If you’ve got four spare minutes in your day, you can help take the stress out of nail trims for your dog! Just four minutes, three to four times a week and your dog will soon be on his or her way. If you continue with these steps, your dog will become more comfortable with this process and won’t run or hide when you clip nails at home or go to the veterinarian or groomer.

You should take one step at a time, and complete three successful interactions at each step before moving on to the next step:

1. Begin by holding your pet on your lap or on the floor. Offer your pets treats to keep him or her calm. Repeat until pet appears calm and comfortable.
2. Offer treats and handle your pet’s foot at the same time. Remove treat and stop handling foot at the same time. Repeat with all feet until pet appears calm and comfortable with handling.
3. Offer treats and touch foot with nail trimmers at the same time. Remove treat and nail trimmers at the same time. Repeat with all feet until pet appears calm and comfortable.
4. Offer treats and hold nail trimmers over toenail without clipping at the same time. Remove treat and nail trimmers at the same time. Repeat with all toes until pet appears calm and comfortable.
5. Offer treats while clipping one toenail at the same time. Remove treat and nail trimmers at the same time. Repeat with all toenails. You may need to clip nails on one foot, then give your dog a break and repeat with another foot at a later time. Repeat until all nails have been trimmed.

Keep in mind that patience and consistency are the keys to success. For a demonstration of this process, call us at 317-257-5334 and one of our Technicians will be happy to schedule a time to help you. For a video demonstration, click here to see Dr. Sophia Yin.

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