Helping a Little Dog Overcome His Fear of Getting Groomed

In this Omaha dog training session we worked with four-year-old Dobby, a Papillion mix and a one-year-old Poodle mix named Oliver to help them get over fear of grooming tools using counterconditioning.

When I chatted with Dobby’s guardians about their main dog behavior concerns they mentioned that he was very scared of the grooming supplies: nail clippers, scissors, and brush. When dogs are scared of these types of things we want to break them down into baby steps, meaning that we slowly reintroduce each item to Dobby using the counterconditioning method, which you can see below.

As you can see in the video above, Dobby gets a little more nervous as we introduce the items faster towards him. This is absolutely normal. If he starts to get too nervous or reactive to the grooming supplies, just slow things back down and make it easier for him until he relaxes.

By the end of the session Dobby was able to have the grooming supplies make contact with his body and he was learning to accept treats while doing this. This was a big step for Dobby! To keep up with this good behavior remember to be consistent in your training and have patience with him while he works through this. We wrapped up this dog behavior session with Dobby and Oliver’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.