When a dog doesn’t like being scissored, the biggest issue they have with them is usually having an unknown object coming close to a sensitive body part. Most often, trigger spots are the feet, legs, face and rear.
It’s not too hard to imagine why. Imagine that you were suddenly beamed up into an alien ship. A species not your own restrains you on a table, and then slowly brings a strange tool toward your eye.
Would you passively wait to see if this is a benign tool mean to magically improve your vision? Most likely, you’d fight tooth and nail just in case that was a threat.
It’s no wonder then that our dogs can be a bit suspicious of getting scissored near their eyeballs. Luckily, they know a few humans and that they are friendly. We’re now going to work on helping them understand scissors are meant to remove stands of hair in front of their eyes and get rid of uncomfortable knots between their toes—not to chop off body parts.
Your dog should be comfortable with you picking up the scissors at this point. If they are not comfortable with the sight of scissors in your hand, go back to the first stage of scissor desensitization and work on that until they are.
Approaching Scissors
The best approach to desensitizing scissors is to break it up into small pieces. It’s usually not just the scissors coming at them that is frightening, it’s having their paws held while the scissors approach and a piece of hair is snipped off. The face and legs are usually the most frightening parts for dogs.
To break this up into smaller pieces, we’ll just be working on the scissors approaching a neutral part of the body first. A good location is usually the shoulders. Please note, you will not actually be snipping off the hair from the dog, just having the scissors approach is fine.
Show your dog the scissors and work through a couple repetitions of simply showing the scissors to your pup and rewarding them. Next, bring the scissors (sideways, as if you were going to scissor off hair, not pointy side towards them ) a few inches toward your pups shoulder.
As long as your pup did not respond aggressively, reward your pup at the same time as the scissors reach their closest point to the dog’s body. Do not reward when the scissors are being pulled away.
How did your dog react? If they stepped away from the scissors, you likely need to make your forward movement more subtle at first. Perhaps move it only an inch instead of several inches. If they were fine with it, keep at that level for 10-15 repetitions and then try moving it closer to the dog’s body.
Work your way closer until you can skim your dog’s hair with the scissors without your pup reacting (apart from hunting for treats of course.) Please note: the scissors should remain shut during these exercises! You don’t want to make a snippy snip sound with the scissors, accidentally snip their skin, and confirm scissors are scary.
Sensitive Areas
Once your pup is fine with the scissors approaching and touching a neutral area, it’s time to start approaching more sensitive areas of the body. Touch your dog’s elbow instead of their shoulder with the scissors and watch their reaction. Do they look for their treat? Do they walk away? Do they seem tense or nervous?
If they look for their treat and are happy to participate, that’s a good sign to continue. Repeat this 10-15 times if your pup is happy, but pick a spot somewhere between the shoulder and the elbow and try again if they didn’t like being touched on the elbow.
Repeat this, separate sessions of 10-15 each time, for the following:
- An inch down from the elbow
- The middle of the leg
- An inch below the middle of the leg
- The ankle
- The foot
- The top of the tail
- An inch below the tail on the rear
- The middle of the rear
The Face
Note: This exercise is only for dogs who have hair that gets trimmed on their face. Neither shorthaired chihuahuas nor long haired chihuahuas need trimming on their face, as that part remains short. This is for breeds such as the Maltese or the Schnauzer, who has hair that needs cut on the face.
Once your pup is used to being touched all over with the scissors, it’s time to work on the most sensitive part of all, the head. You have already laid the groundwork for this by practicing holding your pup’s face, and touching around the eyes, ears and mouth in earlier exercises.
Now, you’re going to practice bringing scissors toward your dog’s face, with the goal of being able to place the flat of the scissors against the corner of your pet’s eye without them resisting. If you’re worried about your pup getting hurt, the non-pointy end of a pencil will still look like an object coming towards your dog’s eye to them, and makes a good stand in.
Start by bringing the scissors a few inches toward your dog’s face and then rewarding them. Gauge your dog’s response. Did they lean their head away? Duck in anticipation? You’ll need to move the scissors forward a smaller amount. It may be only an inch you can move the scissors without them trying to avoid it. That’s okay.
Wherever they are at (but no more than half way toward the dog’s face) repeat bringing the scissors forward and rewarding 10-15 times.
At the next session, work on moving the scissors closer to the face. If your dog only allows you to move the scissors an inch away from your body without ducking, try for two inches this time. If they were at the half way mark, try just a little bit past that, an inch or two.
If they don’t pull away, repeat at this level for 10-15 repetitions. At separate sessions, keep testing to see if they are still fine with how close the scissors are, and if they are trying a little bit closer. Always read their reactions to determine whether they want it to be closer or not.
Finally, you’ll be close enough to skim the dogs coat with the sides of the scissors on the face. If they allow this, practice moving the scissors slowly around your dog’s head, rewarding each time.
When your dog is comfortable with scissors near any part of their body, congratulations! Scissor desensitization is finished.
Similar Posts:
- How to Desensitize the Sound of Scissors
- Desensitization to Scissors: Introduction
- Blow Dryer Desensitization: Wind
- Touch Desensitization: Feet
- Introducing Hindquarter Desensitization
