My dog freaks out during nail trims and baths. How can I help?

Question

My dog is almost a year old and won't let us clip her nails without either yiping at the top of her lungs even before we touch the clippers to her nails, biting, or growling. Same thing with baths. What can I try to calm her down? We've been clipping and bathing since she was 6 weeks. Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Female | unspayed | 8 months and 22 days old | 43 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

Poor Athena! Many dogs become quite anxious and stressed about nail trims and other grooming activities, like baths. With a little time and effort, you can teach her to be comfortable with these things so that she no longer cries or acts aggressive. You will need to use very tasty treats, and go very slowly. At first, just practice lightly touching one paw, then rewarding with a treat. Once she's comfortable having her paws touched without getting upset, you can try gently touching her with the nail clippers. Eventually, work your way up to actually clipping the nails, one at a time. You can use the same general idea for baths - first just feed treats in the bathtub, then let her out. Once she's happily hopping into the tub, run just a bit of water while feeding her treats, then let her out. Gradually work up to an entire bath. It helps if you have an assistant who can feed treats (or hold a spoon of peanut butter) to keep her happy while you work on the bath itself. Here is a great video by Dr. Sophia Yin, demonstrating how to do this with nail trimming: https://drsophiayin.com/videos/entry/training_a_dog_to_enjoy_toenail_trims/

My dog freaks out during nail trims and baths. How can I help?

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