Make nail trims easier with this simple tool
Most dogs aren’t wild about having their nails trimmed. They may whine and cry, wiggle, or even nip when it comes time to keep those nails in good shape. Unfortunately, nail trimming is an important part of dog health.
If your pup hates nail trims, you may find trying a different approach for it beneficial. Instead of you cutting your dog’s nails, you can ask your pet to do it himself with a scratch board.
A scratch board is a simple device made from a stiff board that won’t bend under your dog’s scratching, and a piece of sandpaper. The sandpaper is glued or otherwise secured onto the board so it doesn’t slip, and then it’s ready to use.
Training a dog to use it
The easiest way to teach your pet to use the scratch board is to clicker train him. “Load” the clicker by clicking the clicker and rapidly feeding the pet a treat, within one second of the sound. Do this several times, for a few days. When your pet reacts to the click by clearly expecting a treat, you know the clicker is loaded.
When your dog knows that click = treat, introduce the board. It’s unlikely that your pet will automatically decide to scratch the board, and because many dogs who don’t like their nails being clipped are touchy about having their paws touched, it’s easiest to train by choosing the closest behavior too scratching rather than force the behavior.
As an example, if the pet looks at or sniffs the board, click and treat that. Your pet will quickly realize that you’re interested in the board, and that’s what’s giving out the treats. Once he’s engaged with the board, you can be more specific. Click and treat when he moves a paw forward.
You might be surprised how quickly your pet learns to claw the board. The back nails may be a bit harder to train, but compared to struggling with nail trims, easy!
The back nails
You’ll actually need to train two behaviors for this. The first will be to teach your dog to place his front paws on a couch or stair, while keeping his front feet off. You can target this behavior fairly easily through luring with a treat to get your dog half up, and then rewarding the behavior.
Once your dog is proficient at standing with his front paws on the platform and his back legs off, you can lean the scratch board so that it is between him and the couch.
You can try luring your pet to reach for a treat just out of reach, and he may scratch the board with his back feet accidentally in his effort to get the treat. Click the second his foot starts moving! Even if he doesn’t, watch his hind legs and click any movement of it.
Even if your pet isn’t wild about having his nails done, he probably won’t have the same negative association with doing his own nails. A scratch board can make things easier, and there’s no worries about the dog hurting itself—he knows where his quicks are better than anyone else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyi7lpZrAas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5YNovDn1Uc ←-back nails