Is your scratchboard enough for a well-rounded nail care routine?
Nail care maintenance for our canine companions comes in a few flavors. My first choice, and the one around which I built my signature course, is the Dremel. If you do not have a sound-sensitive dog, this tool with a Diamagroove bit is the gold standard.
When owners and their dogs struggle with nail care, most veterinarians and dog trainers recommend using a scratchboard. This is a great tool to get your dog started, but this method has some issues you need to watch out for. Owners need to be careful the dog’s pads are not getting injured. You should be inspecting the feet and nails regularly if you are using this method. You may notice that the nails may be filed unevenly. Some toes may be near the quick; while others may not be filed enough. You need to especially be concerned with the middle two nails on the front feet. Those can be hard to get filed using a scratchboard.
In my program, Dremel Like a Boss, when we realize the Dremel is not an option for a dog, we talk about manually filing the nails with a nail file. You want to use a 60-grit nail file for canine toes. All the concepts we use to build our Dremel routine can be transferred to using a nail file.
The video in this blog is of our DLAB members, Julie and Winston, using a 60-grit nail file. We concluded in the program that Winston was not a candidate for the Dremel, but a scratch board and nail file could be a good, complete solution for him. Julie and Winston demonstrate several concepts we use in DLAB, including, a start button and Zen Bowl Lite. I teach the foundation behaviors of DLAB in my Five Day Nail Care Boot Camp to give owners easy-to-use techniques to reduce the stress of their nail care routines. When starting with a nail file, work on the tips and top of the nail then move to harder areas like the sides and bottom.
I hope some of these tips help you fine-tune your canine nail care routine or even get you started on a journey to regularly maintain your dog’s nails all on your own!
