Equip yourself for your anti dog nail trimming anxiety training

1. Clicker

2. Two kinds of treats and enough of them

One treat type is “yummy” and  the other one is “extra “yummy”. Like professional dog trainer Zak George uses to say: “You need to know your dog’s currency”. What that means is, treats can be an awesome way to convince your dog to do something for you, but never, if they are boring or tasteless.

If you really want your dog to do something for you, you have to offer something (treats, praise or toys, depending on dog’s preferences) she really WANTS to EARN! That’s why you have to have yummy treats and why kibble won’t do the trick. The extra yummy treats in this case are to distract her from her fear and get her back to focus, when she gets too excited during the training.

A quick word about treats:

The treats for your training should always be very small. Don’t be afraid your dog will not notice or appreciate them – she will!
We don’t want to feed her here, we want to reward her. Still, in order to stay d’accord with the rest of her diet, I usually subtract the calorie amount of treats used for training from her daily serving of dog food.

Here are some great training treat suggestions:

The training treats from Pet Botanics are my favorite as “regular” trainings treats, available in different flavors.

They are a real great low-calorie choice. I even cut them in halves. That is absolutely sufficient.

Other treats out of the fridge

• pieces of carrots or baby carrots (love those myself!)
• pieces of  frozen beans
• tiny pieces of cheese (I bet those qualify for “extra yummy”)
• tiny pieces of cooked chicken or turkey (also qualified for “extra yummy” in most cases)
• in hard cases although I would not recommend to give seasoned foods as treats very often, sometimes pieces of ham may help.
•  tiny pieces of apple

I would also recommend other fruits, like banana and strawberry, but those are difficult to handle, because they get slippery in your hands. I like to use an Electric Food Dehydrator to make beef jerky and dry fruits. The dried fruits (Apples, Bananas, Strawberries) I like to use for training in very small pieces – convenient to handle and loved by Mila.

Did all the suggestions make you curious about what foods your Bull Terrier can eat as treats? I will provide more information about appropriate dog treats in my upcoming article about human foods, dogs can eat.

3. Training pouch
It may sound like the fancy stuff. But a training pouch is actually a very useful training accessory, because it keeps your hands free and makes it easy for you to have treats concealed but at your fingertips.

If you don’t have something like that, a plastic zipper freezer bag on the desk where your dog can’t reach it and the treats you are ready to give in your hands will do it for now.

4. Dog nail clipper

There are different ones available on the market, I use this one

The only thing I don’t like is that cutting guard attached to the clipping part, because it always blocks my view and makes cutting more difficult for me. So I have removed it. There are also other tools on the market, such as dremels and guillotines. I prefer a clipper.
Learn more about the training premises on the next page.