Dog Training Nation

In Dogs We Trust

You are here: Home / Blog

How to Paint Your Dog’s Nails

by

Tips on Painting Your Dog’s Nails

Dog Nail Polish
IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStock

Yes, I’ve done it! Stella Mae (Bull Terrier) looks adorable wearing hot pink nail polish. It just makes me smile. Before reaching for your nail polish, check out these tips that will make painting your dog’s nails much easier for both of you.

Use Dog Nail Polish Only

It’s pretty important to only use dog nail polish because dogs lick their feet and have a different skin pH than people. Plus, dog nail polish is water-based, toxic-free (no nasty chemicals, such as formaldehyde and toluene), odor-free and drip-free, and dries within seconds. Hmm, maybe I should try this stuff on my toes. Also, most dog nail polishes provide a vibrant color with one coat, so no need to add additional layers. When polishing, keep nail polish from touching skin–no need for globs of polish.

You can choose between bottles of nail polish or polish pens. Personally, I’m a huge fan of polish pens. Pens don’t drip and can slide under sprigs of paw hair surrounding your dog’s nails and dry super fast. Also, you can draw dots and animal prints as well as layer colors if you want to glam it up.

White dog nails will look great in all dog nail polish colors. However, dark nails seem to absorb only certain colors. Think pastels, neon colors and anything bright. Some reputable dog nail polish manufactures offer white base coats for dark nails, so all nail polishes will pop.

RELATED: Trimming Dog Nails: Reaching for Paw

Pull Back Excessive Hair

All dogs pretty much have stray hairs poking around their nails, so it’s best to push the hair back with the thumb of your opposite hand. I’ve heard stories of people placing pieces of old pantyhose over a dog’s paw and pulling it up so dog nails pop out while holding back long hair. While that sounds good, you’ll have to hold the pantyhose in place while nails dry, and I don’t think dogs would enjoy that process.

Reward Nail Polish Sessions

Please don’t force your dog to endure nail polish sessions. You’ll end up with hot pink polish all over the place. Take a week or so to teach your dog to enjoy handling of her paws. It’ll make it much easier.

Also, ask a friend to hold a peanut butter stuffed toy in front of your dog, so she can happily lick away while you’re polishing her nails. Take frequent breaks. Only paint one to two nails. Allow them to dry for 40 seconds or so. Eventually, with lots of practice, you’ll be able to paint one paw at a time while your dog snoozes or enjoys a food stuffed toy.

Removing Dog Nail Polish

Your dog’s nail polish will chip quicker than our pedicures. Remember, your dog doesn’t wear darling little sandals to protect perfectly painted nails, so expect chips within a few days. Normally, I wait until all polish has worn off before refreshing the color or applying a new color. If you must remove your dog’s nail polish, only use acetone-free polish removers and then promptly wash your dog’s paws to remove any residue.

Pawdicures are adorable. Just keep your dog safe and make it fun!

You may also like: How to Teach Your Dog Chin Rests

How to Teach Your Dog Chin Rests

by

Chin Rests Make Grooming and Medicating Your Dog’s Face Easier

How to Teach Your Dog Chin Rests
NevaF/iStock

While chin rests are a fun trick to teach your dog, you can use this behavior for so many different things. If your dog is fearful of human contact, teaching your dog to rest her chin in your hand teaches her body handling and close human contact is a good thing.

When to Use Chin Rests

Anytime you need to examine, brush, bathe, trim or medicate your dog’s head or neck area, chin rests will make it much easier for both you and your dog. Also, an awesome side effect is it builds confidence while teaching dogs that body handing is fun and very rewarding.

Visiting the Veterinarian

Annual dog exams always consist of two things: ear and eye exams. These exams are a struggle for most dogs. When you think about it, it’s kind of weird having someone look into your eyes with a funny gadget and stick a hard plastic cone down your ear canal.

Teach your dog to calmly rest his head in your head, so the veterinarian can get a good look into those peepers and ears. No more wrestling and forcing your dog to the ground. You’ll be shocked how easy it is to teach too.

Applying Medication

Some time in your dog’s life,  he’ll need medication applied to his eyes and ears. Here’s where chin rests will make putting medication on his face much easier. It’s also a great way to clean your dog’s ears.

RELATED: Best Probiotic for Dogs

Grooming

Ninety-nine percent of dogs need to be brushed, but it seems most will duck their heads down as a brush moves toward their face. Instead of chasing your dog around the house with a brush, train your dog to rest his chin in your hand. Once he learns chin rests, slowly introduce a brush. Don’t touch him with it yet. Instead say “yes” and treat him when he sees the brush. Only then do you slowly move the brush closer, touch his head and brush once. If your dog backs away, you’ve gone too far too soon, so take a step back.

By teaching your dog to calmly rest his chin in a stranger’s hands, your groomer will most definitely find it useful. The dog groomer can quickly trim around your dogs’ eyes, muzzle and ears without holding his head still.

Building Confidence

Teaching your dog human hands and close body contact is fun and rewarding is empowering for dogs, especially fearful ones. If your dog ducks or moves away anytime you reach or move toward him, I highly recommend teaching chin rests.

How to Teach Your Dog Chin Rests

You’ll need lots of super yummy treats cut into pea-sized bites. I recommend using hot dogs and cheese, as they’re super yummy and your dog is willing to work hard to earn them. Another important factor: don’t stare into your dog’s eyes or face while teaching this behavior. It’s extremely freaky looking to dogs and humans alike. Rest your gaze on your open hand instead.

Step 1: Just Reach

Before reaching and grabbing your dog’s chin, we need to teach him to stand still while you reach for his face (don’t touch his face yet). Most dogs back away and, if you watch really closely, so do people. 🙂

  • Reach toward your dog, leaving three feet in between your hand and dog. As you’re reaching, mark the behavior by saying “yes” and then give your dog a treat.
  • If your dog backs away, increase the distance between your hand and dog. Or make your hand movement smaller (less swinging, slower movement).
  • Practice four to five more times and end the session.

WATCH: Teaching Your Dog Chin Rest Part 1

https://youtu.be/9e2P-UQRws4

Step 2: Touch Under Chin

As with anything, there are a couple of ways to teach your dog to allow touching of his face. You can shape and capture behavior or lure–it’s up to you, your skill level and dog’s personality. Here, I’ll teach you how to lure the behavior.

  • Slowly place your palm under your dog’s face and feed him five or six tiny treats one after the other.
  • Once five or six treats are given, remove your hand.
  • Now, try again. You’ll probably notice your dog standing very still, as your hand moves toward his chin (a good thing!). Lure and feed five or six treats again.
  • Practice three to four more times and end training session.

If your dog steps back while you feed or approach him, go back to step one and practice some more.

WATCH: Teaching Your Dog Chin Rest Part 2

https://youtu.be/petL_MI7MS8

Step 3: Rest Chin

Now, we’ll teach your dog to lower his chin in your hand.

  • Place your hand about ½ inch under your dog’s chin (you’re not touching it) and use a treat to lure his muzzle into your hand.
  • Once you feel his muzzle drop into your open hand, say “yes” and give him a treat.
  • Practice a few times and end training session.

WATCH: Teaching Your Dog Chin Rest Part 3

Step 4: Rest Longer

Now that your dog has learned to drop his chin into your open hand, we’ll teach him to hold it there longer and relax.

  • Hold your open hand out and click (or say “yes”) once your dog holds his chin in place for a second.
  • Now, click (or say “yes”) when you notice any type of relaxation.
  • You can certainly teach your dog to look at you too during chin rests. This is excellent for eyes exams. Say “yes” when he looks at you.
  • Practice a few more times and end training session.
  • Slowly increase duration of chin rests by adding an additional second during each training session.

On average, a 10-second chin rest is sufficient. If your dog needs his head groomed, then one minute is plenty. After a quick break, hold your hand out for another chin rest and groom for another minute.

Step 5: Pass It On

When guests come over, ask if they can help you and your dog work on a few things before sitting down and chatting. Bring your dog into the room–on leash is easier, so your dog doesn’t jump on them. Practice all five steps with them and you’ll notice the training session moves much faster since your dog already knows the behavior.

Chin rests are super cool to show off to friends!

Why Do Dogs Freak Out When You Touch Their Collar?

by

Stop Touching My Collar: Why Collar Touches Freak Dogs Out

Touching Dog Collar
tamifreed/Deposit Photos

Does your dog slink away or dodge your hand as you’re reaching for her collar? This is quite common among dogs. Rather than letting your dog freak out when you touch her collar,teach your dog that touching her collar is fun. Sound crazy? It’s not. I can help you fix this issue within 10 to 15 minutes.

Collar Dodging: It’s an Epidemic!

It’s embarrassing. No one wants to be that person chasing his dog and when he finally touches her collar, she takes off again. Some dogs will come right back to you when called, but once you put your hands on her collar, she’s gone again! So why does this happen? Allow me to explain it from your dog’s point of view. I’m sure you’ll have some light bulb moments. 🙂

Ninety percent of the time when someone reaches for a dog’s collar, he’s ending a play session. The person is attaching his dog to a leash to return home or walk him to his crate. Yup, dogs have learned that collar touches mean fun ends or they’re in trouble. No wonder they run away! Think of it as the “last call” announcement you’ve learned at the nightclub when fun has come to an end. Fortunately, we can change your dog’s reaction to collar touches. 🙂

How to Train Your Dog to Enjoy Collar Touches

You can certainly teach dogs no matter their age that collar touches mean yummy treats or, better yet, fun hasn’t ended. Dogs are never too old to learn.

You’ll need super yummy treats, such as hot dogs, cut into pea size bites. You’ll need a clicker to mark good behavior and, of course, your dog’s collar.

Step One: Touching Collar Brings Out Treats

  1. Put your dog’s collar on and sit on the floor. Usually, your dog will walk toward you when sitting on the floor.
  2. Reach out and touch your dog’s collar. As your fingers touch her collar, say “yes” and give your dog a treat.
  3. Move your hand away. After you say “yes,” practice again.
  4. Practice four to five more times and end the session.

WATCH: Touching Your Dog’s Collar Part 1

Step Two: Hand Slides Under/Over Collar

  1. Now, reach your hand under your dog’s collar. As your hand slides under the collar, say “yes” and give your dog a treat.
  2. Remove your hand immediately after saying “yes” and try again.
  3. Practice a few more times and end the session.

If your dog backs away or ducks, go back to step one and practice some more. Once your dog stands still when you touch her collar, then move onto step two.

WATCH: Touching Your Dog’s Collar Part 2

Step Three: Hold Collar

Hold your dog’s collar with your hand either slipped under or over her collar.

  1. Slide your palm under your dog’s collar or hold the collar with your palm facing upwards.
  2. Once your hand is in place, hold for one second. Say “yes” and give your dog a treat.
  3. Practice four to five more times and end the training session.

WATCH: Touching Your Dog’s Collar Part 3

Step Four: Walking While Holding Collar

Usually, this one causes a bit of conflict for most dogs, especially fearful dogs. This is made worse when dog owners use way too much force while holding their dog’s collar.

Goal: Your dog follows along while you’re holding her collar.

  1. Stand up and hold your dog’s collar.
  2. Feed your dog, as you’re walking forward and feed often. Every time you step forward, your dog gets a treat.
  3. Practice walking one to two steps and end the behavior.
  4. Over the course of two to three days, increase your steps. Continue giving your dog lots of treats.

WATCH: Holding Your Dog’s Collar While Walking

Step Five: Practice Outdoors

It’s time to practice in the real world. You can certainly incorporate this new behavior in everything.

  • Playing fetch: Collar touch and throw the ball as a reward.
  • Play session: Collar touch and release dog to continue playing.
  • Meat time: Touch collar and place filled dog food bowl down.

Now, your dog should happily wait for you to grab her collar. Collar touches are fun now! As for last call, you’re still on your own. 🙂

Why Do Dogs Sniff Your Crotch?

by

What to Do If Your Dog Sniffs Your Crotch

Why Do Dogs Sniff Your Crotch
Pauws99/iStock

Here’s the deal. We all know dogs perceive the world using their brilliant olfactory abilities. Their sense of smell is much stronger than humans, so it’s no surprise that dogs interact with humans scent first. However, sometimes, dogs sniff your crotch. Oops!

Before dying of embarrassment, teach your dog to do something else with his nose and keep everyone’s private parts, well, private.

Why Do Dogs Sniff Your Crotch?

Dogs sniff crotches because most dogs are nose level. Plus, evidence shows dogs are able to sniff out human pheromones, which fluctuate, depending on hormonal changes. Before getting creeped out, understand that dogs are able to sniff out bladder cancer cells in urine, identify ovulating cows, locate bed bugs and the list goes on. If humans can identify it, dogs can find it. Personally, I think dogs have always been able to perform these miracles. We’re just noticing. 🙂

Dogs follow their noses. They don’t know sniffing your crotch freaks you out. Shoot, it’s part of their doggie greeting rituals.

What to Do If Your Dog Sniffs Your Crotch

Most dog owners couldn’t care less why crotch sniffing happens. They just want their dogs to stop. Instead of shooing your infamous crotch-sniffing dog away from forbidden areas, teach him to target your hand instead.

My motto is teach dogs what you want them to do rather than punishing certain dog behaviors. What if you smiled every time a visitor came over for dinner and then your mother punished you for it? Smiling is instinctual, so being punished is utterly confusing. The same logic applies to dogs.

Teach your dog to touch his nose to your hand. This dog obedience cue is called “touch” and can be used in many ways. You certainly need to teach and practice “touch” behavior before guests visit, so grab some treats and get busy.

RELATED: Why Do Dogs Eat Poop?

How to Teach Your Dog to Touch

Hold Out an Open Palm

Open the palm of your hand and hold it out with your fingers pointing sideways. Sometimes, an open-handed cop signal freaks dogs out, especially when we lean our fingers toward their face. If you think about it, when someone says “talk to the hand” or “stop talking” while pushing our open hand (fingers pointed up) in our face, it’s infuriating and intimidating. Turn your hand sideways please.

Wait for Your Dog to Touch

Hold your hand about one to two feet away from your dog’s nose and wait for him to touch his nose in your hand. Keep your hand still. Don’t move your hand toward your dog. The tiny pause is your dog wondering what to do. If your dog remains sitting, he’s confused. No worries. Hold a tiny treat in your open hand and give it to him once he touches your hand.

Mark the Behavior and Treat

Practice again and say “yes,” as you feel his nose touching your hand. By saying “yes,” you’re marking the behavior you want (nose touch hand) and follow with a treat. Continue four or five more times and end the practice session.

Test on Visitors

Making an open palm a visual cue makes it super simple to remember and for guests to learn. Continue practicing a couple of minutes per day. After a week or so, it’s time to test it out on visitors. I highly recommend using super yummy treats as rewards and placing them in small bowls next to busy door entrances.

When guests come over, ask them to hold their open palms six inches away from their crotch. This redirects your dog’s nose to their hand rather than their crotch. Now, practice a few more times, asking your guests to move their hands further away from their crotch and then end the training session.

Keep a small bowl of treats around, as you and your guest visit. If, at anytime, your dog makes a beeline for private areas, ask him to “touch” before he gets to his final destination. 🙂 After several trials with different people, your dog will learn to sniff hands instead of crotches. If your dog does sniff you or your guest’s private parts, you know what to do. This dog training exercise is very empowering for everyone!

You may also like: Teaching Your Dog to Wait for His Food Bowl

How to Choose a Sport for Your Dog

by

Top 5 Dog Sports

Dog Sports
beardeb/Deposit Photos

Sports aren’t only for humans. Sports can be quite enjoyable for dogs as well. With so many different activities out there, you may feel intimidated choosing the right dog sport for your pet. In this article, we describe the five most popular dog sports you and your dog should try.

Getting involved in a dog sport can help strengthen the bond between you and your dog while providing your companion with an enriching experience. It never hurts to get out there and try something new that you both may enjoy. Remember to have fun with it!

Sports to Play With Your Dog

Not every dog or person, for that matter, will enjoy or excel in every sport. This is why it’s a good idea to make a list of your dog’s characteristics and match them up to the activity that best fits him. Below is a list of the most common sports for dogs.

• Rally Obedience (Rally-O)
• Agility Training Classes
• Flyball Classes
• Disc Dog
• Freestyle

Rally Obedience

During rally obedience, you and your dog navigate through an obedience course that requires stopping at designated stations to perform an obedience cue. This is a great sport for people new to the dog sport world and want to take basic dog obedience up a notch! All purebred and mixed mutts of all ages can compete. Before you play this game, make sure your dog’s vaccinations are updated and he has an understanding of basic obedience, such as “heel,” “sit,” down,” “stay,” and “come.”

Agility 

Agility is a true sport where handler and dog need to work together. In agility, you help guide your dog to complete an obstacle course. This is a timed sport, so faster is better. This course can be challenging, but very enjoyable for you and your dog.

Agility classes are open to all types of dogs–even big, short, fast or slow ones. I’ve watched small dogs dart through an agility course right along with the typical Collie. There is really no breed too big or small for this activity. Is your dog full of energy and has great focus? Then this could definitely be the sport for him. Don’t forget you’re guiding him through the course, so this will be a great workout for you as well!

Flyball

Flyball is a rally race for your dog. This dog sport is fast-paced and fun for everyone involved. Dogs are divided into teams of four. Each dog races across a 51-foot course where he hurdles over a series of jumps, triggers the release of a ball, retrieves the ball and brings it back to the finish line before the next dog is allowed to go.

This sport is open to all dogs of any breed or size that is energetic and loves a challenge. This is a great sport for social dog owners who enjoy being part of a human-human team as well as a human-dog team. It’s also a loud sport because the dogs are having a blast.

Disc Dog

Disc dog is advanced Frisbee for you and your dog. You throw the disc and your dog catches and retrieves it. This sport is judged on distance and tricks–turning an everyday game into some competitive fun!

If you already play Frisbee with your dog and want to step it up a notch, this is a great sport for you. Your dog gets to do what he loves and burn off some energy while you get to spend some quality time with your best friend.

Freestyle

So you like to boogie? Then get your dog involved too! Yup, you can really dance with your dog. It’s called Freestyle. Any breed, big or small that has an owner with a flair for dance, would be great at this dog sport. Find your inner “Night Fever” move!

You may also like: Should You Let Your Dog on the Couch?

Dog Training Nation is a dog training blog for pet owners and dog lovers. We cover a range of topics from puppy socialization tips to dog aggression to dog health. It is our hope you share our content to make the world a better place for dogs.

Dog Training Nation

Quick Links

Dog Training
Dog Behavior
Dog Training Videos
Become a Dog Trainer
About
Contact Us