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Hi Cyndi,
I’m just wondering if you know how to train Lacy to like nail clipping using the 3Ds (distance, duration, distraction)? It’s definitely always a great idea to desensitize a dog to muzzles and restraints, but I’m wondering if it might be better if you could make Lacy love nail clipping to the point that she will be begging you to clip her nails? I think once she is good with her nails being cut, you could then focus on desensitizing her to being handled by strangers.
My dogs used to be terrible when it came to nail cutting, especially Gonchan. But now when he sees me holding the nail cutter, he impatiently gives me his paw and waits for me to cut the nails. The good thing is that once you train your dog to like nail cutting, your dog will hold out his paw and keep it still.
If you’d like, I could try and make a film on how I taught nail cutting to my dogs and put it up on Wednesday Q&A for Mike to critique( I recently bought a tripod!). However, I should let you know that I am not a professional dog trainer. I just happen to be living with many dogs…😂
Also, about taking your dog to the groomers…🤔(this is only my opinion based on my own experience but…) I think you are missing a great opportunity to bond with Lacy by taking your dog to the groomers to get her nails cut. I know how tempting it is to just let the professionals do it when it’s a lot of work. We used to do that with our older dogs too because they would struggle and there was no way we could hold them down by ourselves. It was only after our 3 pups were born that we realized something had to change and we had to change our approach (vet visits for nail cutting was costing us too much money! LOL). Anyhow, once we started clipping nails of the dogs by ourselves, I noticed that the bond between us got stronger. Maybe there is something about grooming that puts the owner in a good light, or maybe it was simply the fact that the amount of stress in their lives decreased (no more retrained nail clippings against their wills!), but the dogs started to be more in tune with us. 🙂
But like I said. I am not a professional dog trainer. And I only know GSDs and Mals. I’ve never worked with a molossoid mix. 🙂
