Nail Trims don't have to be an argument!

In this video, I’m handling Bailey’s paws and trimming her nails and desensitizing her to having her feet touched while giving her guidance about how to behave. I’ve asked Bailey to hold her place command, which means she’s to stay put until asked to do something else, and I’m also giving her feedback using remote collar communication if she tries to pull her paws away from me or wiggle around. When Bailey starts pulling her paws away, I mark that choice with ‘No’ as I add a tap on the remote collar to give her that extra information that lets her know that I need her to make a different choice. When Bailey remains relaxed and leaves her paw with me, I mark that choice with ‘Good’ and give her some food to let her know that I like what she’s doing! Because I’ve taken Bailey through a detailed training process and taught her the language of the remote collar, she now understands what the ‘taps’ mean when it’s paired with our marker words. It’s completely reasonable to ask a dog to sit politely for grooming and nail trimming but it’s important that we first teach them HOW to sit politely for grooming by having the right training approach, the right structure, the right boundaries and the right rules that we communicate to the dog using the right training tools. The training approach is the important piece that allows us to communicate/have a conversation with the dog and tool is the just the medium through which we ‘speak’.