Friday, August 28, 2009

The horrors of Nail Trimming




The face of an angel, huh?
Alexis is my 9 year old min-pin, and she's my little baby doll.  She is the most lovable little girl, and she loves people and other dogs.  Everyone just loves her and loves to hold her and sqeeze her and get kisses from her.  She's just a little love bug.  UNLESS......... you are trimming her nails.  She turns into this little 12 pound demon dog when she hears the words "gotta trim your nails" or  just sees the nail trimmer in your hands.

First, she runs and hides.  So I've learned not to warn her ahead of time.  When it's time to trim her nails, I quietly just get up and close the door to keep her from running and hiding on me.
She becomes so violent when I trim her nails that I look like I've been hit by a mack truck when I'm done.  I get claw marks down my arms, neck, face, bites, bruises, etc.  I have to close all the windows before I trim her nails, because she lets out this ear piercing howling scream that probably makes people think I'm torturing her.  I have tried EVERYTHING to successfully trim her nails in less than 2 hours at a time.  Yep, minimum 2 hours to trim her nails.

I now have to put on 2 heavy long sleeved sweaters (to minimize the biting, clawing and scratching on my arms).  I put a muzzle on her but she manages to get it off EVERY TIME.  The vet told me to wrap pantyhose around her snout real tight - ha!  That's even easier for her to get off than the muzzle.  Then I bought one of those cones that goes around the dog's necks to keep them from itching their heads, usually after surgery.

Still didn't work. She is somehow able to stick her head out far enough to bite - and let me tell you, she can pack a punch with those little teeth of hers.  So then I combined the cone with a muzzle.  Still didn't work!  Don't ask me how because I still can't figure it out myself.  Sometimes I think dogs really are smarter than people.

I received one of those Pedi-Paws nail trimmers for Christmas last year.  They make it worse.  Because not only do I still have to deal with the yelping, snarling, spitting, clawing, biting dog - but thanks to the Pedi-Paws, it makes it all happen in slow motion.  At least with clippers, you clip the nail and you're done.  With the Pedi-Paws it takes about 10 times longer to trim one single nail.  And then you have the awful odor of the burning nails. *gag*

So what do I do now?  I now take her to the vets to get her nails trimmed.  The $12 it costs is SOOO worth it!  Although they might be considering raising their price, as she's bitten the vets twice!  Bad girl.

3 comments:

  1. Hi there! Nice to meet ya! Oh this is the funniest post! I say that because what you're describing is Chiquita to the T! It takes 2 people; daddy is the strongarm and I do the clipping.. and oh hell! She scares me with her screaming, and I know I didn't even touch her claw yet LOL. It's a tuff job!

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  2. BTW, who is the cute Chihuahua in the default photo?

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  3. Hi, and thanks for the follow & the comments! Trimming a min-pins nails - they don't warn you about that fact in the breed before you get one! I didn't see that in any manual! LOL

    And the chihuahua in my default photo is just a stock photo through MS Publisher. I thought it was soooo cute... and my next dog is going to be a chihuahua that I hope looks just like that one! (and I hope they are easier to trim their nails, lol)

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