Don't touch my paws!!!

[KathrynH]

I think that's Buddha's biggest thing, is people touching his feet. I have played w/ his paws since he was a puppy, specifically for the purpose of it being easier to clip his nails. We took Buddha to the groomer today (he LOVES her), and she told me afterwards that he absolutely won't let her cut his dew (?) claws. She said it would be at the risk of one of them getting hurt if she tried to force him to let her do it. I told her that in that case I absolutely didn't want her to bother with them, and that I'd figure something out. She's a great groomer too, Buddha just can't stand to have his paws touched. I still try and play w/ him, but he is absolutely adamant against anyone messing w/ them. Any advice?

[Chow Chow Mama]

Tucker was that way. He acted like I was trying to kill him when I tried cutting his nails. He would let me do one paw if DH was laying on the floor next to him petting him. But DH would not help often enough because "Tucker doesn't like to get his nails cut" so I had to take him to the vet every month to have them do it. Stressful on Tucker because 1) he didn't like going bye-bye 2) he didn't like going to the vet 3) he didn't like getting his nails cut 4) they muzzled him for it. I could never understand why he was that way because like you, I tried handling his feet all the time when he was a baby.

Holden, on the other hand, is a very good boy. He will let me cut his nails and only try to leave after 3 paws. It's funny how they can be so different. I'm trying to work with Hannah on this but currently she thinks that getting her nails cut is a game.

My only suggestion is to try to work with him on letting you do the dew claws if he's ok with the groomer doing all of the other nails.

[chris]

No advise... Steel is the same way... I always played with is feet too.. he mouths me as if we are playing a game, but as soon as he sees the clippers he FREAKS out. WONT even let the groom touch him. The only merical that has happend here is that Steel absolutely loves my BF and he can do anything to him.

[Jeff&Peks]

Pekoe is the same way, no one touches her paws if they try its kill time she lets me but no one else. I wonder what the reasoning is for that what happened in the past that makes them so protective of their paws, Might have something to do with supposedly coming from China, Gotta watch those body parts coming from China.

[Coco Chow]

Maybe you can be the one holding Buddha's paw while the groomer cut the nail?

[Auddymay]

Lily too, she will double tuck to get away. If I reach past her knee and grab her upper front leg, she will sit and wait for me to release her. The paws are way more off limits.

[KathrynH]

That's what the groomer suggested, having Jake (my DH) hold him...Lord knows I'm fruitless at holding him down LOL He's half my weight be he's 3 times stronger than me LOL We will probably try that, I am nervous about doing it myself, because his claws are so dark, I don't want to cut too far back ya know?
We have stickers (we call them goatheads) here, and he gets them in his paws, and he'd rather limp around than let us get them out of his paws, I think he's finally learning though, he is getting more comfortable at letting us remove them. It drives me nuts, I have never known a dog that was so finicky about his paws!

[Tai's Mom]

Tai will not allow me to cut his nail and dew claws. But I can take him to the vet and Tai will sit like a good boy and let the vet cut his nails.

[PurpleKisses]

I do Chi-Chings nails, he lays in my lap and we talk while I trim his nails, I always tell him what I am doing first. I wouldn't say he loves it, but he doesn't fight me. I randomly grab his paws and hold them and play with all of his nails even when they do not need trimmed..... Chingers does not have dew claws at all though.....never did.

[bubba]

a chow thing .. Don't touch my paws , i trim nails with a grinder. work with the chow to do that..my guy kicks like a stallion when i work on the rear feet ..
he had his dew claws amputated before i ever saw him....


from the standard..
http://chowclub.org/ccci/content/view/347/35/

Pasterns
Short and upright. Wrists shall not knuckle over. The dewclaws may be removed.

[tekendall]

Is the groomer trying to do it when he's up on the table? For some reason, Zoey won't hold still when she is up on a table. If I sit in the grass (or on the floor) with her, she has no problem holding still while I cut her nails. The dew claws are the hardest..I hate trying to cut those!

[KathrynH]

I'm not sure how she's trying. I just told her not to worry about it, I dont' want Buddha to have to be traumatized, and I don't want her to have to be put in a situation where Buddha just won't be happy. I think I'll be able to do it, like I said, it just makes me nervous since I can't tell where the quick is.

[Cinders mom]

When I first went to look at Cinders at the humane society, one of the first "tests" I did with her to see how her personality was is to touch her feet. She was fine with that, then I held her foot, and she was fine with that too. I don't have to clip Cinders toe nails cause we walk a lot, so they get woren down on their own. But I do trim her dew claws. I just wait untill she is streched out on her side resting, than take her feet that are on top and clip them just a little, maybe you chowchild had a bad experence with having her nails clipped and she remembers it.

[Grab]

Legend doesn't growl or snap about his nails, but he will try to sneak off if he sees me grab the nail clippers.

So far the wee pup doesn't seem to mind his feet being touched, which is nice

[kBoxer]

My two older Chows allow my husband to actually file their nails with those big black nail files that the salon's use for acrylic nails and the baby will only let us do 1 nail at a time every couple of weeks so it takes forever.

Sadie, Nija and Juniper

[Layla]

Millie was horrendous with having her nails clipped. She cried & screamed so badly that Alf would com in and bark at us! We got a dremmel & she's fine with it. Problem solved

[ChowChowInTheCity]

Rudy refuses to let me touch his dew claws. If I touch them w/ my bare hands, no clippers involved, he acts flips out. If he sees me with clippers, he hides under the bed. They now look like raptor talons. If anyone has a solution for this that doesn't involve sedatives, I'm interested...

[Layla]

Rudy refuses to let me touch his dew claws. If I touch them w/ my bare hands, no clippers involved, he acts flips out. If he sees me with clippers, he hides under the bed. They now look like raptor talons. If anyone has a solution for this that doesn't involve sedatives, I'm interested...

Dremmel! Millie was the same, mow she's FINE about all her claws being done

[cj2880]

misfit wont let anyone touch her paws at all or her ears for some reason we have to muzzle her to do her feet or take her to the vet and get her sadated so they can be done

[onthemove]

I have solved this problem with 2 chows. The first was my older boy Zeus. You really would have thought we were trying to kill him when we tried to trim his nails. He would not let anyone touch him for anything except for my husband and me. But nail trimming was tramatic for all of us until I found the solution on the internet.

This is what worked for us. You have the chow lie on his side of the floor or a table. Take a towel and make a triangle out of it and place it around the chows neck so the triangled material is between the chow mouth and his legs. Have a partner that is the "chows person" drape over the chow from the back and hold the towel around the neck. The holding person should then spead his elbows across the chow and hold him down with firm pressure, but not heavy pressure. The holder talks soothingly to the chow and the other person cuts the nails. Usually the back feet are not as sensitive, so start there.

This method was unbelievably effective for us. My chow was a different animal using this proceedure. My husband laughed when I told him we were going to try that, but was amazed when it truly worked.

I wish I could credit the site I found the information on, but it was too long ago.

Now I have a chow pup. For him I freeze raw venison in a bowl and put it down for him to lick while I do whatever grooming I need to do. I am using the peticure with him and training is going well. He is so interested in the frozen meat that he barely notices what I am doing.

[valerierichard27]

nelly is the same way, but since her nails are badly damaged (they crack far up) i have to give her a small sedative, i know some people wont like it, but i have no choice, if i dont do it they break and she bleeds and wont walk for a week or so.