My heart!

Bug really struggles with having her nails clipped - she has big scars where her dew claws were supposed to be, so unsure if something happened with them.

She will do everything possible when they're being trimmed to stop the process without confrontation - pulling her paws away, rolling around, licking me. We give lots of treats/fuss during and take it mega slow. But as soon as I'm done she crawls over and cuddles in as tight as she can for reassurance, and will stay there until I move her, even though I'm the one making her uncomfortable!

How anyone ever hurt her, I don't understand. Such a sweet, brave little girl.

I will never stop being amazed at how cruel humans can be Rachel, it really saddens me.

As for the nails, we struggle with Flo's rear paws as she's still nibbles them and thinks we're going to wash them etc but I went to try and file her dew claws last weekend and you would have thought I was going to murder her

Flo's bitten them, like a child, and they are both like sharp talons now so I had no option but to file. Normally she's quiet good but I had paws pulled from me, licks, the OH!!! I need to go outside. In the end I had her on her back in my lap whilst the other half filed. I've never seen such a pathetic sight

It's hard when you have to do something that is still uncomfortable, but you can retrain using negative reinforcement, aka pressure and release, not aka punishement!

It goes like this... What your dog really wants you to do is let go of the paw, so that's your reward. The pressure is the psychological one of the fear that something awful will happen, and the release is you letting go. That means two things - firstly, that they are getting that big reward for doing something that you will make sure isn't that hard really, and it also means that you don't keep holding so they get to understand that it won't necessarily be dreadful, that having their paw released is an option that they can train you to do.

You have to break it down into tiddly tiny steps. For a dog who has learned what to expect, just stroking the leg might be when warning bells start ringing, others might accept you holding a paw but no more. The key is to find what I call the 'uh oh' moment, that moment when the dog thinks, uh oh, summat's up, I might need to react in a minute. If they start to react you've missed the moment and will need to back up a step or two.

The 'uh oh' is usually seen with a muscle contraction as the dog braces to move if needed, a raised head, a widened eye, dropped ears, etc. All those signs of concern. When you get that, you've hit the edge of the comfort zone, the place where you go from no worry to worry but, as I say, before actual action to evade is needed. That's the point that the dog is thinking what to do and where she is most receptive to learning.

So now you've found the edge of the comfort zone, let's say it's touching the top of the foot, and your dog isn't moving, you hold it right there. Don't go any further but don't take your hand away either. What you want is to give her a moment to think about what is happening and to realise that it is, in fact, ok. You should get a sign of acceptance, relaxation that might be only just perceptible in some animals, but that says 'it's ok, I'm still alive and don't need to run'. You immediately take your hand away, rewarding the fact that she's accepted and not moved. Repeat to teach the method, then see if you can go further before you hit 'uh oh'. Further might be half a centimetre to start off with, but you should find that you gradually shift the edge of the comfort zone in increments until you can hold the whole foot.

You then desesitise, always looking for uh oh and being prepared to hold, wait and release, until you can work round the whole foot, between toes, everything, without worry. You can, of course, add treats as well but it is the release of pressure that will do the main teaching as it's hard to treat really accurately without changing the way you're touching the foot.

Then you have just 3 more feet to do! You'll probably find it's best to do this over several sessions, and just work to an easy point on each foot in one sessions, then push further as you build up over subsequent ones. Always, always end on a good note, even if that is a bit further back that you have been.

Then you can introduce the clippers! Again, it's a question of breaking it down into tiny, tiny chunks. Just holding them while stroking a foot might be hard to start off with, but by working slowly you should be able to go through stages such as stroking with the clippers, rubbing them on claws, placing them round a claw, applying pressure but not clipping, snipping the tiniest bit off the end, etc.

I think it took several months to get Bobbert happy, he had very strong black claws that hadn't been clipped for ages, so were 'live' for quite a lot of the length. We did, though, get to the point that I once nicked him and he forgave me and let me carry on.

it really beggars belief how cruel humans can be rachel but with the positive training you have done bug is a wonderful dog so brave after all she has came through have you thought of a nail file for her claws it certainly helps mia as she is uncomfortable with me touching her claws she tolerates me filing her nails but isnae happy about it which is awful. glad bug has an owner like you rachel bet she is glad too.