clicking to do nails?

Yep, good idea! I'm doing the same with Conrad right now because he's a squirmy stinker when I try to clip his nails (and he has growled at me when I pushed it and tried to clip after he'd already expressed being uncomfortable about it). I'm clicking for remaining calm while I do a variety of things with him and his paws that don't involve the actual clipping (yet). So just holding his paws with my hands, or holding his toes and nails, or touching his nails with my hands, being near the clippers, investigating them, holding clippers near a paw, touching the metal part of the clippers to a paw, etc etc etc....

I think we're making some good progress. Clipping is never going to be fun for him because his nails are very large and thick, and black, so it takes a lot of tiny little clips to actually accomplish anything. But if I can get him to tolerate me working on one paw at a time for a few minutes, I'll be happy.

Very good idea! Keep up the good work, and remember to go slow. Let your dog let you know when he's ready to proceed. []
 
Kim

There was a thread recently with a video link of a dog who had serious clipper issues being trained to accept it using a clicker.... now I can't find it but I suspect it was on YouTube.  It might be helpful.