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One of my rescues does not like to have her nails touched even when I pet her. Over time she has gotten more used to it and she is doing better but I was curious if there may be a reason for this. This is not during nail clipping either, it is any time I pet her. Do some dogs have sensitive nails?
Here is the information from the association of animal behavior professionals.
Most common areas of sensitivity are ears, mouth, neck, feet, hindquarters and tail. If your dog has “issues” about a particular part of his body, you will want to proceed very slowly in that area, and spend extra time there with your desensitization. If there aren’t any issues, it’s still a great idea to do these exercises as handling insurance.
Maybe she's had painful past experiences with nail trimming by someone who didn't know what they were doing.
That's the case most of the time, especially with older dogs and once you clip into that quick they never forget it - ever.
But when our intake coordinators go to kill shelters to get the foster dogs they do various 'sensitivity/socialization' tests on the dog and touching the pads of the feet are one of them to see how they react and if they get scared and snap at them.
That is probably it then. We think she had been abused as a puppy and it took her a long, long time to trust my hubby. She is still wary about strangers, especially men. Over the years I have worked with her on food aggression, dog aggression, etc. and she seems to trust me so I thought she would have overcome this also. I can tell her to 'wait', which means stay still and she will let me touch her paws and nails, and does let me trim her nails, however most of the time I am just trying to desensitize her. Once I am finished and give her a belly rub or treat, she is soooooooo excited it is over. Maybe this is something she will never get 100% comfortable with. She has come so far in the other areas, I thought she would with this also, but thats ok. Thanks for all the info, I appreciate it.
My beagle basset hates to have his nailes touched. He's 'insecure' about it more than afraid. I think his nails hurt him. They were super long when we rescued him. When nails are too long, they cause problems with the feet. I'm sure always having pain in his feet prior to getting proper care makes him insecure.
At first, it took four people to cut his nails---two to hold him down, one to hold his leg and paw still and the other to cut. He's down to only needing three people to cut him. His eyes don't bulge out of his head anymore either. So he's getting better at it.
TBH, I don't think his problem has anything to do with having a past bad experience with someone cutting his quick. I don't think anyone ever cut his nails prior to his coming to live with us. I think his fear just has to do with the pain of having long nails for so long and the unknown of having his nails cut because nobody ever did it before.
I hear ya about hard & tough toenails...Bloodhounds & Bassets are the worse.
THURSDAY007... Great article...thanks.
DMWLAKEWYLIE...
I do believe it has something also to do with being abused. Several of our Rotts are/were the same way. All rescues...all had issues, several from being beat.
What we do is...in the evening when our Rotty babies are tired from a hard long day of being spoiled & playing all day...we give them massages. We touch the feet along with the rest of their body. They think they have gone to heaven, cause everything is being massaged. We go over & over the foot area, all the way down to the toes/nails.
One of our Rotts still isn't much on her toes/nails being touched, so when she gives us that sign...(LEAVE MY FEET ALONE LOOK)...we just go on to her back & get her mind off of the feet.
Only thing is... we do it every night and if we get side tracked & don'tdo Rotty massages...man do we ever get "THAT" look. From ALL the Rotts.
Couldn't hurt to try it. How hard can it be to LOVE your pup even more.
One of my rescues does not like to have her nails touched even when I pet her. Over time she has gotten more used to it and she is doing better but I was curious if there may be a reason for this. This is not during nail clipping either, it is any time I pet her. Do some dogs have sensitive nails?
Thx!
I rescued a dog that had been abused and had his feet stomped on as part of the abuse. When i touched his feet he would scream. It has gotten much better with time and for the last few years I can trim his nail without any anxiety.
I rescued a dog that had been abused and had his feet stomped on as part of the abuse. When i touched his feet he would scream. It has gotten much better with time and for the last few years I can trim his nail without any anxiety.
Carrie
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From ALL the Rotts.
