Thursday, October 9, 2008

Toenail Trimming Time

I know how to clip our dog's toenails (I did work in a vet clinic for several years), but ever since Tim learned to do it many years ago, he is THE toenail clipper. And the dogs obey him so well, better than me.

Maryann is demonstrating the perfect dog toenail clipping position. She ocassionally jerks her feet, but doesn't try to get up and leave. Note Panda is in line for her turn.

All of our dogs have always been required to lay still for nail clipping time. Tim does not tolerate a wiggly dog. The training starts out with him holding the dog down with knees if need be, after a couple times the knees are no longer needed and the dogs lay still.....well, almost still. Roxy still gets a bit wiggly and has to keep being told "hold still, that's a good girl, hold still..." They aren't allowed to get up until he says "ok". That's the signal for release. Here she is demonstrating the stiff-legged approach.

The black & white dogs that I have claimed as my own have all been easy to trim. Panda eagerly lays down, rolls over and puts her feet into the air. She even keeps trying to snuggle in for her turn while he's trying to clip the other dogs. It's not the clipping that she loves, it's the one-on-one attention from Tim. Each dog gets special petting and hugging after toenail clipping too.

2 comments:

Aunt Krissy said...

such good dogs! odd, but good!

tainterturtles said...

Oh, what good doggies. You have them trained very well. I'm impressed Ms Patty!