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Originally Posted by Karrie  We did Baileys for the first time tonight!! She's three years old and I credit my groomer for our ability to at least give it a try. My groomer admits that trimming Bailey's toenails is difficult - but it seems that after 3 years, Bailey is at least calming down.
My daughter held her and I clipped. I feel so good for having done this for the first time.
Good luck everyone! |
I think like everything else, just go super slow and be patient. Does she let you handle her paws at all? If not, start with that. Hold her paw for a second, release, give her a treat. Repeat five times. Then after a week, move to checking her nails. After another week, cutting the hair between the toe pads. After another week, show her the clippers, Another week, put the clippers on the nail, but don't cut. Finally, finally, finally, cut a nail.
At this point she will have dragon nails, but it will be temporary!
I cut one of Thor's nails way too short a few months ago and I felt so incredibly awful about it. I let the nails grow pretty far over the quick before I cut now. However, it's part of our nightly ritual, along with haircut touch ups, tooth cleaning, and brushing. I only cut one nail per night, and a lot of nights, I just examine all his paws (he gets a treat after each successful paw check). He's pretty chill about it, and since I'm looking at the nails all the time, I feel more confident about when they need a trim. Thor also has dew claws, and those are such a pain to maintain. There's like one day between "too short" and "growing into the pad". And once they are too long, it's really hard to get the clippers around them.
I also have accidentally pinched Thor with the scissors and made him yelp. I really do try to be careful, but I also want him to be able to take occasional mistakes in stride.