Screams And Growls When You Touch His Feet

[krissn333]

I was out at my parents' place visiting Sunny and Goody this morning. We noticed Sunny's nails need a trim, so I grabbed the clippers. All I did was touch his foot and he screamed bloody murder and then growled at me

 

He walks just fine, he has no obvious injuries or anything to that effect. Maybe he had a bad experience? It seems to be an awfully extreme reaction.

 

I did spend some time touching his toes and giving him treats and he quit growling at me, but, it will be a LONG time before anyone will be able to trim his nails at that rate...

 

Any suggestions?

[TheFullHouse]

Muzzle! I'm afraid I would just muzzle and clip them quickly. Once he figures out it's no big deal, you won't have any problems. Maybe put a stool guard in the muzzle with some peanut butter smeared on it so he's occupied with something.

 

I had a dog that was so bad once someone had to sit and feed him cheese until I was done with his nails.

[kamsmom]

Hmmm, no real advice except to be patient. I have had Carmen for almost 4 years now and I still can't do her feet I have to take her to events or to the vets and it usually takes two to three people to do it. One person at her head (with a muzzle on), one person with the clippers or dremel, and another at her hind end to help hold her. Over the years she has calmed down dramatically and the last time we did nails she only required two people and she didn't scream or try to buck around. Good luck.

[Batmom]

Peanutbutter muzzle and go. If he's screaming about it, he's probably not that frightened. The ones I worry about more are the quiet ones who freeze and get "the look".

[Guest jettcricket]

Some dogs just don't like their feet touched...go figure. When I take Dave to the vet they can't even take his back legs to extend them...he screams like a girl. My vet asked me, "Does he have any problems such as limping or does he appear to be in pain"? I told him never say the word limp and greyhound in the same sentence. I then told him no, the boy runs, plays, jumps....he just don't like it!

 

Talk about a drama Queen....

 

I have to muzzle both my boy Dave and my little Hollie when I dremel although I find with Hollie if you dremel without picking up her feet she's much better. Duffys tolerates it, but is not thrilled when I dremel.

[Guest boondog]

Yep, a muzzle and patience. One of my fosters was like this. The first time I started to cut his nails we were outside. I simply picked up his foot and he started screaming and flopped on the ground! I hadn't even gotten the clippers near him. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was beating him.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

It may be a case of you being "buffaloed" into not clipping. I help out at our kennels with dremmeling nails and you wouldnt believe the number of people that are astonished that their hounds dont make a bit of noise or fight when we dremmel the nails. Sometimes it may be that your hound knows it can get away with it with you.

[Guest TheUnrulyHound]

I agree with the muzzle..... I dremmel nails so that takes some getting used to also... you should have seen Nelson flipping out over that a few weeks ago. I just get the mindset "I am going to trim your nails, no matter how long it takes or how much you don't like it" and calmly keep going at it. once they figure out that it doesn't hurt and that I am not giving up they calm down

[krissn333]

Thanks everyone...I hve clipped and/or dremeled the nails of THOUSANDS of dogs, greys and other breeds. I've never seen a reaction like this. He was muzzled, so we'll continue that.

 

I dremel at home, but with Pinky, I trim hers a bit first with clippers as they take forever otherwise.

 

I thought of the PB muzzle today and we'll try that. We'll just do some desensitization.

 

On Sunday when I went to put him in the tub, I tried to pick up his front legs and put his front half in, and he screamed then too...weirdo.

 

We'll just have to take it slow, I guess. I didn't even have the clippers anywhere near him when he screamed

[Guest greymama002]

We also have a foot drama boy (Ruffie). He has improved at lot. We always muzzle with peanut butter, but before we discovered that, one of us would stick tiny treats through the muzzle while the other clipped. Now when he sees the muzzle coming, he lies down calmly, and it goes pretty smoothly. Good Luck!

[Burpdog]

Muzzle and let the vet do it Peanut butter in the muzzle may help.

 

I can finally do Huston's nails -- usually with help. It's only been 5 years.....

[krissn333]

Well, it's slightly comforting to know that some of Greytalk's finest have nail clipping issues as well

 

We'll keep trying and hopefully we'll get through it!

[Guest sheila]

I am adding the muzzle too. When I took a dog to the vet to have his nails clipped he howled and thrashed like he was being tortured with hot pokers. When we muzzled him he stood stock still and never even flinched.

[greysmom]

If you can, you might try it when he's laying down. Toni HATES having her nails clipped outside standing up, but she'll tolerate it if she's inside laying down. I have no idea why. I'm just grateful for small favors as her nails are like bear claws and grow like weeds!

[krissn333]

Oh yes, he was laying on the couch, and he was muzzled (we are still not trusting him totally with kitties yet so he's muzzled). I didn't grab his leg/foot hard or anything...just touched it to look at his toenails and he went ballistic. He just needs to be desensitized I guess

[EnzaFerrari]

When I got Enza, she would scream bloody murder if I got near her ears. With the help of peanut butter and being really stubborn, she now loves the ear skritches from everyone - and she will stand patiently when I clean out her ears. I just kept fussing with them while feeding her small bits of things.

 

As for her feet, she will run if she sees clippers, but dremels get a much put upon sigh and a flop onto the ground.

[Guest LindsaySF]

Peanutbutter muzzle and go. If he's screaming about it, he's probably not that frightened. The ones I worry about more are the quiet ones who freeze and get "the look".

IMO, the silent ones with "the look" are more likely to bite you. The screamers are more drama queens.

 

 

The only way we can do Clancy's nails is to have him lick PB from the jar while I'm doing them. (We have a jar labeled for the dogs ).

[Guest SusanP]

Kristin, our sweet old Simon used to do this, too. I never could trim her nails, even with a muzzle, dremel, whatever, because she went ballistic when we messed with her feet. She'd leap over our heads to get away, bite, snarl, bark, the whole thing...and she was such a sweet, non-alpha kind of girl.

 

We got them trimmed really well when she was in for dentals, unconscious. The vet even gave up after attempting to clip her nails once. We were afraid she'd injure herself.

[cleptogrey]

MUZZLE AND A REAL DREMMEL, GO TO HOME DEPOT AND BUY THE REAL THING- ONE THAT YOU PLUG IN WITH LOTS OF DIFFERNT ATTACHMENTS. WELL WORTH THE INVESTMENT.

 

HAVE SOMEONE FEED HIM SPECIAL HIGH QUALITY TREATS THRU THE MUZZLE AND HOLD HIM, USE A BUCKLE COLLAR AND HOLD HIM FIRMLY. THIS PERSON NEEDS TO FEEL COMFORTABLE DOING THIS OR THE PUP WILL PICK UP ON THEIR FEAR.

 

DESENSITIZE HIM TO THE SOUND OF THE DREMMEL AND ONLY TOUCH A NAIL OR TWO. YOU NEED TO DO THIS DAILY IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS. EVENTUALLY YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DREMMEL ONE PAW. THEN THE OTHER, AND WORK YOUR WAY AROUND THE DOG.

 

NAILS NEED TO BE TENDED TO WHEN DREMMELING MORE OFTEN, BUT IT WORKS. ALWAYS REWARD AFTER, AND USE THAT MUZZLE.

 

WATCH OUT THOSE MUZZLES REALLY HURT WHEN YOU GET BANGED IN THE HEAD!

[Guest mcsheltie]

A totally different approach is to use clicker training. If you are unfamiliar with it, do some research. Karen Pryor is a good author.

 

You start with "charging" the clicker. Which means you click and treat, over and over, until the dog knows a click means a treat. As soon as the dog realizes click means treat, teach him something. The easiest first behavior to teach is touch. Touch is very useful as it can then be used to shape/learn other behaviors like sit, place, back, greeting strangers etc...

 

Put a smelly treat between your thumb and forefinger and hold your palm out. As soon as the dog touches your hand click and treat. Sometimes you have to stand there and wait. You want them to figure out what they need to do to get the click. Do that over and over until they run to touch your palm.

 

At this point you can start to teach other things. But as far as the feet go, you know how much touching the dog will allow before he reacts negatively. If all you can do is put your finger on a foot, do that, click and treat. If you can't even touch a foot, then touch the leg as close to the foot as you can without a negative reaction, click and treat. Just keep progressing until you can pick up a foot, move the toes around, touch with the clippers, put pressure on a nail with the clippers etc... Go slowly and your Grey will learn to trust you, and it will become a fun game for them. Not something to dread.

[Guest KennelMom]

If he was laying down, try it with him standing. Maybe it's the vulnerable position, but some seem to take issue with having their feet fondled unless they're standing. I also second one of the above posts - the addition of the muzzle can have a calming effect on some greyhounds...they know what they can/can't do with a muzzle on. I've also seen muzzles work the other way though, too, and actually increase anxiety.

 

 

The first time we dremelled Diva's nails, she expressed her anal glands. Not. Pleasant. She's much better now, but if we slack off, she gets squirrelly again.

[Guest greytkidsmom]

Our newest grey does a Cujo imitation when I try to do his nails. He now gets his nails trimmed at a meet-n-greet or at the vet. We have been working on a lot of different behaviors with him and I figured that nail trimming was one less battle to fight at the present moment. An added bonus to this is that we can couple his nail trims with socialization visits to PetSmart and to the vet.

[Guest Shermanator]

Never thought about the peanut butter muzzle. Awesome. I will try that.

 

When Patton first came home, he was a major foot drama queen. He would growl, bare his teeth at us and BITE when you would try to trim his nails. At first nail trimming was a nightmare- Patton muzzled, DH holding him down, me clipping nails, and Patton screaming the GSOD the entire time. It was awful. He would keep bucking and kicking his foot, I'd work on, which made it more difficult, and easier to clip the quick.

 

We realized this was not the way to go. Way too much stress on him and myself, and no groomer would take him.

 

I started by muzzling him in the house, and just massaging his feet. At first, that elicited a growl and snap, but eventually I could do it in the house, and non-muzzled. Then, I started taking him outside, laying him down on his bed, (muzzled) and try to massage his feet. At first he'd growl, snap, and jump up to run top speed to the dog door. Eventually I was able to massage his feet outside (still muzzled, I just didn't trust him.) Then the clippers came out. At first I'd pick up the foot with the clippers in my hand, and he'd growl, snap and run. Eventually I was able to get one toe clipped, and then one paw, then 2, and finally all four without screaming, biting, growling or getting up and running. Now, I can clip his nails without him getting snarky. Now, the poor dog trembles like a leaf when I clip nails or dremel nails. But, I can quickly get this toes done. However, I always muzzle him. Me, in my infinite wisdom would think, "he's not growling now, I can do this without a muzzle." That was the day he bit me so hard in the arm, this were nasty bruises in the pattern of his teeth. My fault, and now the muzzle is a part of the routine.

 

Also, I always gave him super-special treats after we'd clip (or try to clip) his mails. It took awhile to get him to the point we could all four mails. Sometimes when I could only get several toes done at a time, nail clippings would take a week to get done. (Maybe that was his way of getting more super-special treats.) lol.

 

Our newest grey does a Cujo imitation when I try to do his nails. He now gets his nails trimmed at a meet-n-greet or at the vet. We have been working on a lot of different behaviors with him and I figured that nail trimming was one less battle to fight at the present moment. An added bonus to this is that we can couple his nail trims with socialization visits to PetSmart and to the vet.

 

Ha! That's what I would call Patton. Cujo. Hee hee.

Edited May 27, 2010 by Shermanator

[GeorgeofNE]

My suggestion is take him to your vet and have the tech cut the nails while you wait, out of sight, in the waiting room!

 

Oh, you meant to get him over it? Probably just what you did--just touch his feet gently and often, and maybe he'll get over it. Maybe not.

[silverfish]

Aaaah ... my sweet little old guy Jack completely freaked out when we first had him, not only if you touched his feet, but anywhere behind his shoulders. He would literally jump over a foot into the air, spin 180 degrees, and scream bloody murder. Certainly not a drama queen (although we used to call him that, affectionately), this guy was 100% petrified. Be careful before labelling a dog a drama queen, because if you're wrong and they are truly scared, you'll set yourselves back months by the 'muzzle and go' approach - that's if you want to earn their trust.

 

It took over a year before I was able to clip his nails properly, and I always had to do one or two feet at a time and let him recover. Right up to the last (we had him three and a half years, till he was thirteen and a half ) he would still give tiny, soft moans of panic if I went too fast, though by then I could lift his tail to clean him, lift a paw to dry it, and even very, very gently rub his belly (yep, another panic area) if he saw me coming and if I took it slowly. I never pushed him further than he was willing to go, and in time, he trusted me.

 

I would never in a million years have been able to use a dremel on him, but after the nail-tapping, the foot holding, the clipping of one nail and leaving it for the day, etc etc. desensitisation process, I could pretty much get all his nails done in one day with patience. He would whip his head around in a panic at times, but never, ever, snapped. He was just s*** scared.

 

Oh yeah, and I used cheese - and plenty of it, in tiny chunks - as rewards for each baby step.