This is how I clip Tilda's nails. I lay her down on her back and clip away. She doesn't mind it now, but it wasn't always this easy.
When we got Tilda, we were shown how to clip her nails. Of course, at that time, Tilda behaved nicely. At home when we decided we should clip her nails, that was a different story. She was a little wiggle worm. And then, besides the fact that Tilda wasn't sure about what we were doing, you have to remember that I was getting used to the idea of clipping her nails. We tried putting the clipper on the floor with treats, trying to make it a good thing. When we
tried to clip her nails we used really good treats. We tried wrapping her up in a towel and just sticking one paw out at a time to be clipped.
Eventually, my sister and I got it done. I had my sister hold her on her back, while I clipped. In the process of that clipping, we treated and praised her. I think what really helped her though, was that we would pretend to clip her nails. We pretended a lot. Thanks to her breeder for the tip!
As you can see in the picture, I now don't need anyone to help me hold her down. And she now really only gets a treat at the end of nail clipping.
There was a time, a little over a year ago, when we started having trouble again with clipping them. She seemed kind of scared. The first day that happened again, my sister and I did get them clipped, but we had to work with her more. You can find those adventures on here in the Feb 2010 section.
But of course we overcame that. Now, as you saw, Tilda will lay on her back for me. It is nice that it isn't a big deal now, since I clip them once a week.
