Dogs have their own feelings and opinions about, well, everything! It’s what I love about them, and I’m sure it’s what you love too. When it comes to nail trimming, that means your dog might be a “Sure, why not?”, or they might be a “Mmmm, I’d rather not”, or they might be a “Heck no! Absolutely not!”. These different feelings are why I don’t have a one size fits all approach to nail trimming. So, what does that look like exactly?

When I arrive at your home I’ll start by meeting you and your dog and see how your dog responds to a new person in their space. While your dog gets used to my presence, I’ll ask you questions about your dog’s health and behavioral history, and get to know your dog’s lifestyle and individual needs. After that, if your dog is already comfortable with nail trimming, or mostly comfortable, I will either clip or file their nails using low stress handling techniques and whichever tools they are most comfortable with. Sometimes I trim inside your home and other times inside my van is best. We can decide together what would be the best fit or try both.

If your dog is nervous about nail trimming, I’ll go over our options of scratchboard training and longer term training plans for Cooperative Care. Cooperative Care is gradually teaching dogs that nail trimming is safe and getting their consent before trimming. For dogs with moderate to high levels of fear and anxiety about nail trims, it may take many sessions to get them to the point where I can get them comfortable. For these dogs, I develop a training plan for us to follow that includes homework between sessions and email support from me as needed. I also encourage talking to your veterinarian and incorporating pre-visit anti-anxiety medications, and assessing for chronic pain or other medical issues. I offer Cooperative Care training where I work with your dog directly, or where I coach you to work with your dog and trim their nails yourself, depending on your goals, and your dog’s comfort with new people. At the beginning of each session we’ll go over the progress made since our last session, work on the next step in our training, and then I’ll give you homework for the next week.

Since nail trimming is a recurring experience that your dog will need for the rest of its life, it’s important to me to plan ahead for future nail trims and not just one visit. Your dog’s emotional health is just as important to me as their nails being a healthy length, so as a force free practitioner, I try to find a balance between the two. If I can accomplish trimming with a low level of stress that doesn’t increase your dog’s level of anxiety for future trims, I recommend trimming with low stress handling. While all of my handling with your dog is aimed at keeping stress levels low, low stress handling in this case means that I use a variety of positions, tools, treats, breaks and keeping you with your dog to keep them as comfortable as possible even if they are still experiencing some anxiety. For dogs with a moderate to high level of fear, low stress handling techniques often aren’t enough to alleviate their anxiety and I recommend cooperative care training and/or the assistance of medication. In my experience, forcing dogs with high levels of anxiety to have their nails trimmed will make each nail trim harder and is unsustainable, so my threshold for when I judge your dog’s stress level to be too high may be lower than previous pracitioners you’ve worked with. For urgent trimming needs, I recommend sedated trims by a veterinarian to preserve our progress while training. Every dog has a different level of comfort with physical handling, restraint, tools and noise, and it’s important to me to meet them where they’re at, and then develop realistic goals and a plan for us to reach those goals together.

My initial consults and training sessions are up to 1 hour and I welcome all questions and feedback. I’m passionate about my work and want to educate and empower pet parents to be involved in their dogs’ care and be their dogs’ advocates. You’re also welcome to ask me questions about dog behavior and dog training in general, and if I have time I like to teach quick tricks to make myself extra fun for your dog. I love sharing information and being a resource for my clients so their dogs can keep living their best lives!