on one foot. When you get to that point, make a huge deal about it and reward him with his absolute most favorite treat/activity/toy.

I would strongly suggest having his nails trimmed. All it’s going to take is once of you nicking the quick and he will be done with you messing with paws all together.

Complete foot inspections and no food aggression are trained on every dog around here right along with ‘here’ and sit. We are in foxtail country and a few days can mean a lame dog for a couple weeks.

Make it fun. Show him he’s not going to hurt.

I agree with all of this as well. Used to most of these actions didn’t have to be so formally trained behaviors we didn’t think but we just didn’t know. In reality we just didn’t think of them that way. It would have done the dogs and us a lot of good service if we had. This is because there are so many fears and bad behavior.

 

[MarkJr]

I agree with all of this as well. Used to most of these actions didn’t have to be so formally trained behaviors we didn’t think but we just didn’t know. In reality we just didn’t think of them that way. It would have done the dogs and us a lot of good service if we had. This is because there are so many fears and bad behavior.

It does come without thinking. I can pick my dog up, roll them on their backs and carry them like a baby. All of them have been this way.

OP please think on the trimming nails part until you have definitely had a serious rapport with the dog. Any pain will be almost impossible to forgive early on.