Hooligan turns into a holy terror at nail trimming time

So I thought I'd ask you all and see if you have any ideas. Hooli has slowly gotten worse and worse with his nails. It's even hard for the vet to do it now. We use the dremel (mainly because his quicks are so long, we can avoid him bleeding) but he HATES it. Mild mannered Hooli turns into a biting, kicking, devil. We have tried everything-since we had him as a puppy we always played with his feet, etc, but now it's a major struggle. We have also tried the do it slow, giving a treat to sniff the dremel, and work our way up, but it never works, and we can't go a month or two without trimming them. Any ideas? It stresses us all out!

Franklin is the same way and I got REALLY tired of bleeding myself, so about every 2-3 weeks I cart his butt off to the vet. for $12 I get nails trimmed and glands expressed. ...I don't bleed, I don't get 'squirted' and Franklin doesn't hate me.

Oh boy I hope someone has some suggestions for you because Tyson is the same way. I did use lavender recently to try to calm him, he was pretty good with his front feet but his back feet were a struggle. This last time the lavender had no effect.
Jeff usually ends up putting him in some sort of headlock maneuver (not hurting him of course) while I quickly dremel. Still very stressful and someone often sheds blood-mostly me from the dremel nicking my finger, or Jeff from Tyson scratching at him.

No advice here either. All of my gang hates nail trims.

I get my petsitter to do Angel's, so I don't have to take her anywhere (she doesn't travel well). It takes 2 people, and we had to hold her down.

The other three get theirs done by the vet or PetSmart when we go. It's always miserable.

I hate torturing them, but I hate getting gouged by their nails even more. So torture it is...

Well I am glad I am not that only one that has to hold them down, I felt terrible doing that. But it has to be done!

Sophie is the funniest-she starts screaming when she sees the dremel, but I think it's from excitement because she actually doesn't mind her nails trimmed too much.

I have a woman come and do Mack and Mattie's nails. She has this cool little contraption that works wonders to keep pugs still ...



No idea what it's called, but might be a good investment for multiple pugs that hate their nails done.

that poor BT looks so sad!!!!

that's some contraption! I like it better than the sling they use at Petsmart. I'm always afraid Zoe will jump off the table and hurt herself. I now take her to the vet and they take her into the back. they say she's ok, but who knows. she used to squirm alot, but that might be because I was there.

that sucks you're having issues with Hooli. wish I could help!

Our vet still manages to trim the boys' nails so we go that route for their 3-4 baths a year. Bruno is the worst. In between vet visits we pretty much chicken out and take the boys on super long walks on cement. That is surprisingly effective in "sanding" down their nails.

smoochieface wrote:Our vet still manages to trim the boys' nails so we go that route for their 3-4 baths a year. Bruno is the worst. In between vet visits we pretty much chicken out and take the boys on super long walks on cement. That is surprisingly effective in "sanding" down their nails.

Yeah I was thinking that might have to be my next move, now that it's cooling down here.

MackandMattiesMom wrote:I have a woman come and do Mack and Mattie's nails. She has this cool little contraption that works wonders to keep pugs still ...



No idea what it's called, but might be a good investment for multiple pugs that hate their nails done.

Cool contraption! But, can she lose the Mickey Mouse Ears Hat?

No help here. Penny turns into a screaming fighting little monster when anyone tries to trim her nails with a blade. I take her to the groomer, who uses a dremel, and she told me that Penny just sits there and holds her paw out. Go figure.

yea, at home Franklin is a demon, but at Dr. Waite's he's just sits as pretty as a picture and lets the dogtor do whatever. Its annoying and makes me look like a complete fool. I think its the liver treats.

Well, Toby is my nightmare when trimming nails. I won't go into the long, gory processes we've endured. I'll just tell you what works for us right now. I use the Dremmel. But I put the soft e-collar on Toby. He doesn't try to bite as much, and when he does snap, he collar protects me. I also have to have Freddy Jones outside. If he's in the house, he comes over and barks and drives us both crazy.

This is the e-collar I have:

MommaJones wrote:Well, Toby is my nightmare when trimming nails. I won't go into the long, gory processes we've endured. I'll just tell you what works for us right now. I use the Dremmel. But I put the soft e-collar on Toby. He doesn't try to bite as much, and when he does snap, he collar protects me. I also have to have Freddy Jones outside. If he's in the house, he comes over and barks and drives us both crazy.

This is the e-collar I have:

Oh Christy, that is genius! Thank you, I am going to try that-Hooli I think is better if he doesn't SEE what is going on, his back feet are a little better than his front. I am going to petsmart and try this tonight.

I know that the groomer and the vet have no trouble if I am not there..

E collars are great for doing nails. I use them for Lola or I blindfold her. I'm really lucky as I can do everyone's nails. I haven't tried the shih tzu yet so he might be my waterloo.

And the screaming before the nail is even touched that Sophie does? EVERY single black girl I've had has done that. Talk about drama queens.

That soft e-collar is a good idea! My guys do MUCH better w/ their back nails b/c they can't see. And I use the dremel, too. I'm sorry I don't have any advice. The dremel has made it easier, but not great. It is better if I do one while the other is outside--when one watches the other, he (the watcher) gets upset, too!

Man o man, I feel your pain lol. All of mine fight like crazy. I used to take them to the vet and I held them while the vet tech cut their nails and I still had to pay $10 each. That's $50 a month and after I retired I decide that Pete could get a death grip on them and that's what we do. He holds them under their neck and under their tail and around their shoulders. He has to wear a long sleeve coat and we pad his left upper arm because Zoe will bite him every time. You would think they are being killed but the funny part is they all wag their tail the whole time.

It takes us about 20 minutes to do all 5. It sure is a work out.

Saira wrote:

Oh Christy, that is genius! Thank you, I am going to try that-Hooli I think is better if he doesn't SEE what is going on, his back feet are a little better than his front. I am going to petsmart and try this tonight.

Genius...I like the sound of that! LOL! I'm pretty sure I got the idea from someone else. I don't think I'm smart enough to come up with it on my own. I hope it works out for you. It has really helped my struggle with Toby.

Wow, there are some horror stories, I think this will piss some of you off, I am able to trim all three (yes including the bad BT) in 20 minutes and I do the nails every Saturday.
I am very lucky with George, I set out the blankets on the floor, he sees the dremel and then goes over and sits and waits for me. I sit with them on my lap with them cradled. this is strange but George is either for relaxed or weird but the lipstick has come out on several occasions.
Now for Mavis, she puts up a fight, and before I used the dremel, I would take her in to clip her nails, she would put up such a fight and get so worked up it was not worth it.
Knuckles is the worst of the three and requires to be wrapped in a blanket with only one paw exposed that I am working on, then I switch, I do the fronts, then when it comes time for the backs they are laying down across my lap on their back.
It works very well for the fighters.
I hope that made sense, I think might have a picture of George getting his nails done so you can see how I hold them.

Erin:
Totally off topic, but my first boyfriend was a boy named Hiram Knuckles. I know, I know--could there be a more rural Kentucky name (his best friend was Joe Yokum). Everytime I read about the BT named Knuckles I think of Hi Knuckles. We broke up when I made him cry by stealing his shoe and running off and he couldn't catch me--we were in 7th grade.
A little trip down memory lane courtesy of the Boston Terrier.

Well Blanche if it helps we sometime call Knuckles ... well we use an F instead of the K ..

You ran off with his shoe ... a token perhaps, a momento to remind you of him, oh young love...lol

And I have tried posting photos but cannot figure it out, Saira, I can post on facebook if you want to see how I hold the dogs.

We use the dremel mostly, but sometimes I'll break out the clippers if the boys nails are a little too long. Maybe it's just me, but their nails seem to grow way faster than any of my girls. I use the same method as Erin to hold them - I basically cradle them kinda like a baby in my lap. Pugsy will doze off while I do hers (although, she's 15-16 years old. It doesn't take much for her to doze off! ). Yoda is the only one who still struggles but at least she doesn't try to bite me anymore now that she's gotten used to the dremel. I do like that soft e-collar idea, though! I just saw one of those at Petco last week.

Well I bought a soft collar and will be trying it out on Hooli tonight. I will be sure to take pics of his humiliation. I am sure you can all guess what his expression will be.