How to groom a difficult Yorkie who resists face, paw, and nail trims?

Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Unfortunately, I cannot prescribe any medications for Marley without having examined him myself. If he is extremely aggressive while being groomed, you may want to consider having him sedated and groomed at your vet's office. This will mean that Marley is closely monitored during the sedation and supported with fluids and heat if necessary. Your vet can also perform a thorough exam, and ensure that Marley's heart and lungs are healthy enough to handle the sedation. At home, you can try calming chews available in most pet stores, and consider getting Marley a muzzle to keep yourself safe.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! In order to get a pet used to having their nails trimmed you need a lot of time and patience. You need to start very slowly by touching the dogs limbs and giving treats when they don't react. You do this about 50-100 times then you move to the toes. Repeat the above. After she is used to that touch, you touch her toes with nail clippers and treat. Basically you are getting her used to the touch and tools before even getting to the nails. She needs to be relaxed the entire time. If at any time she becomes aggressive, you stop what you are doing and try again with the previous step when she's relaxed. This can take months. In the meantime, I would talk to your vet about sedatives so you can clip Chloes nails in a non-stressful manner. If you try when she's stressed it is going to make training her even more difficult. Always make every training session fun and relaxed. Good luck and kisses to Chloe!

Great question! There are a few things you can do with Booboo. He does need to see a vet, so I would see if there is a mobile vet in your area who can come to your home to see him. You can also see if there is a vet in your area that makes house calls. To help with his anxiety, given that he seems to have a lot of it, you can discuss with the vet about the possibility of giving Booboo anti-anxiety drugs. There are a few OTC things you can try as well. You can get his a DAP collar, which releases pheromones when in contact with his skin that helps with anxiety. You can also get a DAP diffuser to plug in which can be used with the DAP collar as well.

Azriel is just a puppy still, so you still have plenty of time to train him into the type of adult dog you would like. You need to take things slowly one at a time and can not expect too much in the beginning. All of these tasks need to be rewarded with positive reinforcement. Of the three activities you have described above, I think in general the ear cleaning is probably the easiest and most tolerated. So for example, I would first start by offering praise and reward just for Azriel allowing you to touch and stroke his ears. Eventually move further and further with your hands and fingers to the inside of the ear, continuing to reward and praise. Do this over the course of a week or so. Once you start seeing little to no reaction negatively, start introducing the cleaning aspect of it. If you use q-tips or gauze, first you have to get him used to these. Bring them close to his face so he smell them, and if he doesn't run away, reward him. Eventually, start bringing them towards the ear and touch them to them, rewarding similarly for a neutral response. Move closer and closer to the part that needs to be cleaned until you are actually there. This could take a while but in the end this type of reward based behavior is the way to go. Once comfortable enough, start the actual cleaning process and continue to reward. This should end up working but may take a considerable amount of time depending on how much Azriel hates this activity. Take a very similar approach to the other two things you listed. Hope this helps.

Hi there and thanks for posting. Tigre may have endured being 'quicked' when his nails were trimmed last time or before which is when the nail is trimmed a little too close to the quick and it bleeds. This is common and often happens what the nail is overgrown. Having a nail cut a little too close can be a bit painful and is often a cause of dog's anxiety or fear of nail trimming. However, there are a few ways to get Tigre to have a better association with the clippers but it will take work and practice. You can begin by just touching his paws. Reward calm behavior while touching paws with tasty treat. Begin slowly and gradually work up to longer and longer sessions. Once he feels comfortable with touching the paw, hold the paw with your hand and progress to touching her nails, adding pressure to the nail that will simulate a trim. Reward calm behavior during this with treat. Once he feel comfortable with you holding and manipulating the nail, you can introduce the clippers. Gently tap the nail with the clippers and reward calm behavior during this. Clip the clippers without actually clipping the nail to get him use to the sound. Again reward when calm during this. Gradually work into clipping the nails. Start with one nail at a time, rewarding each time he is calm during the trimming. Go slow and always reward good behavior with tasty treat. I hope this helps and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. You have basically two options 1) Get some anti-anxiety medication and try again (or have the vet office try again) 2) take some serious time to train her. Feed treats while you touch the feet. Repeat daily until she has no concern about it. Then continue to give treats while you hold the nail clippers. When she is comfortable with that, progress to touching the clippers to the nail. Finally progress to just clipping the tip of the nail, etc. Best of luck to you and Ash!

Zeus is gorgeous! Thanks for including a picture. The problem with strong dogs is that they quickly realize that they can overpower you. I have problems with this with my own pit bull. The best way that I have found to trim his nails is to use a Kong filled with peanut butter to keep him busy, then nonchalantly trim his nails. Certainly that won't work for Zeus right now if he is very anxious with nail trimming. There are a number of medications that we will try to use for nail trimming at home (or to decrease anxiety in the clinic). Trazadone works great for some dogs, but sometimes we have to adjust the dose. So, you could give the recommended dose 2-4 hours before trying a calm nail trimming with positive reinforcement. You may only be able to trim a few nails, but I would consider that a success for a nervous dog. Be patient with the process. If the Trazadone does not decrease his anxiety enough, then I would recommend talking to your vet about other options or the possibility of adjusting his Trazadone dosing. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.