A Little Bit Each Day…
Our motto with Henry is “A little bit each day”… actually, with Eo’s hips, that goes for her too right now. We’ve overcome a big struggle for Henry: his toenails.
They’re long. And they’re hairy. They click and clack and they’re very sensitive. A month ago, he wouldn’t let me even hold his paw to trim them without a major tug-of-paw battle that usually ended up with me having trimmed a sum total of two nails and the two of us having skated across the entire wood floor in the kitchen and the living room (the entire length of the house sometimes!) as he struggled to get away and I struggled to hold on to a paw long enough to get ONE snip of the trimmers. It’s clear that, along with everything else, nail trimming day used to be a traumatic event for poor ol’ Henry. (If, on his limited nutrition diet, he even managed to grow more nail regularly.) His nails are black, and I can imagine that he’s been quicked a lot.
And don’t even start with me about the joy of nail trimming with Dremels. The second he hears the Dremel box, he’s hiding.
We started doing one claw a day sometime about three weeks ago, with a treat after each “snip” — and now he’ll sit still for an entire paw, as long as he gets a treat after each nail. He knows where the bread is buttered! Pushing him too much will still set us back, though.
I’m planning to keep up a regular routine/rotation of doing one paw every other day for the next month or two. Not having a giant fight on my hands with a wiry, springy 55 lbs dog every time I want to touch one of his paws is a giant bonus in my book.