ok, my dogs hate to have their nails trimmed. i gather this is a pretty
common problem. we had temporarily remedied the situation by using the
dremel. they still struggled, but stopped fighting more quickly than they
do with the clippers. anyway, Lola decided that the dremel was evil and ate
the cord, so we went back to the clippers. Lola is manageable. she whines
and howls like we're killing her, but she let's us clip them. Manu, OTOH,
is nearly impossible to clip. it usually involves us placing him in a
corner and me laying across his back, with all my weight, to keep him from
running away, while the SO struggles to clip his nails. Last night we
resorted to drugging him with benedryl (which did not work at all).

i've tried taking it slow, letting him sniff the clippers (they have tooth
marks from Lola trying to eat them), we've tried treats after each clip,
and we've tried treats to bribe (or distract) him so we can get a snip in.
we've tried clipping Manu with his prong collar on. we've tried being
soothing, being stern, praising him after a clip, and praising him the whole
time to keep his interest. pretty much everything short of violence. and
nothing seems to make this any better. and of course the more they
struggle, the more likely we are to nick the quick. which just reinforces
their fear of the whole process. i swear, it's easier to trim my cats'
claws than Manu.

we finally got a new dremel, a cordless one, but it makes a totally
different noise and they're terrified of that too, which means they keep
trying to eat it. which isn't great when it's running.

does anyone have any idea how to cure a dog of his nail clipping fear? i'd
stop clipping their nails, but Manu's start to push his toes at a weird
angle unless they're trimmed short, and it causes him discomfort. i wish i
could explain to him that the clipping is only going to make him feel
better!

-kelly