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Old 08-17-2010, 05:50 AM   #17
Mitzis Mom
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Maryland
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Originally Posted by QuickSilver View Post
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.
Thanks a lot for your input! The problem is that Maggie lets me handle her paws without any problems and tolerates the nail clippers on her nails as long as I don't try to cut them... I guess she still remembers the pain the groomers gave her when they cut to deep into the quick . What I'll try next time is to give her some childrens benadryl to calm her down and have my dh help me. That way it might be less of a fight...
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