For those who dread or struggle with nail clipping....
Taught Koji to file his nails using a scratch board. The video has a shot at the end that shows nice short nails from a few scratching sessions each week.
Hi Rina, To answer your question and more, here are the comments I posted with the video....
"I had this idea in my head not long after getting "Koji", as I could see that he was very skittish, like most Shiba Inus, about having his nails clipped. Around the time I was mulling it over, I came across Shirley Chong's website where I saw she did just that. So she was my inspiration to go through with it. Thanks Shirley!!
The board looks a bit funky because I started with some samples of 60-grit black non-skid tape, and then finished it with some 80-grit sanding sheets. The non-skid tape works well, but it's hard to find locally, and is very expensive, especially since it's hard to buy in anything less than long rolls. If you look around, you can find 6X24" strips of it, but still not cheap.
Nothing better than getting a dog to do his own nails! It literally took me 5 minutes to train him to do this using a clicker. The clicker is useful for teaching the dog to scratch longer, before getting a treat. This is one of Koji's favorite activities. He will enthusiastically start scratching the moment I put the board in front of him. "
Haven't attempted the back legs yet The back nails grow a lot slower, and his daily walks on pavement seem to file them enough, that they haven't really need clipping or filing. They've been clipped once in the three months I've had him -- when he was neutered three weeks ago. I did read people have trained for the hind legs without much dificulty, so I'll probably start working on that next.
I could see that method with the file board would be really quick to train. (Shirley Chong is another one of the greats in the canine field! If you get a change to watch her in action she has a lot to offer.)
To get my own dogs to accept trimmings I used a clicker and spent weeks working on it.
I was working with a Shiba yesterday that hates nail trims and snaps. It took me about an hours or so but I was able to finally file (all four paws) with an emery board used for acrylic nails. It took a ton of treats and just being patient taking it literally one toe at a time. He stopped snapping pretty quickly. No muzzle needed.
Comments
"I had this idea in my head not long after getting "Koji", as I could see that he was very skittish, like most Shiba Inus, about having his nails clipped. Around the time I was mulling it over, I came across Shirley Chong's website where I saw she did just that. So she was my inspiration to go through with it. Thanks Shirley!!
The board looks a bit funky because I started with some samples of 60-grit black non-skid tape, and then finished it with some 80-grit sanding sheets. The non-skid tape works well, but it's hard to find locally, and is very expensive, especially since it's hard to buy in anything less than long rolls. If you look around, you can find 6X24" strips of it, but still not cheap.
Nothing better than getting a dog to do his own nails! It literally took me 5 minutes to train him to do this using a clicker. The clicker is useful for teaching the dog to scratch longer, before getting a treat. This is one of Koji's favorite activities. He will enthusiastically start scratching the moment I put the board in front of him. "
To get my own dogs to accept trimmings I used a clicker and spent weeks working on it.
I was working with a Shiba yesterday that hates nail trims and snaps. It took me about an hours or so but I was able to finally file (all four paws) with an emery board used for acrylic nails. It took a ton of treats and just being patient taking it literally one toe at a time. He stopped snapping pretty quickly. No muzzle needed.
Snf