12/06/2026
There are several things that I start teaching puppies in their first week with me. Basic grooming/handling is one of these things. Specifically nail trimming.🐾
With Otto as my example, here are 3 pieces of advice if you’re trying to start trimming your dog’s nails:
1) Break the whole process down into variables. Don’t go from rarely ever touching your dog’s paws, to trying to trim every single nail all in the same session. I begin by just holding, moving, and lightly squeezing Otto’s paws and toes. From there, I give him time to familiarize with the sound of the Dremel (I prefer to file down their nails rather than clip them). Once Otto has had an adequate amount of time to acclimate to me holding his paws, as well as the sound of the tool I’m using, then I can begin actually making contact with his nails.
2) Be mindful of what you might accidentally be teaching your dog. In other words, make sure to not reward what you don’t want to be repeated!
In Otto’s case, if I halt the process every time he begins to throw a little puppy tantrum, he would learn that:
Tantrum = Jacob stops trimming my nails
I want to ensure that Otto learns that nail trims, as well as other grooming rituals, are just things that need to happen. If If I don’t reward his protests (putting him down and ceasing to do his nails would be a reward), he will eventually calm down, and that will ultimately lead to me being done with nails.
3) Similar to my first piece of advice, don’t try to do everything at once. If I am doing a dog’s nails for the first time, I am typically only going to do one paw, or maybe just a few nails, per day. This will make what I am trying to teach more digestible for Otto, and it will allow me to not completely overwhelm him during a new experience. Grooming/handlings drills are something that benefit from frequent, short sessions.
At the end of the video you’ll see me return to Otto’s nails a few days later, and voila, he’s a model citizen!
