Clipping nails on a wiggle worm

Posted by Charlene Eberle on March 7, 2014

As many of you animal owners know clipping a cat or dog nails of is not easy. It’s best to invest in good nail clippers for your cat or dog. For dogs it’s a really good idea to get your dog use to you touching their paws. Sammy is ok with us touching his paws (he even likes a paw message) Jake on the other hand HATES his being touched. So clipping Sammy nails is not as bad as Jakes. I wish I had know about getting Jake use to having his paws ouched sooner but now that he’s almost 11 that ship has sailed.

What do I do to get Jakes nails clipped….Well its a 2 day process, maybe if we’re lucky we can do it in a day.

1. I have to get the treats out. Most important even with Sammy he loves to get rewards for a good job, and who wouldn’t :D.

2. Make sure they have gone a good walk and are a bit tired to struggle.

3. Calmly with lost of praise lie down with Jake with clipper in hand, no fumbling as once you do you have lost the Chi to get the ball rolling.

4. Make sure to to touch the pawn firmly but not too hard. Firmly so they don’t recoil their paw as your aiming for a nail as that’s when an accident can happen.

5. Do it FAST, get small tops of the nail (see pics below for proper angle). You do not need to get a lot of the nail because then your in danger of clipping into the quick.

6. If you are successful with all the nails in one round, check them all and see if any other nail may need a tiny bit more clipped and get only those. This moment is traumatic , so you need to be precise an again FAST.

7. All the while you tell them good boy, girl, good kitty. Coo them with positive soft voice. This makes it less traumatic for them.

8. Once you done give them a treat!

9. Put the clippers away.

10. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done 😀