Aggressive Dog Nail Trim

Daisy's Progress with Table Manners

This is Daisy the Chihuahua's 5th training session and boy as she made progress! Rescued by a loving family. She trusts no one outside of her immediate family. No one else could pick her up or touch her without causing her to scream and bite. If she just thought your intention was to touch her she would scream in fright. I believe she was first brought to us to see if we would be able to keep her for daycare and boarding. She was frightened of the other small dogs we keep at the facility but not a danger to them. She just wanted to be left alone and would hide in a corner or under a chair most of the day. We were able to determine that if she had on a collar and dragged a red cord, we could manage her throughout the facility without ever touching her. Her owners were ok with this arrangement and we were able to board her successfully several times.

As Daisy got to know us she started to allow a few employees to pick her up. However it was always with a scream and a weak attempt to bite. But my staff was dedicated to helping her overcome her issue. I got involved because Daisy’s owner wished for us to be able to bathe her and clip her nails. That was going to be a problem. She had been forced through both procedures in the past and that made going forward more difficult.

Daisy’s owners are to be commended because they decided to enroll her in our “Table Manners” program for groom phobic dogs. I use a combination of Positive Reinforcement and Negative Reinforcement to accomplish our goals.

We all know what Positive Reinforcement is, Click a behavior and reinforce with food. But for dogs that don’t eat when stressed that is not a possibility. This is where Negative Reinforcement comes into play. I’m not talking about shock collars here. There is more to Negative Reinforcement than Shock collars. I simply remove (Negative) something that Reinforces the behavior I want. And I DO use a clicker for this. Basically I touch the dog and when the dog either stops moving or looks away from my hand… I click and let go. That’s it. the reward or reinforcer is my letting go. That’s what the dog wants at that moment for me to go away. So thats what I give them. Click and let go. Simple yet SO POWERFUL.

Now in Daisy’s case we have a dog that will eat through almost any fight or flight situation. Her digestive system does not shut down when she is stressed. I think that may be because she is so acclimated to being stressed constantly that she has somehow overcome the inability to eat when stressed that most dogs experience. She is totally food motivated. So with her I do both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. I click, let go, and feed her. Some might think that this then become purely positive reinforcement but the fact that I still always let go and for most scared dogs that is the more powerful “reward” I feel its valid to include it. I’m getting twice the bang for my buck!

With Daisy I did have a short initial session of pure Negative Reinforcement, while she was on the floor, to see if she would allow me to simply touch her in a way that might seem as if I was going to pick her up. I had to “air handle” for a few min. with click and leave, for her to be introduced to what the clicker was going to mean and gain some trust. I offered food as a test to see how stressed she was and she snapped it right up with the emphasis on snap! In about 4 sessions I was able to get to the point she would allow me to pick her up, move her around on the table, pet all four feet, pick up her rear feet, sometimes pick up her front feet and all with her facing forward on purpose instead of staring at my hand touching her. I was clicking for looking away from my hand. She can’t bite me if her job is to look away. She learned that i would let go faster if she looked away.

Now is about her 5th session and I am hoping to clip a few nails.

Видео Aggressive Dog Nail Trim канала PetitePetInn