Keeping your dog's nails clipped is important to prevent painful cracking and curving. However, your dog unfortunately does not realize that you are trying to help it by clipping its nails. There are a lot of dogs out there that are terrified of having their nails clipped, but this doesn't mean that you should put off this important grooming task. Instead, try these tips to help ensure that you can clip your dog's nails without any issues.
1. Desensitize Your Dog
If your dog is afraid of having its feet touched, then it might be overly sensitive in that area. You are going to have a hard time clipping its nails until you get it used to handling its feet, so start working on slowly desensitizing your furry friend. You can do so by simply rubbing your dog's paw here and there when you are giving it attention. Slowly move to picking up each paw, then holding each paw for increasing lengths of time. This isn't something that you should try to do in a day; instead, work on it a little bit each day until your dog doesn't mind you touching its feet.
2. Make Grooming Time Fun
If you make grooming -- and nail clipping -- time as fun as possible, your dog will be more likely to look forward to it. Take a few minutes to play with your dog in the grooming area and to give it a lot of attention. You may even want to give your dog a treat each time that you clip its nails so that it will associate nail clipping with something positive. Not only will this help make grooming time a little bit easier for you, but it will also help you and your dog bond.
3. Leave it to a Professional
Even if you like to do most of your dog's grooming at home, you can always take your dog to a good dog groomer for nail clipping. Professional nail clipping at a veterinarian's office or groomer's office usually costs only $10 or less, so you might find it worthwhile to hire a pro.
As you can see, you don't have to give up on clipping your dog's nails just because it doesn't like the procedure. Instead, you can give these three tips a try to make it easier for your dog, which will make it easier on you as well.
If you have more questions about pet grooming, contact a company like Abraxas Pet Resort.
Share23 May 2015
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