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Scratching and Digging
Caber tried a new toy tonight that harnesses his desire to dig and combines it with nail trims. It’s a wooden box with a sliding door to a compartment and topped with sandpaper. I hid some salmon treats in the hidden compartment and shaped him putting his paw on the box. Took him just a few minutes to get the hang of digging at the box to get treats and sanding down his nails at the same time. Win win toy in my books
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6 Replies
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@PerpetualCleric , that is FANTASTIC!!
Can the door of the box be made easier or more challenging to open so that the dog ultimately has to scratch more frequently before it opens?
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There are little flimsy plastic flip locks to lock the compartment from sliding. Caber was scratching at it so much he had those locks bent within a few minutes. I’ll look at replacing them with a metal clasp to make the locking mechanism a bit sturdier.
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Okay, so you need to manually open the box for Caber when you’re ready to reward X amount of the scratching behavior.
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OOh nice share! I’ve seen other versions of these where they are propped up or even have a curve in them (for the side nails). Glad it’s a good solution for you guys. What’s the plan for the back feet? @PerpetualCleric
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His back nails seem to wear down much easier than his front, and I’m able to sneak a quick trim in on the back nails. This will hopefully help with those trickier to trim front nails and have a positive outlet for his digging instinct. It was much easier to trim his nails when he was younger, I could hold his attention with a chew treat and get them done quickly. He’s an opinionated teenager now and has decided to pull his paws back or squirm dramatically instead of getting easy nail trims.
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OOhhh… squirmy boy! I love working on desensitization for this. Sneak preview… Virginia will have a short series about this starting tomorrow.
I did an in-depth series and included tips on where to trim and how to hold a dremel here awhile back. – Nail health is one of my passions. It can affect sooo much.
Plus we work on feet handling daily because in my yard I have a lot of grass seeds/foxtails that tend to find those little nooks and crannies!
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