Nail trimming issue

If you remember, I took Voodoo to Petsmart awhile back to get his nails trimmed. The idiot noob groomer hit the quik on the first one. Voodoo jumped and snapped at him.

Last night I noticed he needed his nails done. I know I wasn't causing him any pain, but as soon as Voodoo felt the pressure of the clippers, he growled and took a snap at me. Fortunately, it was only a warning snap. I know I shouldn't have rewarded the action by stopping the nail clipping, but I didn't want to risk handling Voodoo by myself while he was reacting like that.

What should I do? He's never, ever, had problems with nail clipping before. I think that one bad experience has made him hate it. He's fine until the moment he feels the pressure of the clippers, and then he freaks out. I could always muzzle him and have hubby hold him to get his nails cut, but I'm afraid that'll just give him even more negative associations with the process. I'd like him to be able to stand calmly again.

Help!

I hope someone has some good advice and I bet they will. Bender is touchy with many things but he doesn't snap he just gets so worked up he pees. Well I can do it while he is sleeping now but I would not dare do that in Voodoo's situation. I also think muzzling and having hubby hold him down would make it worse. I am sorry for his bad experience

I would take him right back to square one Gemp. Once an injury has occured or they've had a bad experience with nail clipping, there's no way to just power through. I would desensitize him to either a clipper, or dremel as if he'd never had his nails done before.
If you want to switch to a dremel, which in my opinion is a better option because there's a lesser risk of injury and no pinch, one huge drawback of clipping, now would be the time. Of course this video only shows with clippers but the conditioning part is the same.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgEwiH8CeUE

If you've never used a dremel before, here's some info.
http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/dremel/dremel.html

Thanks, doc. I may try a dremel on him. My mom is buying one for her FooFoo dog, and I'll just borrow it for Voodoo. In the meantime, I think I'll try to desensitize him again to the clippers. I'm just angry that one bad experience could cause my good boy to get an issue like this. *sigh*

gemp--I bought a dremel at Walmart for about $15--rechargable battery, has low or high speed. I use it for all my guys now--none of them LOVE having nails done, but tolerate it much better than the clippers once they got past the noise. I used treats to acclimate them--and still do after I do each paw.

It does suck and it's not at all unusual for one bad experience to completely ruin future exposure. If you go slow, you'll get there for sure. Just remember, if you only get 1 nail each day and make it a really wonderful event for the Vood, in no time you'll be better than you were before.
I'm glad you're thinking about the dremel, especailly now because you're really starting fresh, may as well introduce something different that he has no negative associations to.

Let me know how things go!

Just wanted to add that I have the cheap rechargeable dremel from Walmart and it really isn't suitable for a large dog's nails. It works well on my smaller (17-20lb) dogs but the battery drains FAST on larger dogs.

hmmm--works fine for my lab's nails--and she has some thick nails let me tell you!