Help Claw clipping phobia

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Snowman81

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Hello,

My collie terrier is terrified of having her nails clipped, or in fact of us approaching her with anything other than a horse grooming brush. I am not sure where this has come from but suspect it stems from when she was spayed at the vets as before this she would quite happily have her jabs...but now turns into a quivering heap when we take her into the vets office and hides when the vet prepares the injection. It is hard to know as we did not need to try and clip her claws before the spaying. In hindsight we should have got her used to this as a pup but didn't think about it at the time.

So does anyone have any tips? She is so bad that even if we had the clippers in the room with her she would start to lick nervously, and run around with her tail and ears down before hiding under the sofa/sideboard. Using cheese I have now got her to come to me with the clippers in my hand, take a piece of cheese and also use the command 'touch' to get her to touch the clippers with her nose. She shakes a bit but it is progress, I was hoping to then slowly get her used to the clipper 'clip' noise and move them down her leg ...but not sure if I am taking the right approach...it is tricky as her nails are really long now but I don't want to spoil the trust by holding her down to clip them.

It is immpossible to 'trick' her as she hears the clippers coming from 100 paces...and I swear 'mid reads' when we are thinking about clipping the nails as we only have to start to think about it and she dissapears without us even picking up the tools!...and then she is under the sofa for a couple of hours. She is a rescue and a bit of an emotional character but v soft and has never growled or attempted to bit or act in temper.

Am I being too soft...any ideas?!
 
My lab doesn't like having her nails done either - not to that degree though.
She's gets really nervous, and once I've done her, she runs around like an excited puppy, with relief written all over her face :-)
Have you tried to do one at a time when she's asleep.... and i mean totally sparked out after a long walk?
May not work but just an idea, failing that, can you ask the vet for a mild sedative that you can give her at home.

Also be careful only to take the minimum off - I don;t have to touch my dogs back paws, but she has a slightly inward pointing toe on each front foot that doesn't wear down properly, hence I click the tip off only
 
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If she really hates it, you can get special nail files for dogs - or just up the amount of walking you do on tarmac to wear her nails down.

If nothing else, this would give you more time to desensitize her to the clippers because you wouldn't be getting to the point where they HAVE to be done, ready or not.
 
Try a dremel....they're fab- especially the cordless ones! When I get the dremel out (okay, and the treat pot too!) my lot come running and fight to get into the chair where I do them. :D
 
Not sure how much help this will be but our GSD used to be an absolute mess when it came to nail time.
It got to the point where as we got the grooming box out (where they live) to brush her, she would start to yelp and howl, with her tail between her legs, kissing us then running off. I don't know where this has come from, but she's always been the same.
My dad would have his hands on her (not holding down) stroking her whilst my mum would clip them, and if she moved and tried to get up my dad would just push her down again else we'd never get her back to us.
One day I just wondered and had a thought - I got the clippers out, she started her routine so I sat on the floor and 'messed' with them and then asked her to come to me. I asked her to lie down, and to my surprise, (and 4 'paw shakes'!) I managed to hold her paw and clip a few nails. No fuss, no holding, just me and her. I clipped 2 nails and made a huge fuss then let her go. It took us a full day to do all four paws, but we got there and now it only takes us about 20 minutes to do them.
I often find taking a more laid back approach eases them - leave the clippers out in places where she can see them (supervised), if she comes to investigate when you have them in your hand, treat her etc. You can get special dog nail files that rotate round and file the nail down, but my dog found that more traumatic than the clippers and even our Goldie doesn't like that! Worth a try though, I think its just time and desensitizing her to them. Good luck!
K x
 
Oh dear, we've tried all of the above with Willie and six years after getting him it's still a harrowing experience for all of us and strangely enough we just did his today after putting it off for probably a bit too long. He should be good for a while though. Before we moved house from a city setting to a country location we did way more work on tarmac and rarely needed to cut them so that probably didn't help him get used to it. The other two are are just fine with it although it's not exactly their favourite thing in the world. Bella goes to a happy place in her mind and Dakota wriggles but that's about it.
 
Thanks for all of these tips , will give them a go. The nails are really looking long so I will have to do something. She willl let me play with her feet and nails, but the minute I get the clippers out she shoots under the sofa. Does anyone else have a dog that hides under the sofa??!! must be a terrier thing I guess.
 
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