Your puppy has enjoyed a blissful summer of freedom, flying in and out of the back door to the garden whenever he wants. This is his life-experience so far.
So how puzzling is it to him when, come the Autumn rains, you suddenly yell at him as he comes in, grab his feet and start vigorously towelling them?
Imagine that happening to you! You come in through the door at your friend’s house, they shout at you, grab one of your feet, hoick it up in the air, and pummel it with a towel!
You wouldn’t be very happy, and you may well say so. And that’s all your dog is doing when he growls as you attack his feet at the door.
Let’s see how we can improve this:
1. Get him used to it from the start
Whatever the time of year you start with your puppy, rehearse what you will be doing when the weather changes. So leave a towel near the door, and now and then when your pup comes in, you can lightly “dry” just one foot then let him on his way. He’ll get used to this strange Liturgy of the Feet so that when you really need to dry them, it won’t have come out of nowhere. This will form part of your ongoing program of puppy habituation and handling.
2. Have some manners!
That’s you, not the dog! In the same way you wouldn’t expect your friend to grab your feet and manhandle you at their door, your dog doesn’t need to accept this boorish behaviour either. Ask him if you can have a paw, then reward him for that before starting your drying process. If he’s on a lead you can simply stand on the trailing lead to prevent him wandering off while you ask him for each foot in turn.
3. Make life easier for yourself
Trim the hair on his paws. Even some short-coated breeds can get bushy paws underneath. The easiest tool for this is a beard-trimmer or the type of gadget the hairdresser uses to trim the hair on the back of your neck. These can’t cut, so the paw is safe - if you use scissors you risk nicking the webbing between the toes. That would not only be painful now, but would guarantee that foot-trimming is very difficult to do in future! I find dogs enjoy the buzzing and the pleasant fuzzy sensation of the battery-operated trimmer - but you do have to introduce them to this slowly. I have my dogs upside down on my lap so I can easily reach each paw to trim. I shave between the pads, and scissor round the paw so that the feet are neat. This will save you a huge amount of mess and mud brought in by dogs with dishmops for paws. It will also help to lessen problems of grass-seeds, burrs and nasty scalds between the toes from “sticks” made of dried muddy hair, and help your dog keep his grip on tiled or boarded floors. Have a look at this post for more info.
4. “But he’s still growling at me!”
There’s a difference between a growl which is saying, “I’m really not mad about this,” and one which says, “Touch that foot and I’ll bite you.” If you have the latter problem - your dog goes still and stiff, shows the whites of his eyes, snarls and rumbles menacingly - then please find yourself a force-free trainer (Hey! I’m a force-free trainer!
Have a look at our courses with personal coaching) to show you how to change this without your dog getting distressed or you getting bitten. If it’s a mild rumble but your dog is still relaxed and floppy and can interact with you, then go back to habituating him to the towel as if he were a tiny puppy. The following steps could take a day or a month to teach: Show towel - reward; touch foot - reward; touch towel to foot - reward; gently lift foot (taking care over which way your dog’s leg bends) and touch towel to foot - reward; and so on. Until he says, “Oh goody - here’s the towel. I like the towel and its rewards.” Your reward can be an extra special bit of sausage, or a lick of a peanut-buttery spoon. The earlier you can start any desensitisation process like this, the better - hence no.1 above.
Life is so much easier if you can work with your dog instead of against him.
There’s no need to have a battle over such simple, everyday things. Make a deal with him, as you do with a child - “You do this thing you don’t like much, and I’ll give you your favourite treat.” It will become his habit to wait on the doormat while you take off his street-gear and dry his feet.
