Nail Trimming

I am not a pro at nail trimming by any means, but I have had a lot of friends mention troubles trying to trim their dogs' nails so I thought it would be a good thing to address.

My first Dog, Daizy's nails got really overgrown. I hate to admit it, but I didn't realize nail trimming was a thing. I've only had cats who tend to take care of their own nails. I only read about it after she had gone through the winter without a trim. I found that the Millers Forge nail clippers were highly recommended so I ordered a pair. I went to trim Daizy's nails and learned that she really hated anyone touching her paws.

I really liked this video on the Kikopup YouTube channel explaining how to help your dog relax for nail trimming. I did this with Daizy. It was a slow process and for awhile I could only trim one nail a day. But that way at least they were getting trimmed once every 10 days.

Essentially you make good things happen every time the dog sees the nail clippers--lots of praises and treats. Do it in a calm, comfortable place. Then step-by-step work on making the process comfortable and not scary: touch the paws without clippers, put clippers near the paws but not touching, clip the air nearby, touching the paws with the clippers without clipping, etc. Eventually you work up to just one clip. Then add more. Each step is followed by praises and treats. Don't move on to a new one until they are comfortable with the previous one. If the dog starts to get uncomfortable take a step back or end the session. You don't want any bad memories associated with the process.

If you keep trimming overgrown nails back regularly the quick (which is where the blood flow enters the nail) begins to recede so they can get shorter over time. That cute clicking of nails on the hard floor isn't supposed to happen, so you want to make the quick recede until the dog can walk without the nail putting pressure on the floor. That pressure can cause pain for the dog, which can then cause other problems. A great resource for proper nail trimming is the Nail Maintenance for Dogs Facebook Group.

The trimming experience will be different with each dog. I got my pup, Hera, at five months old and I don't think she'd ever had her nails trimmed, so she didn't like her paws being touched either. With her, I actually taught the "shake" cue first, and used it to get her used to her paws being touched and squeezed. Now I can ask for a shake and then quickly trim her nails before I let go of her paw. To do the back legs I just rub her belly and then she rolls onto her back. I got her used to me touching and squeezing her back feet and then started trimming. Her back feet are still hard because she wants me to stop and rub her belly, but if I get one of my kids to give the belly rub it's a cinch.

Zeus likes to keep his feet on the ground so I usually trim his while he is standing or sitting. It's a little awkward but it works. I tried using "shake"  on him as well, but he still prefers me to trim with his feet on the ground so that's what we usually do.

Trimming Zeus' nails. 

Learning From My Mistakes #1: Teaching Zeus to Target at a Distance

I have a desire to teach my dogs and goats how to pull carts. Livestock guardian dogs don't like to play much but the training with them is good for bonding and for obedience so I thought I'd work on some preliminary behaviors needed for cart-pulling before I invest in equipment. I don't actually think Zeus (2 year old Akbash) will ever pull a cart because he doesn't like leaving the livestock or going for walks. But I thought some of the training could be useful anyway.

I found a list of needed behaviors in the Facebook group, Dog Carting Beginners and decided left/right would be a good place to start. I found this tutorial on Karen Pryor's Clicker Training website and decided to follow it.

The tutorial seemed like it was broken up into nice small steps so I started right with it. Zeus is really good at hand-targeting so I thought it wouldn't be too hard for him. I used a soccer cone he had never seen before and got some cut up pizza--a high value food for him so I could keep him interested. Unfortunately he did not like something about the cone and wouldn't touch it or take the pizza off the top. He wasn't following my tutorial (come on, dog, play by the book!) so I was then unsure what to do.

There are lots of things I should have done but on the spot I was baffled. I lowered the criteria to just looking at the cone, but I also threw treats near it to lure him into touching the cone and marked him for that too. That was one mistake--I was marking two different criteria so the poor boy probably wasn't sure what he was really supposed to do.

Another mistake I made was when he walked away I lured him back with a treat. I should have let him walk away and ended the session so he would learn if he stopped playing the treats went away.

I posted this video in the Facebook group Clicker Training. It was a little scary posting a video where I knew I had made mistakes online because internet people can be really mean, but the group gave me some excellent advice. Here are some highlights from their advice:

• start with a hand target--something he already knows and has a history of positive reinforcement with--to build confidence and interest
• add an object in my hand before putting it on the ground
• go more slowly and keep the session short
• try higher value treats if he doesn't seem excited
• mark only one criteria at a time
• He learned he could get me to click just for looking so he trained me to give him less work

The next training session I tried using the cone in my hand. He touched it with his nose twice out of curiosity, which I rewarded him for. But then he turned his head and refused to look at the cone unless I put it behind my back. It was a "maybe if I pretend it isn't there it will go away" type of look. Silly dog. So I decided I didn't need to use the cone because it falls over easily anyway. 

The next time I started with and hand target, then held his food dish handing in my fingers below his palm and asked him to touch my hand with the bowl hanging there. He had no trouble doing that. Next time I will ask him to touch the bowl itself. He has happy memories with his food dish so maybe this time he won't pretend it doesn't exist.

(For the record, my 1 year old Great Pyrenees learned the exercise with the cones in about 10 minutes, so I am getting to practice the full behavior with her).