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...

This topic has been hitting home for me lately and I really want to make sure as many people as possible take this topic to .

I currently live with four dogs part time and two of those dogs had lovely comments from professionals this week. Let me start with Jibe, although I have spent many hours training her on husbandry skills, these results can be achieved with a smaller commitment as you will see with Beckett’s story in a bit.

Jibe is a heavy-coated Newfoundland with a full on spay coat and heavy furnishings. We have run into an orthopedic issue that will likely require surgery, conservative management, and underwater treadmill. When Jibe was young, she was not comfortable with strangers. Our handler and many of my dear friends worked with Jibe to get her used to people other than her mama taking the end of her leash.  As part of my Dremel Like a Boss program, we work on handling, chin rest, restraint and generalization of these behaviors for groomers and...

I have included my Instagram Live Video from today and a demo video of Jibe and I doing the training challenge.

I don't know about you guys, but these challenges are doing the job of getting me to focus and train my dog as well.  I hope you all are enjoying these challenges as much as I am!

Here is my 4 Paws script for my training clip:

Plan - food in the middle of dog's front two feet

Always Choice Based- food lure to and from bed to set up good choices

Work Dog in Front - Jibe is ready for challenge, Plan B was to go back to Day 1 challenge from last week to magnetize mat to more fluency

Strategic Reinforcement - Food thrown or placed in between dog's two front feet

Remember to look for those calm moments to throw food and set up a non working context for your dog.

Visit my website 4pawsadrift.com to get a free training video and learn about my new on-line course: 4 Force Free Steps to increase Article Hold Duration

Now...go out and train some dogs!