The Schnauzer Forum

I cannot really help with this one, I have never been able to clip Oscar or Sashas nails BUT I am still confident I will beat this challenge, I bought nail clippers so am fully prepared.

Have you tried maybe just doing one nail per night (I know this is quite laborious initially), while he is relaxed of an evening, just to get him used to it and for him to know it will not hurt?

That is my plan - then hopefully over time I can increase that to two or three nails per night until it's something they are comfortable with. Maybe a nice treat after too, in the early stages anyway as a reward for being good/brave.

Barney has never liked the clippers its the noise of the clip. He doesn't like the noise of the heavy duty stapler which is a similar noise
I've always used the dremel type to sand them down. its not his favourite pastime but hes ok with it. Theres loads of tutorial videos on youtube

Hi there, now this is a topic I am very familiar with. I clipped my 1st schnauzer's nails no problem at all, my 2nd was a nightmare with the nail clipper, I did catch his quick once when he was very little and he never ever forgot that. I couldn't even lift his paw on the grooming table without him doing the schnauzer salsa. So I spent months, desensitising, every day, holding paws, holding nails, treating, touching nails with clipper - I didn't have any success and because you need a few seconds holding the paw/toe to check position of clipper before clipping he just wasn't going to let me hold his toe for long enough. So I tried a dremel, same process desensitising over weeks and weeks, every time I touched his nail with the dremel he freaked out so I gave that up. I even took him to a groomer because I thought they would have a better chance of clipping his nails if I was out the way. What a silly idea that was...... Then my OH made me a scratch board. Just a hard vinyl thin chopping board and covered it with the right size sand paper. There is a you tube video available if you search dog nail scratch board. Then using treats he was able to file his own nails. I hide the treat under the board and trained him to scratch the board and then lift it for the treat. Works perfectly for the front and doesn't take long to train. It kept me from worrying how long his nails were going to get. Then I had to do the back nails so I bought a special file for acrylic nails (if you are interested I will send you the link as the file grit size is important). They get thrown away after 2 uses but are really cheap. Otto lets me hand file each nail front and back and I do it every 3 weeks, treating as we go. You obviously need to desensitise for this process also but I had done so much that it was quite easy in the end for him to get used to it. I ensure he has had a foot bath prior because that really softens the nails in readiness. It is easy and if you can't clip or dremel then you know you have a solution to keep the nails nice and tidy. Sorry a long explanation but if you need any more detail just let me know. Good luck..

Aren't they funny little things

Both my girls allow me to clip their claws, keeping an eye on me while I'm doing it, but neither will give me more than 5 seconds to use a slicker on their front legs.

Yes mine isn't keen on the slicker but will tolerate a pin cushion brush on the legs. My 1st schnauzer wouldn't let me use the slicker either.... I have two lovely unused slickers, along with a dremel and set of nail clippers actually.

Another slicker brush front leg hater here too. I always use a metal comb now. I find it much better for getting down to the skin to prevent matts than a brush anyway.