SERIOUS nail cutting issues!

Welcome to the forum!  Below is how I got my new dog, Sammy, to let me clip his nails.  He would run away when I brought them out, so he was obviously afraid of them.

You need to basically de-sensitize her to the nail trimming.  This will be a slow process, so be patient.  You have to do this in baby steps, and the premise is to make her associate nail trimming with awesome stuff.

Get some really, super yummy treats.  My boys go nuts for hot dogs, which I cut up into little pieces and use for training.  Anything really yummy and "special" that she loves will do.  So, you wanna start slow, by letting you touch her feet, which you said she's now skittish about.  As you touch her feet, talk to her in a nice, calm voice, and feed her the treats at the same time.  "Ooh, good girl!  Human touching feet means yummy treats appear!"  Do this a couple times a days over several days, just a couple minutes at a time.  Put the super special treats away for the next time.

After you are sure she is okay with this step, move on to touching her nails with your fingers.  Repeat same process as above. 

Next step would be to introduce the clippers.  She probably knows what they are by now, and so she needs to realize they also make the yummy super-special treats appear.  Do the same thing with the clippers just laying near her.  Make sure she sees them, so she knows what the deal is.  Let her sniff them, and give her treats if she does.

Then you can move on to touching her on the paws with the clippers.  Again, the super-special yummy treats come out for this step.

When you are confident in all the above steps, you can try and clip a nail.  This could be a month or more from the start of this process, but, like I said, patience is key to making this work.  Just clip one nail, and if she is good about it, do what we call throwing a party.  Lots and lots of treats, kisses, rubbins, etc.  Just do one nail that day.  The next day, do another nail, and so on.

Any time you feel she's had a breakthrough and succeeded in any step along the way, throw a party.  If she acts afraid or overwhelmed by any step, back it up to the last step and start over from there.  You want to make her more confident in the process; confident that she doesn't have to be afraid, and confident that you won't hurt her.

You have to desensitize them in a similar way to the dremel.  It's loud and feels funny on their feet, so it's a similar process.

Good luck!

Do you have any friends that could show you how to cut nails and let you practice on their dog? When I first got Pirate he was a screaming howling banshee when it came to nails and it freaked me out!! I had to do it at work though, so I got to practice on a bunch of easy dogs and it built my confidence I think.

Make sure you practice touching her feet while she is in different locations - because if you only are messing with her feet while she's on the bed, she'll learn to associate you coming at her while she's on the bed with you messing with her feet, and then she runs away! Pirate occasionally snuggles and I'd pet his front legs, aaaaalll the way down to his toes. Or we'd be walking and I'd stop, pick up a foot, treat, and keep walking. Or he'd sit to wait for his dinner, and I'd put the bowl on the counter, pick up a foot, put the bowl down, and release him. You get the idea.

And I'm a student too! A junior in elementary ed :)

 My last dog, Max, was horrid about doing his nails. I got chomped up pretty bad, I'm talking serious blood, trying to use clippers. I could not even clip my own nails in the room with him, the very sound of clipping nails would make him go nuts. I bought a dremel, and basically did a super slow version of this

http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/dremel/dremel.html

I added some steps as well, because I was starting with a really bad situation. After getting him used to have the dremel around him, I think I did dremel around him, and turned on, no touching him. I also did a lot of work on letting me handle his feet. Once both of these were good, I worked on holding the dremel, far away from him, in one hand, and holding a paw in the other. I don't think I turned the dremel on. I built that to touching each toe, holding the dremel, and not turning it on. I'm not sure whether I went for moving it closer, or for touching him longer first, but both of those were necessary. Then I had to work on turning on the dremel, and not touching him again. At that point, there were again four pieces to work on, actually holding his paw, moving the dremel closer, holding long enough to dremel his nails, and moving the speed up enough to do his nails. There is nothing quick about this, and his nails will probably get too long, if they aren't already, in this process. 

I have done the slow conditioning approach with the dremel (by far the absolute best bet and am in the process now with a current dog).  However, I have done some interim things that your can also do to help manage nails as you are going throught the process.

 If she is a water playing dog, you have an advantage.  Get her out and playing in water until her nails are good and soft.  Then file one or two nails; maybe one on each front foot.  Do that over a couple of days and things will slowly change with respect to length of nails.  I have found clipping to be easier when the nails are wet as well.

If she is going under any anesthesia procedures get the nails done too.

If she likes to pull, consider getting a weight pulling harness and train on hard surfaces with slight inclines so she needs to really dig in.  The ground will act as your file.

Do one nail with the clipper, by giving souper treats right before and right after.  Use that super treat (maybe dinner time meat left overs) ONLY for nails.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgEwiH8CeUE

The key is to go very slowly, at the dog's speed, not yours.  And do up the ante.  Beggin Strips aren't going to make it - use cooked liver, tripe, salmon brownies (not raw salmon), garlic roast beef, etc.  Stuff that your dog only gets when nails are involved.

lemonwedge

don't feel great about giving her people food, she has never had any, and I don't want to start a begging trend, but I guess I have to fix this problem.

This is pretty much a myth.  If you feed her people food off your plate while you're eating, then yes, you're going to create a begging monster, but to use people food as training treats only, is not going to turn her into a beggar.

Good luck, let us know how everything works out!

 It isn't giving a dog "people food" that causes the begging, it's giving it to them at the table, or when they are whining, pawing, or staring at you for it!  If you only give it to her for being good for nails, she will know that she only gets it at that time.  My dogs get people food (beef, chicken, cheese, liver, etc.) all the time when we train difficult or complex behaviors, but they don't pester me for my own dinner;-)

 Apparently, in December 2007, I started blogging about conditioning the dremel with Max. I never finished it, but this may give you an idea of where to start.

and it helps if I link to it 

http://forum.dog.com/members/griffinej5/blog/default.aspx

 As a fellow Boston Terrier owner, and as someone who does intricate nail polish jobs on my dogs, I have found the best way to do a dogs nails is to desensitize them by constantly touching their paws and nails. Do this everywhere and as often as possible. Once the dog is used to that, then bring out the nail equipment(clippers, dremel and styptic pencil/powder) and get some Liverwurst(what we refer to as "canine crack";). You may want to involve another person while you do this as it's easier with 2 people. Have one person hold the dog on your lap while feeding her bits of Liverwurst. Slowly clip a nail. If she does not freak out, heavily praise her. If she freaks out, call it day and try to repeat it another day. Only give her the Liverwurst when you clip her nails because then she'll associate it as something positive. Some dogs catch on really quick and some dogs don't. Mine are at the point to where they nap when I do their nails.

 Hey everyone,

After touching her toes and introducing pepperoni sticks....I successfuly cut 6 nails in a row before she got upset.  Progress!!!!

Thanks again!

lemonwedge

I successfuly cut 6 nails in a row before she got upset.  Progress!!!!

That's great progress.  Now a bit of advice.  Stop next time before she gets upset even if that means you only cut two or three or even just one.  Every time she gets upset and you quit, you have reinforced her for becoming upset by quitting. She learns that getting upset makes you stop.   If you continue to cut when she is upset, you undermine all your work and progress. You want her to think that nail cutting is GREAT and means TREATS.  Always stop while she is not showing and distress.   It's slower but a much better way to reach the goal of a dog who doesn't mind having her nails trimmed.

Oh yes, I know I to do that! I should have clarified that she got upset and ran away because one of the nails got stuck in the clippers and it made a loud noise when I pulled it open again, then she ran away.  I need a better pair of clippers to avoid this, I know!  But I thought 6 was enough so I stopped.  Anyway, I think we're doing well, did 2 more today, and no running away or distress.  Thanks!

 Oh and it was the clipped piece of nail that got stuck-- it wasn't like her foot was stuck in the clippers.