How to Groom and Trim Your Dog's Toe Nails - Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie)

Before picture of ungroomed toes and legs.

Grooming a Sheltie involves a few steps of coat, toes, legs, ears and nails.
Start by grooming your sheltie using a rack comb or your favorite brush. It helps by spraying your dog with a little water, to help move the comb through the long hair. Remove all mats which seems to gather near ears, under armpits, under the belly and under tail. Bathe dog once groomed if needed. Continue by trimming toes and pads.

Ungroomed pad.

Use blunt nosed scissors or clipper to trim the fur around toes. Make sure to pull up fur in-between toes and trim to create a nice looking toe. Trim up to dogs 5th toe on the front and up to the knee hock on the back. Remove all fur around pads, be sure to pull fur out as you go and trim. This gives the dog good traction and it looks great.

Front toes groomed including legs.

If your dog has a tough time holding still for you. Move dog to an enclosed room to stop having to capture an escaped dog. Have a second person help you if possible, giving dog treats as you go...YUMMY treats like hotdogs or cheese. If you are alone, prevent escape and add a yummy kong with peanut butter, or even smear peanut butter onto the floor next to you. Some dogs are more calm in the bathtub or up on a counter - please be sure your dog is safe, never leave unattended.

Groomed pad.

If your dog continues to pull away, keep a gentle, yet firm grip. Dog will eventually give up trying to pull away but the first few times of grooming, your dog may try for up to 5-10 minutes struggling. If you let your dog go in the middle of a struggle, he will get better and better at struggling to get away. Be calm, yet assertive and hold your ground, all the while giving a sweet voice and cookies to your dog. Make grooming gentle and it will become easier for your dog to relax.

Toes before dremel.

Trimming dogs nails with a dremel takes time. The video of the dog above used to scream and bite at the dremel when I first started this process. 1 1/2 years later she is a dream to groom.

Start with YUMMY cookies, add the noise of the dremel and cookie the whole time. The hardest part is the dog getting used to the vibration the dremel causes. Start with quick touches to the toe and cookie EACH time. Move on to the next nail. Quit with one foot and then later move to doing two toes, then three, then four. Lay with your dog on the floor in a comfortable, yet struggle fear area. Try not to let your dog get up and move away. Gently hold your ground and reward for ANY calm behavior. It may take several tries before your dog is calm enough to trim like the video. Notice my dog pulls her foot away several times, I do not let go and she gives up pulling fairly quickly.

Be very careful NOT to get your dog's hair caught in the very fast spinning dremel. This takes practice, but be sure and move your dog's fur back each time you reposition. You can place your dog's paw in a stocking hose - child size - to help keep the fur back away from the dog nails. Push toes nails through the stocking.

Cordless Dremel, Blunt nosed scissors, Rake comb/brush.

Using the right tools helps the grooming to go more smoothly. I use a mini mite dremel that I picked up at the hardware store. It is a cordless rechargeable and works great - the one photographed is about 10 years old. I use blunt scissor that I find at the local drug store and a rake comb works best for my thick coated sheltie hair.

Groomed front feet.

A well groomed sheltie looks beautiful, keeps clean and has good traction for running and playing. All owners have the ability to groom their shelties well. It takes a little practice and gentle handling to turn your pet dog into a show star. I groom our Shetland Sheepdogs 1-2 times a month. I bathe them 4-6 times a year.

Milly all groomed.

Milly all groomed