Your Experience with High Anxiety Dogs

Question
I have a boxer I adopted. While she is high anxiety, the only time it is a problem is when her nails need to be cut.  I believe she had a bad experience previously when her nails were cut.  In your experience, what is the best way to approach getting this done, short of having her put to sleep by a vet?  I have tried benedryl and the vet has given me some medication to help (do not recall the name - but it did not help at all).  Her nails are getting too long and I am desperately looking for some ideas.

Thank you.

Answer

Hi Sue,

Not allowing anyone to handle their feet, and to HATE having their nails cut is very common for dogs. As unpleasant as nail clipping is, you shouldn't let your dog's nails get over grown. Walking on overly long nails is painful, and can lead to broken nails, nail bed infection and huge amounts of bleeding - and can also lead to ingrown nails which break into the pads of your dogs paws.

In the worst cases, a vet or qualified dog groomer should do the nail trimming. Whatever medication your vet gave, ask for a stronger sedative next time. Short of medicating, the next step is to muzzle the dog, and that's not going to be fun for anyone.

The simplest most passive way of keeping your dog's nails short is to walk her on concrete roads or sidewalks. It's a really good way of naturally wearing down the nails. When I lived in New York City, my dog's nails were wonderfully short, and I never had to clip them!

You may be able to counter-condition your dog to having her feet and toes handled. When you're relaxing with your dog, start to gently stroke her feet and toes. She's going to pull her foot away, or maybe even get up and walk away at first. Don't force her, if she runs to another room that's okay. This will take time, but over time, she'll get used to you touching her feet and toes. Here is more on desensitizing a dog to nail clipping:

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/nailtrimmingforsensitivedogs.pdf

Some dogs are better with a Dremel tool than regular nail clippers. You can read about using a Dremel tool on your dog's nails here:

http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/dremel/dremel.html

You could clip your dog's nails yourself if you have someone strong hold your dog in their arms while you quickly clip a couple of nails.  Your dog may require a muzzle, even at home.

Best of luck,

Patti