Pet owners probably know the pain of this: trimming your dog’s toes.
Now, this isn’t limited to dogs. When we had canaries we had to catch them and trim their little toesies, and I had to with my cat.
But Tundra, he’s CONVINCED that the clippers are going to take his toes off.
This is a two person, full bag of treats process. USUALLY he gets kenneled enough that we just have the vet do them, but lately I’ve been home (no work) so I can watch him.
He gets two walks a day, which helps wear them down, but they still get long.
I was cuddling him on the couch and teasing his toes when I noticed his dew claws were HUGE. Further examination showed that all of his toes needed trimming, like, now.
We have clippers. We’ve read the how-to articles with illustrations. We just have never actually done it.
I grabbed the clippers and an entire bag of teeth cleaning crunchies – they’re too expensive to give regularly but he loooooves them and how much they stink.
We got him lying down, and I held his elbow with one hand while offering treats with the other, and my husband caught his foot and did the trimming.
Basically it went ‘what a good boy!’, clip, treat, belly pets. Rinse, repeat. Lots of squirming involved too.
We did NOT cut too short – I’m pretty sure we didn’t cut enough.
He ate almost a third of the bag of treats.
Gonna call that a success though!
How do you trip your pets nails? Do you have any tips or suggestions? Inquiring minds want to know!
My dog used to get Jerky for her treat when we clipped her nails. Human grade Jerky. Yum. She would do anything for them.
I’m always so worried I’ll clip too close! But jerky is a good idea… he loves it too!