Oh, boy, have the past [many] years given me lots of experience in paying attention to the lessons of old mistakes and never more so than in the past nearly sixteen years, when I’ve had so many new things to learn.
Little Bear was my first puppy, and I was far too indulgent with him. Then he grew to be a 100+ pound sasquatch, and basically untrainable. I mean we got along fine, but certain lessons that should have been taught when he was a puppy never took. One thing somebody told me at the very first, which I ignored, was “Get him used to you messing with his paws, because sometimes you’ll have to.” Little Bear did not accept me fiddling with his paws.
So one thing I always did with Puppy Tobie was mess with his paws during play. He got to liking it. In fact in the evening when he’s looking for validation, one thing he’ll often do is hold up his paws so I’ll rub them. Good thing, too, because his claws have gotten long and intrusive and really needed clipping. And this evening they got that – and BOY he did not think it was right. He’s big and strong enough to have given me a very hard time about it but he trusted me enough to put up with it, and I credit that to taking good advice the second time around.
He’s a good boy. And I try to never be quite as dumb the second time around.
Wrap a piece of plastic wrap around your head like a hippie bandana. Smear peanut butter on the part covering your forehead. He won’t even know you are clipping his toenails.
I use a Dremel. She argues but I’m not wanting to cut too deep. With the dremel, no worries.
I would imagine that trying to trim the average dog’s claws with a Dremel would be like trying to remove loose undercoat with a vacuum cleaner. Sounds like a good plan in theory, but…
I hope you made a big deal about rewarding him? It makes for a much better experience in future clippings. All my dogs let me clip their nails now but couple took some time for them to get on board though.It’s definitely easier if you have them from a pup hands down.
Oh hell yes.