The Gentle Paw
Baltimore's low-stress, in-home nail trimming service
Nail trims don't have to be so stressful!
The Gentle Paw is a mobile nail trimming service that brings the concept of cooperative care to your home and your dog. We teach your dog how to "opt in" for their nail trims, and how to opt out—and we honor that! This empowers dogs to be active participants in their own care.
No matter what your dog's history with nail trims looks like, that history does not have to be their future. Our nail trim approach can dramatically change the way your dog feels and behaves for nail trims.
How It Works
All appointments take place in the comfort of your home!
PHASE ONE: Meet & Greet
When you first sign up, we'll schedule a Meet & Greet to get to know you and your dog. Then, we'll develop a customized training plan to get your dog comfortable with the cooperative care process.
PHASE TWO: Train & Trim
Let the training begin! Training sessions teach your dog the cooperative care process, change how they feel about participating in nail trims, and build a solid working relationship with us. Training sessions include as much nail trimming as that stage of training allows.
Every dog starts with the scratch board and will be using the scratch board by the end of our first session. We will introduce the clippers and/or dremel as time goes on.
PHASE THREE: Trusted Trim
Once your dog has learned the cooperative care process, we can simply move on maintenance trims, which are short 15-30 minute appointments just to trim your dog's nails. We recommend scheduling maintenance trims at least every 4 weeks.
About us
The Gentle Paw is from the hearts of two Baltimore-based professional dog trainers, Hannah Sigel, CDBC and Nikki West.
We are passionate about cooperative, low-stress care for dogs and we are eager to bring this practice to the dogs of Baltimore!