Scratch Boards: What They Solve & What They Don’t Solve Ep197

Episode 197. Scratch Boards: What They Solve & What They Don’t Solve This week we're gonna talk about scratchboards and the dog toys designed to help you file your dog's nails, or it'll help your dog file their own nails.

[00:00:10] We're gonna talk about what they're good for, what they're not good for, and why your groomer might give you the hard eye roll if you say you've been using one. That's what we're digging into this week. This is the Creating Great Grooming Dog Show. I'm Chrissy Neumyer Smith. I'm a master groomer behavior specialist.

[00:00:24] I'm a certified professional groomer, a certified behavior consultant for canines, a certified professional dog trainer. I'm an educator at the Whole Pet Grooming Academy and I own Happy Critters in Nashua, New Hampshire. And this my friends and colleagues, is the show where we talk about teaching dogs to be good for grooming and for other types of care.

[00:00:44] So this week let's get into nail trimming. And we all know that that's a really sticking point for so many of our dogs, and so many of our owners really struggle with the nail trimming part. And there are a couple of tools out there that I think get overlooked by some groomers yet adopted two widely with some trainers.

[00:01:03] So we're gonna talk about the pros and cons of some of these scratch boards. Now. First, let me describe what a scratch board is. Often it is just a platform with some sandpaper and there's a almost like a little drawer where you put some treats in, let the dog see it close the drawer, and the dog digs to get to the treats.

[00:01:22] And it can be really helpful. It can be a way to get them to scratch on this board, thus the name of scratch board. But it can be a way to help them scratch on this board and figure out like, okay, I wanna get the treats. And then they get the, you open the drawer, let them get some treats out, do it again.

[00:01:40] And it's a nice way to help an owner maintain short nails on dogs who have behavior problems that are still working to be resolved. All right. That's the key part. It's for behavior problems that they're still working to resolve. So, I think that it's really pretty good for front feet. There are a number of different versions and there are a whole bunch of tutorials on how to make one on your own.

[00:02:07] There's a, a dog toy. Which is almost like a cube that your dog is gonna chew at and also, um, get their Duke claws and be able to play with that. I've heard wonderful things about these tools. Here is the hard part though. I think that getting a dog to use their front paws is really pretty easy for most owners.

[00:02:28] Getting a dog to use their back paws is really tricky. It is really tricky to get a dog to use their back paws on something. So there's still a learning curve. There's still a significant amount of work if you're going to use this device, one of these devices to try to keep your dog's nails trimmed down.

[00:02:50] But what a nice way to help your dog still have a healthy nail length while they're learning about having their feet handled. I think they're a wonderful tool. I will say they don't do a good nail trim. Okay? This is a tool to help bridge the gap between a dog who cannot handle nail trimming at all, toward bridging the gap toward a dog who can handle somebody touching their nails and actually doing a professional nail trim.

[00:03:21] You are not gonna get any sort of shaping with these tools, but nail health is important. Let's talk about that for a minute. Nail health is really important. The reason why we need to really keep track of their dog's, length of their nails is the weight of their body should be on the pads of their feet.

[00:03:41] So in a perfect world, your dog is standing and their nails aren't touching the floor in a way that interrupts their stance. Okay? The purpose of nail trimming. Is to help keep those nails from pressing on the floor while they're trying to stand on the pads of their feet. When the nails get too long, the toes have to flatten or twist to get the nails out of the way so that the weight of the body can be on the pads of the feet.

[00:04:08] am gonna say that again 'cause I think it's a key piece. The weight of a dog's body should be on the pads of their feet. If their nails are too long, what happens is their toes either have to flatten. Or twist, to get the nail out of the way so that they can rest their body weight on the pads of their feet.

[00:04:29] So what happens is is dogs with very long nails start having problems with their feet and with all of the joints heading up their leg. The joints heading up their leg into their shoulders and into their hips. It would be like walking on shoes that always twist your foot funny or walking on a rock.

[00:04:49] Some of these dogs are walking on what feels like a rock. Some of these toenails that just curl. Um, thinking specifically about some of our toy breeds that don't really walk on the edge of the outer edge of their foot and end up with a toenail that's curling and that can feel like a pressure on their foot.

[00:05:08] Sometimes dogs have toenails that curl all the way. And back into the skin. If that is happening, that's not for your dog groomer. You send that to the vet. I don't care if it seems like a simple, easy thing to just clip that nail. We need to make sure that there's no infection underneath. That is for your veterinarian to do.

[00:05:28] But if you are working toward helping your dog with the foot handling part, this could be a way to help maintain good, healthy nail length. Or at least not make it worse while we're working on something else. But that's really the key here while we're working on the real problem. The real problem isn't that he , won't let us trim his nails.

[00:05:53] The real problem is that he isn't comfortable with something, , that will need to be done. So while I approve of these tools, I think that they are not the end game. . They're not going to solve your problem. They're a part of a solution, okay? Eventually, we want to phase them out or use them less, and that's another key point here.

[00:06:19] If you are going to have your dog file their own nails, you're not gonna be able to take off the kind of length that you might need to take off. So perhaps that's something that you start after a professional nail trim. When the dog's nails are at a good length, or it's something that you do daily that could work.

[00:06:40] And if you're using something like the toy, and I'll, I'll add links in the show notes. , but if you're using something like one of these toys that they're grabbing at on their own, you could find that they end up with very, very short nails on the front that you have to take the toy away, but you're not probably going to get any sort of work on those back feeties

[00:06:58] back toes can be really tricky. Teaching a dog how to move their back foot can be really tricky. So there's still some learning that has to happen here. And in the next part, we are gonna talk about where some of these tools, why your groomer might give you the hard eye roll because there's a blind spot.

[00:07:17] If you've been using one of these tools to work on nail trimming, you might have a blind spot. And we're gonna talk about that next. So if you're enjoying the show, please remember to share it with a friend. Tell somebody else. There are a lot of owners. There are a lot of groomers. There are a lot of trainers.

[00:07:33] There are a lot of vets and vet techs who are working on teaching dogs to be good for grooming and for veterinary care and other types of care at home. Lots and lots and lots of people could benefit from this show, and it's available anywhere you listen to podcasts. And it's also available on YouTube.

[00:07:48] So search for creating great grooming dogs, or go to creating great grooming dogs.com. So why would your groomer give you the hard eye roll that you're using? A scratch board. All right, so I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell it to you straight. First of all, every dog groomer out there hates the way other professionals do nails.

[00:08:08] I'm sorry to say like, we do a lot of shaping and we're trying to make sure that the nail is growing at the right angle. We try to take them nice and smooth. There are a lot of things that we do with nail trimming, but here is the bigger problem. The bigger problem is, and I've mentioned it on the show before, how did you determine that nail trimming was your dog's problem?

[00:08:32] Because usually it's not the nail trimming. I know. And a whole bunch of people out there just went, what? No. 'cause we have trouble getting his nails done. Does your dog have issues bigger than getting his nails done? Is your dog , getting scared when somebody even approaches when somebody reaches, you know, a stranger in the room and your dog is already stiff?

[00:08:55] That's not a nail trim problem. That's a general, I'm not comfortable with this person Problem. And that's what we see a lot of. Okay. It's not usually the nail trimming. That's where we are having difficulty getting a nail trimming done, but not necessarily because nail trimming is the problem. And I see it over and over and over again.

[00:09:18] And in my not so humble opinion. I know I usually am pretty humble, but I'm not. I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I have been doing dog nails on other people's dogs since 1986. Okay. It is not usually the actual nail trimming. If I can get that dog to be calm, comfortable, and cooperative, when I'm holding that foot lining up the clipper and the dog is totally fine, when I snip that nail, they very rarely react.

[00:09:48] Now, the dog who's actually worried about nail trimming is the one who might flinch, even though they were like, yep, you hold my paw. I'm ready. I'm gonna let you do it. I know what's happening and I tell them I'm gonna line it up. And they look at me and go, Hmm, yep. And they relax for it, and then it click and they're like, oh.

[00:10:05] Like that's the dog who's actually worried about nail trimming. But that's not most dogs. Most dogs are worried about the holding. If they're worried about being held too tight, they're worried about the angle that we're holding their leg at, or maybe they've been forced through nail trimming. So they see the nail clippers come out and they think this is the three person takedown party that they were not enjoying.

[00:10:27] Okay. It's not usually the nail trimming. So the problem is an owner comes in saying, oh, don't touch his nails. We work on those at home. Just don't do his nails as if everything's gonna be fine. And that is not really the case. You can say, oh, don't do his nails. We do that at home groomers. Here's your opportunity to say, tell me more about that.

[00:10:49] What are you doing at home? And what about nail trimming? , did he not like, because I need to know. Here's the big reveal, everybody, and where you might have a blind spot. If you are not a dog groomer. We touch their nails over and over and over again, over and over and over again. If that dog is not comfortable with us touching their feet with us, manipulating their toes, we are still gonna have a behavior problem on the grooming room floor, whether that be in the tub or on the table.

[00:11:22] We're still manipulating feet. I'm gonna say it again. For those in the back, nail trimming, telling us to skip the nails does not necessarily mean that the groomer is going to have an easier time. Okay , and I do think that there are plenty of times where I'm like, let's, let's not do nails, let's do that as a separate appointment.

[00:11:42] Okay. I do that with some of my customers. If nail trimming is the thing that they're worried about, we can create that as a separate appointment so that they're not associating the whole grooming with nail trimming. But we have to teach these dogs to let us touch their feet. Now I'm gonna give you an example here.

[00:11:59] This came up this week. I was grooming a little Yorkie who had pine pitch stuck on her foot. Now pine pitch is kind of sticky. It glued some of the dog hair around her nail, so I had to meticulously pick at her nail to get that hair free and to clean off the pine pitch. If her owners were under the impression that, oh, well they don't do nail trimming, so everything's gonna be fine.

[00:12:29] Just skip the nails and everything's gonna be fine. That could have led to big problems for me as a groomer trying to get dog hair. Pulled away from Pine Pitch on a toenail. We still have to handle the toenails. So while you're working on the, the scratch boards or the toy that, that they can scratch their own nails.

[00:12:51] While we're working on that as a separate activity, we still need to work on touching, handling. Being around those toenails. So that's why your groomer might give you the hard eye roll, like, oh God, another dog who's gonna lose their minds as soon as I get in and start scrubbing in between their toes.

[00:13:12] Because the message isn't really reaching the people who are using the scratch boards. If you are using a scratch board, you also need to, as a separate activity, work on touching this Dog's feet. Work on picking their feet up in a way that a groomer would. Which is another blind spot for a lot of people.

[00:13:30] They don't think about what I see a lot of, um, dog training videos where it's like, okay, and gimme your paw, and the dog puts their paw in your hand and they do this like quick little snip of a nail clip. They're not even looking at the nail most of the time, like we're examining the nail, we're looking underneath, , we're trimming, we're holding the nail tight to do a proper grind.

[00:13:52] If you're using a nail grinder to do it properly, we actually need to be holding that foot. Holding that nail, probably holding hair out of the way. And then we kind of rub it around, not just like tap the top done. That doesn't work. That's not a professional nail trim for a groomer. If your dog isn't at that stage yet, that's super important things for you to tell your groomer.

[00:14:16] 'cause they're just gonna go ahead even. Even if you told them, skip the nails. We're dog groomers and we have habits. We forget that somebody said, skip the nails. It's really common for a groomer to go over and just like pick up that foot as if to do it. , forgetting that you had said not to do nails, because we do nails every day.

[00:14:36] Every day. Think about something you do every day don't put the dirty dishes in the sink. You might forget because you do the thing every day.

[00:14:44] We as groomers need to know that you're still working on the kinds of handling that we need to do if your dog flinches when a person reaches for them. We need to work on that, and that might be something that we work on together doing, like meet and treats. The purpose of a meet and treat is that your groomer now isn't a stranger.

[00:15:05] How cool is that? Right? If your dog has a problem with strangers reaching for them, well, one of the things we can do is not be a stranger. What if we become one of the trusted few people that your dog allows to, to reach for them to touch down their leg? And one of the things that I think we, we aren't really good at recognizing is a dog who is holding still.

[00:15:28] Doesn't necessarily feel comfortable with it. So we talk a lot on the show about calm, comfortable, and cooperative. They might be being cooperative, , because you're seeing a dog who's being still and he is not moving away from you. But that could be rigid. That could be rigid with the whale eye and looking at you like, oh my gosh, he's coming right for me, and, and not being actually relaxed.

[00:15:51] What we're looking for is a body that's loose. A body that's loose. If I reach for a dog's shoulder and they're super stiff, like it's like touch on rock. Like I know that dog isn't calm right now. That dog is super worried about what is going on. Tech talk, super worried. But that dog is stiff. If I reach for that shoulder and I, and they compress and they're just a little bit wiggle.

[00:16:17] Okay, just, just move a little bit. They feel soft. The body feels soft. If I reach for that foot and they're gently just relaxing into my hand, that dog is relaxed. That's what we need and that's what we're looking for before we even get to nail trimming. And it's still the key piece.

[00:16:34] It's still has to happen. Even if you are letting your dog scratch on the scratch boards, we need to know that your dog can let us touch their feet. When we have a dog in a tub, all right, just thinking about a bath and brush out and a dry, we touch those feet over and over and over and over again. We work the water through their coat.

[00:16:55] We work the shampoo through their coat in between toes, probably rubbing on those toenails, thinking again to pine pitch. then we rinse that, and then we work in a conditioner, and then we rinse that, how many toe touches have we done already? And then. We start squeezing water out, and then we start toweling, and then we start drying, and then we probably work on some brushing.

[00:17:20] It depends on your breed. There are so many foot touches and your scratch board will not address foot touching, so we still need to do that. That needs to happen also. So I like these products. I think they're great to get us from here to there from point A to point B, the dog who is super nervous about it, instead of saying, well, we need to work on teaching them to feel comfortable with being touched and only work on that.

[00:17:47] We can also do the scratch board, but it's the other side of the coin. They need to both be working together. We need to do both so that your dog is learning. To allow a trusted few people to touch their feet, to lift their legs, to reposition them. And we also, as part of cooperation, calm, comfortable, and cooperative, are also learning what your dog's preferences are.

[00:18:12] For positioning. Some dogs prefer to have their dog, their front feet out in front of them and watching you do the nail trim. Some dogs do not prefer that. , I lift them up almost like horse hooves. So if the dog is standing, that paw is getting lifted backward so that I can see the underside of their foot and trim the nails accordingly.

[00:18:31] That's the way I prefer to do it. I adjust if a dog has a preference so we can find out what their preferences are. Some of our older dogs or dogs with leg problems, if we can teach them to do it laying down, that might solve your problem. Not the nail board. It might be positional. So this is the stuff that we need to look for.

[00:18:52] So these tools can be really helpful, but we also need to backtrack and say, what is the real problem and are we still working on it? Are we still working on the real problem? So we'll wrap that up today with the idea that I like those tools and I'll add them in the show links. Maybe that's something that one of your owners, or you might try with a dog while we're working on teaching them to be good for foot handling and leg handling and strangers.

[00:19:19] So again, if you enjoy the show, share it with your friends. I do teach the Master Groomer Behavior Specialist Diploma Program at the whole Pet Grooming Academy if you are a groomer who wants to expand their knowledge base. It's a 32 week program. It is four eight week classes and it is instructor led.

[00:19:37] Sometimes people ask me, what's the difference between your program and Fear Free? Listen, I'm a Fear Free Certified professional. I love Fear Free, but Fear Free was a weekend. This is 32 weeks. That would be the big difference. Fear Free is , watch the videos. Take the test. This is

[00:19:55] watch your modules, do the readings. Show up to a live Zoom call. This is entirely different and set up for people who are already groomers who want to really achieve excellence in teaching dogs to be good for grooming. So again, thank you for listening. This is the Creating Great Grooming Dog Show. Have a great day.

[00:20:16] Bye.