Toesday with Minnie

Yello!

My pawsies and I have another special post today.  I had to ask Wriggley to help me out so iffen you don't mind, you'll mostly be seein him and his pawsies.

See, our furriend Roo is lookin for a less stressful way to have his nails trimmed.  Wriggley said he'd share how he files his own nails!

For the record, I chew trim my own nails too.

hee hee!

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You may find it hard to believe that a nice pup like me would turn into  a growling snarling ball of whitehot canine terror when mom comes near me with the nail clippers.  Mom showed me how I can file my own nails down while she figures a way to convince me that the clippers and such are ok.

I'll tell you what we did, but first I gotta say that this whole nail file idea wasn't my mom's.  She found some information on the innernets and one site in particular to mention is Shirley Chong.

The first thing to do is make your file.  You need a piece of wood - the size depends on you.  Mine is a bit narrow for me, but mom just made it with a scrap piece of wood she had on hand.  Then you need to get some outdoor tread/safety grit tape.  You can find this at a hardware store or online.  Make sure you get the black stuff cause it has the best texture for filing.  Stick the tape to your piece of wood.  Here mom made a bigger file for me...

Er, mom seems to have a habit of not getting enough of the tape...

Anyways, now you're ready to file!

Mom used targeting to teach me to paw the file.  Use whatever method that will encourage you to paw at your file and keep it fun.

As I figured out what I was supposed to be doing for the treats, mom took away the target and also made me do more paw swipes before I'd get my reward.  I tend to get pretty excited when we do this so mom usually rewards me with toys instead of treats.  Before I knew it, I was filing my nails!

A direct link to the movie is here.

I don't know how to do my back paws.  Mom says I have no rear-end awareness hasn't figured out how to teach me so I'll understand what to do.  My regular walks seem to keep them trim.  This is what my front nails look like:

I'm a bit tentative filing my "lucky paw" where I lost a toe, but I can still keep those nails trim enough.  We play this game every few days to weekly to whenever mom thinks about it!  Frequent and short sessions are best especially when you are just learning.

Roo buddy, I hope this helps you, and any other pup out there.

Have a good Toesday, everybuddy!

Woofs,

~Wriggley