Nail clipping woes

It sounds like he doesn't like his feet being touched.
 
I suggest try to gently massage his feet while you pat him.This might get him use to you touching his feet and make it easier when it comes time trim the nails.

Actually, he's fine with me playing with his feet; I inspect them for ticks frequently, and put on Musher's Secret in the winter. He has no problem with that. It's just when he sees those dreaded clippers come out of the drawer, he gets really nervous.
 
We dog-sat for my SO's mom's dog (Shelby) last weekend, and she never clips the poor dog's nails. So whenever Shelby comes over for a visit, she gets a "manicure." [] Shelby doesn't mind getting her nails clipped, she just lays on the couch. When I got the clippers out, Rupert laid down, on all his paws. He was stressed just watching me clip her nails. [&o] When I was done, I exclaimed, "All done!!" and Rupert jumped up and ran over to the treat jar. [8|]

You're soothing him while he acts fearful. I'd ignore that. I would get some sort of smearable treat (peanut butter, tahini, cream cheese, hummus, whatever) and smear it on the fridge, and clip while he's happily licking. Stop BEFORE he gets nervous, and praise heavily. You don't have to clip all his nails on the same day. I actually started out with one nail, per day, with Emma. Now, I do them all, twice a week, but she's used to it, and just holds out her paws and waits for it to be over[]

I use a dremmel on Gracie's toenails.. talk about her thinking we were cutting her feet off when we first started using it. [8|]

Now she lays there patiently and gets her pedicure. What really helped was treats, lots, loads and tons of treats! I practically shoveled treats in her mouth before, during and after each toe. If she struggled, whimpered or made a fuss, I told her a calm "no" (no raised voice or yelling) and waited until she settled down then started in with the treats again.

This took like 2 weeks. I would work on her toes like every other day just to get her used to it. Even if there was nothing to cut, I would hold the dremel to each toe, just so she got used to the sensation and the process. I imagine you could do the same with the cutter.

Quick and straight forward was the way to go, when I had strugglers.  Just get it over with quickly, instead of dragging it out into several opportunities for crying, struggling, attempts at escaping.  If you're no-nonsense, calm, and quick, the whole thing is done and over with and lots of praise and treats afterward makes it a good experience.

Talus hated the clippers too...
The way I got him to let me do them was to do one each day, every day....
After a while, he figured out that if he let's me do them all at once, I don't have to bug him for another week or two...
 
Now all I say is "Let's do your toes..." and he sits and let's me...

I used to have the same problem with Hagrid. Just once I cut too far into the nail while he was struggling. I felt so horrible about it!!![] After that mistake, he got really bad about letting me cut them, struggling and crying, and even throwing in the occasional bite. Since then I've just tried to get it over with as quickly as possible with lots of praise, and it took him almost a year before he would tolerate it pretty well again. Now he lets me cut his nails with minimal squirming, and he gets lots of praise for each toe.[] I think it helps when you stay as calm as possible even though your dog may be acting like a huge pain in the butt, lol. Once mine figured out that no amount of bad behavior could get them out of it, they did a lot better.

Samantha is pretty good about it, which is great because she's the only one that is big enough to hurt me if she bit me. I trimmed Porter's nails for the first time last week and with lots of praise he got through it just fine. Looks like Porter will turn out to be the easiest one in my trio.[]

Yeah i say just fet on with it. as long as your aren't quicking him he won't be afraid. its just something he doesn't like. at the grooming place i voulenteer we have a german shep named lady and she always sqirms (and she's STRONG!)  the only way she would calm down enough to get her nails clipped is i would have to keep feeding her tiny milkbones! like 10 for each foot! thats not good but she has never had a problem from it. we've done her nails liek forever, like a year, she still doesn't like is so......[]

C sometimes sits on his paws when I come out with the clippers, too
 
Anyway, I think (knock on wood) I  have mastered the art of clipping nails. Basically I get a little tiny bowl full of kibble and my clippers and make C lie on the floor. I see a lot of people clipping nails while their dog is standing but this is easier for me. C gets very excited about the chance to eat anything, so kibble works, but you could use more exciting treats, like little bits of chicken or something.
 
Then I clip just a tiny bit off of each nail, giving him one kibble after each nail. I'm super paranoid about cutting the quick (C has black nails) so I just do a tiny bit at a time and I try to do his feet every Sunday.
 
Oh, and when it's time to do nails, I am very matter of fact about it. I don't really say anything and it takes me about 5 minutes or less to go through all four paws (although sometimes I skip his back paws since they wear down a lot more). If he squirms I still keep doing it. I may praise every once in awhile, but only when I'm giving him the treat and only if he didn't squirm prior to it.
 
Good luck! Just don't make it a big deal and he will learn not to make a big deal of it, too.
 

I have no clue what to do really. Max and Millie never liked the clippers, and neither did I because I was afraid I would quick them, so I got a dremel. Max has some issues with his feet, but I can touch them as long as it doesn't involve putting a harness on. He doesn't mind the dremel either. But, if I put the two together, he hates it. Usually, I get someone to feed him treats while I do the dremeling. I prefer to do it with my older sister, since she seems to dole the treats out at the right pace, but she hasn't been home for a week or two, and she is moving out soon, so I had to get my younger sister to do it. She is terrible about giving out the treats, so Max keeps trying to grab my hand, and he moves his feet. I guess i'll have to deal with it though.
Millie tried to bite me once when I tried to do her nails, so I had all but given up on them for a while (bad, I know). But, once she was acting really weird, and was probably sick. She just wasn't being as crotchety as usual, so I decided to try the dremel on her. I never conditioned it or anything, because she can't have too many treats without getting sick, so I just went after her feet one day. Surprisingly, she tolerated it extremely well, and I was able to get her nails from way too long all the way to what I considered satisfactory all in that one session. As long as I keep the speed on slow, she is fine with me doing it on her back feet. When I do the front, I have to get my mom to come and talk to her just to keep her distracted, but she's pretty good about letting me do it.
What's funny now is, well, really more annoying, Max won't let me do Millie's nails. If I try to do her's, he comes over and tries to grab the dremel or the clippers, whichever i'm using. Her nails grow so fast, so when I was just doing their nails, I was trimming her's a bit first with the clipper, and then finishing them with the dremel. Luckily Max's nails seem to grow really slowly, and he walks a lot more than her, or this would be a much bigger hassle.

Wow, so many people have great answers to this question.
I think I subscribe to a mixture of them.
The one thing all of my babies like are treats. So when I want them to like something(grooming,bathing,nail clipping) I whip out the treats. Now they come running to have thier nails trimmed, their baths and the endless grooming that goes with ChowChow's.

I just found out that apparently, Max does not like anyone's nails being done. I was just clipping my own fingernails, and he got mad. He came over and growled, and tried to grab the clipper out of my hand. That's gonna be an issue, because I am sort of obsessive about keeping my toenails really short.

ORIGINAL: griffinej5
I just found out that apparently, Max does not like anyone's nails being done. I was just clipping my own fingernails, and he got mad. He came over and growled, and tried to grab the clipper out of my hand. That's gonna be an issue, because I am sort of obsessive about keeping my toenails really short.

Oh Max, you big weirdo. [sm=lol.gif]

And he's awfully proud of it!