also some of them don't like being picked up, so picking up for praise is annoying to them

I think it's also because you don't really need to train the dog to behave on its own when you can just physically overpower it if ever misbehaves. Nothing against small dogs (love them), but you need to stop yourself from just forcing them into whatever you want them to do, it they'll never "get it" and never feel like a member of the pack/family.

We've associated nail trimming with positive rewards since our 5 month old puppy was around 8 weeks old, so he's pretty chill about it. He'll let you trim 3 feet without any issues. On the 4th foot he's pretty much done with our shit and starts pulling away, but he does let us do it. We just put him on a special table that is used for grooming him, and he sits there and lets us do his nails. He's also pretty ambivalent to shots, but again, we've always done everything we can to make these positive experiences for him, with lots of treats and praise. Brushing his teeth is equally as chill. It usually comes down to exposing the pupper to these things at a young age and making it an overall positive experience. He also went through a professional puppy socialization class for 6 weeks, to make sure he's cool with people and other dogs, since he's going to be a large and powerful dog when he's fully grown. He goes into advanced obedience training class in 2 weeks!

Meanwhile my lab will ask for his ears cleaned and butt squeezes. He will point at his butt and then look at us and then do that over and over until we ask if that's what he wants and then prance around because we got it right. As for ears he will shake his head and then go nose the bottle of ear cleaner. Nails is another story, he won't ask but when we do it he falls asleep.

At least when my cat had to get some vaccinations the secret as always is to squish the cat

Yeah man. Dogs are work.

I love dogs, but won’t get my own because I know it’s like having a whole other job that you can’t slack off at.