Trimming your dog’s nails is already a challenging process for lots of dog owners. But it can be made even WORSE if you’re using the wrong tool!
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Dog Nail Trimming
00:43 We Need To Talk About Trimming Your Dog’s Nails
01:12 Getting Your Dog Comfortable With Nail Trimming
02:31 Using A Dog Nail Grinder
03:50 Remember THIS With Your Dog Nail Grinder
05:03 The Different Types Of Dog Nail Clippers
06:38 Using Dog Nail Clippers – Guillotine Style
07:39 Using Dog Nail Clippers – Scissor Style
08:24 Disadvantages Of Using Scissor Style Dog Nail Clippers
09:00 What Would Robbie Use For Nail Trimming
Thanks for watching,
Happy Training! ~Ken
#dognailtrimming #dognailtrimmingtutorial
Clipping your dog’s nails can be a
real challenge for a lot of dog owners, But are you making it even
more challenging by using
the wrong tool in your Trimming? In today’s video instructor, Robbie is gonna show you the benefits
and drawbacks of using these popular nail Clipping tools. And she’s going to show you how to
use a nail clipper and a nail grinder Correctly because using these tools, The wrong way can be worse than not
trimming your dog’s nails at all. I’m Ken Steepe. This is our demo dog
Sprite. And this is instructor Robbie. Welcome back to McCann Dogs. Here in our training facility, We felt more than a hundred thousand
dog owners to overcome the same dog Training challenges that you have. So if this is your first time on the
channel and you’re currently training a Dog, make sure you hit
that subscribe button. So that we can help you to have a
well behaved four-legged family. Member. I’m instructor Robbie, and I’ve
been training dogs for over 25 years. Over the years, I’ve had many students come and ask me
about what tool they should be using for Trimming their dog’s nails. And
my answer to that, it depends. We asked our YouTube audience what they
were using to trim their dogs toenails. And more 50% of you responded
and said you were using clippers. Is that because you don’t
know about this tool, We’re gonna come back and talk about
the clippers a little bit later, But first we wanna show you how
to properly use the grinder. Good girl. You may have noticed that Sprite barely
even batted an eyelash when I turned the Grinder on. And one of the most common concerns
that people have about using this, This particular tool is the fact that
many dogs are really afraid of the sound. And, um, If you want more information about how
to build your dog’s confidence with tools Like the grinder, or
like the nail clippers, Then click the link below and you can
watch the video that I recently did with
Lucy. Sprite is so relaxed, lying
here on her side, on the couch, Which is wonderful because it makes
trimming so much easier for me. But this is something I start
with my dogs. When they’re young, I teach them how to lie on their side
so that I can do their nail trimming. Now I know that your dog may not
be able to do that quite yet. And that’s all right. You may choose to simply have your dog
stand or sit while you’re trimming their Nails. And you can check out our previous nail
trimming you in order to find out how to Do that. So while she’s
lying here on her side, It also gives us a great opportunity to
zoom in nice and close so that you can See what I’m doing as I’m
actually grinding her nail. So what I’ll do is I’ll start by making
sure that I have a hold of her foot and I just wanna hold her foot comfortably.
I don’t wanna squeeze it tight. I don’t wanna pull it toward
it’s me. I just wanna hold it. So I have control of
it. And then from there, Turn on my grinder and I start grinding. If you have a dog with
a really furry foot, Some breeds have a lot
of hair on their feet. You might want to take some water or dunk
your dog’s foot in some water and just Paste the hair out of the way. So that way the hair is not
getting caught in the grinder. Sprite doesn’t have a lot of hair
on her feet. So I don’t really, We need to worry about that.
But when I’m using the grinder, I’m going to use it to
round the edges of her nail. So that way I don’t
wind up with sharp nail, That cuts if she happens to jump
on me or that, um, is overly sharp. And what I’ll do is I’ll start just by
touching the grinder to the end of her Nail. I move it to the side, round
that edge, move it to the other side, Round that edge, bring it up to the top
of her nail, round off that little tip. And I just take off a little bit at a
time, but the whole time I’m doing that, I’m being very careful that
I’m not holding the grinder
in place for one period Time. That’s too long, Where I run the risk of cutting
into the quick or hitting the quick,
I just wanna take off tiny
bits at a time. Good girl. So that way I have a nice successful cut. In all my years of using this
grinder to trim my dogs toenails, I have never once hit my dogs quick. And the reason for that is this particular
tool allows me a lot of accuracy as I’m trimming. As I’m using the grinder,
I can see where the blood vessel is, Where that quick is, and I can
avoid grinding down to that spot. So it’s a great tool for
a lot of accuracy. Now, as
much as I love this tool, There are some things you need to
be aware of when using a grinder. First thing we need to do is teach the
dog to be comfortable with the sound, The grinder. And I can do that just
simply by starting, turning it on, Rewarding her And then turning it off. So she learns the good stuff comes
when this sound suddenly comes on. Now, notice when I rewarded her, I
rewarded her with her nose over here. I did not bring her nose
over here to reward her. And the reason for that is because
I want her to understand that the Reinforcement comes from this place
because the last thing I want her to do as I’m grinding is turn around and put
her nose too close to the grinder. I want her nose to stay over
there, away from the grinder. Now, In addition to teaching the dog to
become comfortable with the sound, We also need to teach them
to be comfortable with
the feel of the grinder on Their toe. And you can simply
start by picking up their foot, Not even turning it on, yes.
Touching it to their toe, Just so she feels it. And then
I reward over there. Good girl. And then from there I can
progress to turning it on. Yes. Touch it to her toenail reward over
there. Good girl. Now did you know, There are two different styles of
clippers that you can use, the trim, Your dog’s toenails. We have the
scissor style and the guillotine style. Now with the scissor style, You hold it essentially like you
would hold a pair of scissors. On many of these scissor style
trimmers, there is a guard or a guide. It’s a little movable part
that sits close to the blades. And essentially it’s meant to prevent
you from cutting off too much of your Dog’s toenail. But you’ll notice
that mine don’t have the guard.
And the reason for that is
because I’ve removed it. I don’t use the guard simply because if
I was to place my dog’s toenail into the Clippers right up to the guard,
guaranteed, I would cut into the quick, Because I like to keep my dog’s toils
short. So if you have a guard or a guide, We suggest that you either remove
it or move it off to the side. So you’re not using it. Now with
the guillotine style of tremor, There is a right way and a wrong
way of holding this particular tool. There is a movable side
and a stationary side, And what we need to do to
hold it correctly is put
the stationary part in the Palm of our hands, the
movable part in our fingers. And the reason for that is because when
I line up the dog’s toenail, to trim, I wanna make sure that
when I squeeze the handle, The blade or the guillotine slide
straight up and gives me a nice clean cut. If I was to hold these incorrectly with
the movable part in the palm of my hand And the stationary part in my fingertips,
when I line up the dog’s toenail, To trim and I squeeze, You can see the head of the trimmer
rocks back. And when that happens, I wind up cutting off a lot more of
the toenail thanI originally intended. So before I clip the nail, What I need to do is I need to
figure out where the quick is. And I’ve specifically chosen the white
toenail, because you can see the quick, And if you look here, There is a pink part that
ends right about here. And the rest of that is toenail
that I could easily clip off, But I don’t wanna cut into the pink part
of the toenail where the quick is. Now, When I cut, I’m gonna make my first cut by
just taking off the very tip of her Toenail. Yes. Good girl.
And I can reward that. But then what I need to do from there is
I need to round the edges a little bit By trimming the sides. So I’m going
to clip the side off a little bit, Clip the other side
off. That’s a good girl, And I’m gonna trim off the
very top part of the nail. Just the very top part of the edge,
where I had originally clipped. Now I can see already that my clippers
are not very sharp because there’s
A little bit of, um, shreded toenail
there now. Not gonna hurt her, But it is a little shreded because my
clippers aren’t as sharp as they should be Now, because my guillotine
clippers are not very sharp. You can see how they shreded her
nail. I’m not going to use these ones. I’m going to switch over and I’m
going to use my scissor style trimmer. Now these are my own personal
trimmers. I know they’re sharp. And one of the things I like about the
clippers is that they allow you to get The job done more quickly than the
grinder with the of the dog has to be more Patient, Because the grinding process does take
a little bit longer as opposed to the Clipper where it’s just one clip, done.
And then if you wanna round off the, um, Edges a little bit, you can do that, But it is a lot quicker with the
clippers as opposed to with the grinder. Good girl. Yes. Good girl. Now, unfortunately, There are several disadvantages
to using clippers. First of all, If your clippers are not sharp enough,
if the blades are not sharp enough, They will shred the nail. And that
happened to me with the guillotine style, Which is why I switched over to using
my own clippers, which I know are sharp. But the other thing is that they
can leave very sharp edges as well, Especially if I don’t take the
time to round off the edges. And even when I round off
the edges with clippers, I find there are still some sharp edges. And then the biggest drawback to using
the clipper is the fact that there’s more Room for error. And there’s a
greater chance that as I’m clipping, I could potentially hit the
quick. For such a popular tool. There are several disadvantages
to using the clipper. My personal go-to is using the grinder. Now I do teach my dogs to tolerate having
their nails clipped just for the sake Of a training exercise. But
when I’m doing their nails, This is the tool that I use for the job. Now it’s not to say that
I won’t use clippers. Sometimes I’ll use my clippers first. And then I’ll take a couple moments at
the very end to grind the edges so that
They’re not so sharp. Now, Nail care is only a small
part of the grooming process. There are a lot of other things that
your dog will need to learn to tolerate When it comes to grooming. And
if you want more grooming tips, Click that link right there, Handling and nail trimming is only a
small part of the dog training process. If you’re looking for some personalized
support from the McCann Dogs instructor, You can join us in our
online training programs, Click the link in the description
below. And on that note, I’m instructor Robbie, this
is Sprite. Happy training.