Rescue Shit

Nail trimming (without the horror)!

• Rescue Shit • Season 2 • Episode 4

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Go into some of the tricks and tips Pate uses to trim the nails of both puppies, kittens and adult animals- even when they are not the biggest fans!


Original music by Matt Setter and friend Sean!

Original content by Matt Setter and friend, Sean!

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jme:

Hi, I'm jme.

Pate:

And I'm Pate. This is Motley Zoo Animal Rescue.

jme:

And our podcast, Rescue Shit.

Pate:

Need that squeaker. For real.

jme:

I was thinking there was more to it than that. See, I don't know why I'm caught off guard every single time.

Pate:

For what?

jme:

I was waiting for, for us to go back and forth again. Saying something and I'm like, like, we just introduced ourselves. Right. I'm, I think I'm just. Dumb.

Pate:

You're blonde. Am I allowed to say that or is that not PC?

jme:

I'm sure it's not PC, but I don't really care. Okay. Today we are going to talk about nail trimming. And this is something that may be

Pate:

I'm sorry. I'm thinking about that pug that screams.

jme:

Yes, I know.

Pate:

Oh my God.

jme:

Like, it sounds like Walter, the Frenchie,

Pate:

like Duchess, Duchess screams.

jme:

Yeah. And I, I was going to ask you about her. I was going to ask you to use her as an example, but, so nail trimming is probably something that instills fear in a lot of pet owners and it's something that they don't usually want to do themselves. And that's totally fine. But it's not because you can't, There are some challenges, especially when you get an adult dog that hasn't had good practice before that. But why don't we start off just by talking about if you do have a puppy or a kitten, and you're starting off fresh, what should you do, to prepare them for the future?

Pate:

Well, you definitely want to handle them a lot. You want to handle them in different situations, like body positions. Body positions, yeah. And, what I always do with my puppies, and my kittens actually, is I'll have them in my lap with their back to my stomach, and I'll hold their feet and we'll play, you know? I'll just play with their feet. Both their front feet and their back feet. And then you slide them down into a laying down position on your lap. And they have to be comfortable. Some dogs will struggle and then they'll try to flip over. But you just have to, It's not an alpha role by any means. I did have someone say something to me once when I had a puppy on their back and they tried to struggle out and they were crying and I was like, you know, petting his belly but I didn't allow him to get up. It was a training thing.

jme:

Well, that was his tantrum in the grocery store.

Pate:

Exactly.

jme:

And if you let him go, he would get the treat. He would learn. Yeah. And so then the next time somebody tried to handle him, he would know that if he struggles or squeals, Mm hmm. They'll stop.

Pate:

Right.

jme:

This is the start of terrible, bad patterns. That was a person who had very strict and specific ideas of what training was like. But did not actually have, actually have life experience. Yeah. So, the difference between textbook and life experience.

Pate:

But then that's gonna be a lot of people.

jme:

That's a lot of people, that is. Whenever I have that situation where I have a puppy or a kitten that's panicking, I, I hold them and they're struggling a little bit and I tell everybody they need to calm down before I let them go or else they will learn this is how to get down.

Pate:

Right. If you struggle, then I'll put you down.

jme:

Yeah. And I'm like, so it might seem weird, but I'm teaching them something here and it's very important to make them handleable and adoptable.

Pate:

Right.

jme:

So I just talk through it and tell people what I'm doing.

Pate:

Right. And then with the puppies, you know, and the kittens, when they're very young, not a lot of people are going to have their puppies and kittens as young as I do. But I will give you a puppy that has a good foundation on this because I will take my babies and then I'll put them like in the crook of my arm and then they will be on their back. You know, kind of like you hold a human baby and then that way they get used to that. They know they're secure and so they don't struggle when they're on their back. And I find that when I do the nail trims when they're babies, when they're on their back, it's so much easier. And then, you know, obviously it's a lot of reward when they're on their back, you give them treats when you're playing with their feet, you do this constantly. And you look at their mouth and everything like that. Everything has to be in a playful manner, it's a little bit of stress sometimes because they're like, what are you doing? But you can stress out an animal to a certain extent. Well that's how. Everybody develops. That's how you get past. I mean, isn't this part of what humans are struggling with right now? Everybody wants to be comfortable and nobody wants to be challenged and yeah, and then your anxiety just grows and grows and grows because your your Ability to be uncomfortable gets less and less and less. And so we're trying to teach them that being uncomfortable with new experiences in the beginning as a puppy is Will lead to good things later and that it won't be a uncomfortable experience if someone picks them up awkwardly or when the vet starts poking in their ears or they have to have their ears clean. So, it is, it is very important to do that handling. Yeah. Cause you're acclimating them or what is it, you're desensitizing them to certain stimuli that's not typical. In nature, I guess, because,

jme:

but they're going to have to go to the vet and they're going to have to have these things done. So you may as well make it a game when they're younger. If you can, you know, if you have your dog, when they're younger or a cat, make it a game and just make it so that nothing really feels that uncomfortable to them.

Pate:

Right. Or if it's uncomfortable, well, you know, it's fine for me to be uncomfortable because eventually it's not that big of a deal, right?

jme:

Once they work through it, then it's not uncomfortable for them anymore.

Pate:

And you keep doing it.

jme:

This idea though is especially important for a dog that is of a certain type that needs to go to the groomer. You need to start brushing, playing with their paws, sticking, you know, fingers in their ears gently. You need to start doing all the things that the groomer is going to have to do or you are going to have a ton of trouble. Finding a groomer that will work with your dog and it is medically necessary for those kinds of dogs to get groomed. This is not a vanity issue. It is a requirement. So don't forget to do that kind of thing and make it a game. Again, everything you do with your puppy and your kitten, you can make it a game and you can make it fun. And honestly, when I'm handling kittens, like at an event. The more kind of manhandling I do, which, you know, I'm like playing with them and turning them over on their back. I'm doing stuff to them. The more I do that, the more, the calmer they get and the more they trust me. Yeah. And so I, I'm always like, you just got a manhandle on like, you know, and I'm sure people think it's crazy, but what are you doing? You have to, you really do have to do that and they will be more comfortable later in life.

Pate:

Right.

jme:

So how do you start actually, you know, teaching your dog how to, sit still for, for nail trims? So you, you've got maybe a puppy or a kitten on their back, in your lap, and then what do you do next?

Pate:

Well, I mean, the ideal thing is to get them to fall asleep in your lap. Puppies are easy to get to fall asleep, right? you want to play with them beforehand, release a lot of energy, and then when they're, not tired like they're gonna pass out or whatever, but you know, when they're not as cray cray, and they've run around a bit. Then you put them in your lap and, and then you get them to fall asleep in your lap on their back.

jme:

Well, even if they don't fall asleep, they'll get relaxed. They'll trust you. They'll be relaxed. So you want to practice this also before you even start to try the nail trim. You don't put them on their back, get them to settle and then do a nail trim right away. That's not how, you got to get them do that position first. Get them to trust you in that position, then you're going to start the nail trim,

Pate:

right?

jme:

And how do you proceed next?

Pate:

Well, there's a lot of treats involved, right? And so you'll have like your treats next to you. If you're like in a chair or you're on the floor or whatever, you're going to have the treats next to you that you can give them treat every now and then. I typically start with a Dremel when they're like two weeks old, but most people don't do that. But if you start with to get them used to you handling them, you have the clipper and you'll clip one nail and then you'll give them a treat.

jme:

And yeah, praise them and tell them, Oh, that's so nice. But praise them. calmly like,

Pate:

yeah, you don't want to go like, Oh my God. Good boy. Good boy. You know, you're like inappropriate. That's a good girl. That's a good girl here. Have a treat, you know? So they, they're still getting a positive reward for that. What just happened? What was that weird sound or what was that weird pressure on my paws, but,

jme:

and that's what it is, the pressure they don't, they

Pate:

sound associate with the pressure.

jme:

Okay. Let's say that, you've done this for your puppy or kitten and it's really no big deal and you can kind of do it with one hand and you know, you've perfected that. But what if you have an adult dog that's a little scared? And, if you, reach for their paw or grab their paw, they pull it back. And what are some of the steps that you would take at that point?

Pate:

Well, you, actually, you actually want to teach them how to shake. So, you shake first with your, with their hand and your paw, and you treat them. And then, the more that you do it, the longer you hold on to that paw. So, eventually, they're used to you. That's how you kind of acclimate them to holding on to their paw.

jme:

That's a pet peeve of mine, teaching a dog to shake or high five because, well, because you, because then they start slapping people. So that's an interesting, that's not something I thought of. But I, I would say too, when they're laying down and they're calmest, run your hands over their paws and kind of play with their toes just gently. Obviously don't keep going if they have like a visceral reaction or whatever. Because then you're gonna, you're gonna have a bigger process. But, it's okay if they pull their paw back, do it again. If, if they pull their paw back, do it again. And, and end on a good note, but just gently touch them and don't squeeze them. Just touch them.

Pate:

Right. And eventually you want for you to be able to grab, hold onto the entire paw, and hold onto it for a while. And then they should be desensitized enough at that point. And then you can start getting out the tools. And these are for the adult dogs. Heath, my dog, came from a situation and he was, a bit much, and getting him to not bite when you would touch his paws or anything like that, because he could not be vulnerable because at one point he was vulnerable and he was hurt by somebody. So his trust was broken. Um, and with him, our bond got pretty strong, very strong. But he was still very, very uncomfortable with having his paws touched and he would actually put his mouth on my wrist. to be like, don't even do it because I will bite you. So I mean, thanks for the warning, you know, but you're going to have to get your nails clipped. A lot of it was bribery, holding his hand and then giving him treats. But they may not be like, you know, your typical. dog treats that you purchase. Like it's going to be people food, like cheese, hot dog, you know, like chicken breast or, or whatever.

jme:

Well, and that brings up another point is if you are working with an adult dog or even a puppy, honestly, you know, a three month old puppy could be a nightmare, but, if you are working with that kind of dog, you're going to use a muzzle, and a basket muzzle is probably going to be the best way to do it because. Then they can pant and,

Pate:

and you can still give them treats

jme:

and express their anxiety and you can still give them treats. The kind that keep their mouth closed, like at the vet, one, you can still get bit that way. And two, it makes them panic more. I mean, imagine if somebody stuffed their hand over your face and you could only breathe through your nose so if you can, you know, acclimate them to a basket muzzle that it makes that part fun too. And I mean, okay, we did a thing about normalizing muzzles. I honestly believe everyone should train their dog to a muzzle just in case you need to. But anyway, that's another story.

Pate:

Yeah, that's another podcast. That's podcast number five.

jme:

And this can sometimes actually make your dog relax. Because they realize they can't use their teeth on you.

Pate:

Yeah, they're totally incompetent. Impotent.

jme:

Impotent. Incompetent. Yeah. They're incompetent. They're impotent. Yeah. So, so a muzzle may be a tool that you're going to need to think about. It is not mean. It is not cruel. We have to make this a safe thing and getting your dog's nails. It's a requirement,

Pate:

right? Well, and then if you, you know, like the people that can't trim their dog's nails at home or whatever, sometimes they go to a vet or a groomer and a groomer will muzzle your dog, you know? So you might as well, and a vet will muzzle your dog. So, you know,

jme:

well, and sometimes.

Pate:

To get, you know, conditioned to that muzzle.

jme:

And sometimes it's just another person doing it. Sometimes they just don't want you doing it. And they'll do it fine for somebody else. So, you know, maybe take turns in your home. Maybe one person is the nail clipper person. I just know that sometimes dogs act differently. For example, Bill, the dog that lives with my housemate downstairs. He can't go to any groomer. No, he does not trust anybody. And, my housemate cannot be in the same room with him when Bryan and I groom him, if she is, he's too amped up. And so she has to go in another room and we groom him. I still cannot do his nails though. He gets so freaked out if you touch his feet. And so that's something for the vet, and I don't even want to touch that. I'm sure it's a terribly traumatic experience when he goes to the vet and he has to do this. But he was injured and paralyzed and like who knows what's going on with his feet, right? He could have neuropathy, he could have a lot of things going on. But I If I put any slight pressure on his feet when I, when I'm cutting or using the clippers, he freaks out.

Pate:

Yeah, I mean, all the puppies that I, have in my house or whatever, I always start them on their back and I find that even as adults with them, like, if you have them on their back, like, kind of like their head right here, on their back and you're there, you can clip their front nails pretty easily. Yeah, Pate sits with her back against the wall and her legs straight out and then, kind of in a V around the dog's body and the dog is like, if it's a big dog, it's laying on the floor with its head at kind of her belly and then she can do that. I've seen you do that so many times, but, sometimes the dogs don't exactly participate. What happens when that happens? Like Duchess. Oh, Dutchy, Dutchy, Dutchy. She's a Frenchy. So like that whole screaming thing, if you've seen that, I, I, if you have not seen that pug getting its nails not even trimmed. It didn't even get trimmed yet.'cause his mom or her mom is laughing so hard at her that she just holds her paw and then she. Sees the clipper in her mom's hand or his mom's hand and starts screaming and the mom starts laughing and That that reminds me of Duchess, you know so with Duchess it would have to be a two person nail clipping job because someone has to hold her Like kind of like hold her against you and the other person isn't like kind of like an awkward, do I, do I stand, do I sit, you know, like kind of in between to get her nails while the person's holding her, like if you're standing up holding her, but now you can, you know, one person. Um, now, well, no, not now because Duchess hurt her back. So we're back to, yeah, we're back to that.

jme:

I was going to say it only took seven years or eight years to get her to do it.

Pate:

But yeah, with Duchess, you would have to do, you'd have to do like one paw and then she would get mad and then. You know, and then we're like, you come back of like an hour later or whatever and then when she lost her grudge

jme:

And that's okay. Like that is something that is okay like just try and get one nail done at first if if they're having a hard time and then eventually you can do two nails and Eventually you can do one paw And, and that's okay, just try and do it every day. And so you're kind of just doing this rotation. And frankly, if it is something that you do every day where you just trim a little tiny bit off, they will get used to it. One of the ways that we get the dogs used to it is we, you know, we show them the clippers, we let them, or then the, what, yeah, they're clippers.

Pate:

Right.

jme:

But I also think of clippers as like, so clippers, the nail clippers. You show them to the dog, let them smell it, give them a treat, touch it, like brush their paw with it, just like gently over their paw, tap their nail with it, and then actually make the clicking noise without actually touching them. So go click, click, and then give them a treat, click, click. Give them a treat and then then after you've done this a few times and I'm talking like a few times over a series of settings not like a few times in a row and then moving on if they're still freaking out.

Pate:

Yeah. Yeah.

jme:

This is this is desensitization. This takes weeks. months of consistency. And then once you clip that first nail, then you give them the treat and you're like, Oh, so good. Oh my goodness. And then if that went well, then you can try again. And, but yeah, so preparing them with the tools and having those tools available for them to sniff and look at so that it's not just this scary thing that you bring out every time they're going to get their nails trimmed. I mean, people do that with baths, right? Sometimes they say the word bath and the dog goes running. And so, you know, we don't want this, this pug experience where he sees the clippers and just, so it's very important to desensitize them to the tools as well. So Stephanie who works with reactive dogs, she's method canine in Idaho. The nail trim routine as part of their bonding experience. And so they do it every day, just a little clip off the, you know, the nail every day. And it's, not necessarily all the nails. It's just one little clip off of each nail or depending on how the dog responds. But by the end of the eight week training, the dogs get in their nails, trim like a champ, they're falling asleep. And this is a dog that wanted to kill you before that. I wonder, you know what, you should have, seen if she could do that with, cash. I didn't have him at the time like there at the time. So my dog, we're going to talk about my black lab mix cash. He is 75 pounds and he grew up outside. So for the first six months before we rescued him, he basically lived outside. No one touched him. No one handled him.

Pate:

He has a fight for his food with, another litter. I mean, well, he was a bigger litter, so that was, and,

jme:

but no one touched his feet. This is very taboo. And even by the time he was, seven or eight months or something like that, I was struggling with doing his nails. We had a groomer that would come, she did the suspension where she's kind of suspending him. He's still screaming bloody murder. Anytime Bryan and I try to do it, it's like a scene from Dexter where like this is not good, because he moves so much and we've literally tried everything and Brian has to use all his strength to kind of like hold him down, which is terrible.

Pate:

Cause he has a panic. It's, it's like a, a panic attack and he just can't think.

jme:

Yeah. And Bryan like hurt himself trying to, you know, so, and this is with a muzzle. This is with CBD. We even tried nitrous,

Pate:

Yeah, yeah, nitrous, wasn't it gas or something?

jme:

Yeah, so in the pet care magazines, they're like, does, does your pet have trouble? And, and it's just like a little canister and the, the face mask. And it didn't affect him at all. And so it got to the point where. I had to take him to the vet and even sedating him. So giving him some Trazodone or something like that, that still isn't enough. And the last few times I've had his nails trimmed, they've had to anesthetize him. Like he's going into surgery. And this is terrible. This is terribly dangerous. You don't want to put your dog under every six months. But Jordan had him for a while as a foster and She started working with him a little bit, but even she couldn't even get to doing like one nail or more than one nail and then that was it. And so, it might take me a year to go through this, but honestly, I think it's easier and better for him if he just goes to the vet.

Pate:

Less traumatic.

jme:

Yeah, goes to the vet. And he likes the vet. He doesn't mind them.

Pate:

'cause he doesn't know what they're doing to him.

jme:

Right. And so, yeah,

Pate:

'Cause he's sleeping.

jme:

He wakes up and he is like, oh, okay. And I, I do other things, like I play with him on our stone floors, I play with the laser and try and get him to run back and forth and skid and, take him on the sidewalks and stuff like that. But his nails do grow really fast. And so, so I have a, the extreme situation. Where there wasn't much I could do about it, and now I have to deal with it. But, you know, if you do have a dog that isn't that reactive or that unresponsive to it, then, you can work up to these things. And, you know, especially if cost is gonna be a thing for you, and, doing it yourself is gonna be better and easier, in most cases. But, you just have to be patient. And, It's not that I'm not patient, but I have other battles that I'm fighting and this isn't one of them that I'm going to. So, I've pretty much given up on it, but I, I don't think that needs to be true for other people. And, and this is the first dog I've ever seen that has that extreme of a reaction.

Pate:

I mean, you can pay a vet to clip your dog's nails as opposed to doing it home. And they may not need to be sedated, but I mean, they do do the sedation kind of like when they, sedate a dog for x rays. It's the same concept because that they're obviously not okay with being still enough for an x ray and when a dog is thrashing and stuff like that the one thing that you really really really need to be careful about because this is gonna affect your dog allowing you and trusting you to do their nails is to make sure that you don't get too close to the quick because that hurts I mean and so some dogs are going to have such a fear Of expecting pain because you or someone else have clipped them one too many times and, then when they don't trust you, they're not going, they're like, look, I let you do it. I let you do it a few times and it hurt. So this, no, I don't like being hurt. And you should be able to understand that because like when you get your own nail. I mean, not even like cutting it at the quick, but sometimes when your nail bends back, I mean, that hurts like a bitch and then, you know, and if anyone has ever had their nail ripped off, that hurts like a bitch and it does well and it can be hard because a lot of dogs have black nails and you can't really see the quick, so this is why Unless you have them on your back and you've acclimated them to be on their back.

jme:

Then you can see it, but this is why going and doing it more often and taking off a little bit each time is way better than waiting and then trying to take off a lot because the quick continues to grow. So the longer you let the nail grow, the longer the quick gets, and therefore the less you will ever be able to take off ever again. So when you have the opportunity to be very proactive about it. Please do because it will it will be of a benefit to you and your dog and once the quicks have gotten so long It can be really really hard to push them to push them back.

Pate:

Yeah, I mean it can be done, but you know, it takes time Another position that is good that we use on our boarding dogs because they're adults When you have them on their four feet, it's almost like a horse maneuver, right? Because you pull them back, you pull the leg, they're standing in front of you. And if anyone has horses, they're used to farriers or whatever.

jme:

Yeah, they lift up their foot.

Pate:

Yeah, they lift up their foot. So, what you want to do is lift up their foot from behind. So, this works with the front and the back. Obviously, you're on your knees. You know, yeah,

jme:

well and now you're looking at the pads on their feet. You're looking at the bottom of their foot

Pate:

And then that way you can look at the quicks the, obviously the white nail quicks, easy to see, but the black nail quicks are also visible from that kind of position and then that, that you can clip really quick.

jme:

Something else I noticed too is, turning the clipper sideways on the nail.

Pate:

That actually causes more pressure on there quick.

jme:

Really? Yeah, don't do that

Pate:

I Can't cuz it's squeezing it, you know, so it's squeezing it this way Yeah.

jme:

Interesting. Okay, I've been doing it wrong all my life. But what I was going to say.

Pate:

That's why Cash don't like it.

jme:

No, that's not true. What I was going to say though is you always want to make sure you have like sharp tools too.

Pate:

Oh yeah.

jme:

If your tools start to get dull and you're pinching their nails, that is going to hurt and that's going to cause them to not want you to do it anymore. Cause most of the time it's the pressure that freaks them out.

Pate:

Oh, yeah. And the thing is, the pressure, and if you hit that quick, then it's tool, pressure, quick, pain. And then they're going to associate the tool with the pressure, and the pressure with the pain, and then, yeah.

jme:

Then you've done it.

Pate:

Exactly. They can tolerate the pressure. But once you get that pain involved, then they're like, not a fan. And so I also acclimate my puppies to the Dremel because I like the Dremel because of black nails. Right. And that takes a little bit more acclimation because it buzzes. And it has that motor noise, right?

jme:

Yeah, it vibrates, so it feels tingly.

Pate:

Yeah, and then, and then, and there is this one Dremel that's out there that's promoting that. It's got a special motor, so it's quiet or whatever. And I'm just like, ah, is this for real? Do I really trust Instagram and Facebook ads? Probably not. I don't know. It's probably a gimmick. So I haven't like delved into that, but the one that I like to use, the one that I promote to everyone who's interested in a Dremel, and you should pay me. No, I'm joking. There's one on Chewy's. That is, it has like almost like it's like a metal like kind of diamond top.

jme:

I've seen it around.

Pate:

Yeah, yeah, and it's rechargeable. So I really like the rechargeable part of it.

jme:

Yeah, that's good.

Pate:

But I like the metal grinding tip as opposed to some of the PET Dremels have.

jme:

Sandpaper?

Pate:

Yeah, you, it's like you, it's around. thing. It makes it go around, spins. Yeah, it makes it spin. But then you attach that spinner. You, you put like, it's a round sandpaper and I don't like those because the sandpaper moves up and down. And they don't last that long. Whereas like the metal one we've had for two years now. If they would stop losing it,

jme:

we might have to put that in the transcript of this. Show. Yeah. And yeah.

Pate:

Yeah, we got it off Chewy's. Okay. Chewy's also donates.

jme:

Yeah, Chewy's is, Chewy's is very good to us. They invited us for a Christmas event and they donated, their time and some supplies Chewy's good to rescues and shelters.

Pate:

Right, and if your order is wrong, for whatever reason, they'll send you the appropriate order and then tell you to donate the incorrect one to a shelter or a rescue. Yeah. Which is great.

jme:

That's a good, a good customer service policy.

Pate:

Yeah. So anyway, this Dremel does make noise. So you do have to acclimate them to the noise at first.

jme:

And how do you do that?

Pate:

I just have it. Hanging around. Turn it on just don't even approach the dog's feet. You don't, don't touch their feet yet. Just get'em used to that motor. Let them, you know, you don't wanna let them sniff it when it's on.

jme:

No.

Pate:

You let them sniff the tool and then you give'em a treat and then you'll turn it on and then, treat them to desensitize'em to the noise before. You apply that buzzing pressure vibration to their nails. And the reason why I like the Dremel is because you are far less likely to cut the quick and make them bleed than you are with the clippers. And also the Dremel you can Yeah. Because like when you clip, it's like, it's sharp.

jme:

Yeah. Especially like if you are wearing shorts in the summertime or something, it's like clipping is always good, but then it's, then there's the, until they wear them rounded and then you're like, yeah, and most dogs won't let you sit there and file their nails because that takes too long and stuff. So the Dremel can be a really good tool.

Pate:

Yeah. So yeah, I actually love the Dremel.

jme:

Well, and we also use those baby tiny little nail clippers for puppies and kittens or especially kittens, I guess They're they're only like a couple inches.

Pate:

Oh like the cat clippers. Yeah. Yeah, very tiny. We use those for the puppies

jme:

We use them for really small puppies and kittens

Pate:

and then also like for puppies and kittens If you don't have one of those cat clippers, you can use your own clipper.

jme:

Oh, yeah, like people. Yeah people clippers Yep, I've done that before.

Pate:

Yeah Those are all right. It's just, I like the scissor effect of the little cat clippers for the small puppies and stuff like that. And then the, the Dremel, we do use the Dremel with the boarding clients as well. And Duchess, Duchess is like, Oh, hell no. When she heard the Dremel. So yeah, Duchess doesn't get Dremel.

jme:

We should say that Duchess is a dog that we've known since she was about a year old. So she's, an OG for sure. For our daycare. For our daycare. And so, you know, we love this dog and, and she knows, she knows us. We know her. So she still comes to stay with us at our kennels for boarding and

Pate:

with her new baby sister.

jme:

Yes, that we adopted.

Pate:

That was my foster. Mm hmm that I graciously allowed Chad to have.

jme:

Yes, another another Frenchie as well. So, yeah, you know, maybe baby Frenchies don't come in to rescue that often, but when they do. We, we already knew who, who we were going to ask. All right.

Pate:

So yes. So Duchess, Yeah, we don't use a Dremel on Duchess. Duchess is, she's royalty. So she is treated with, gloved hands.

jme:

I will say whenever she would walk into the daycare, she's a very round Frenchie, like a potato. And she, she wanders into the daycare, and I would always hear, Here she comes, miss America every time. And I like, I don't know why, but Yeah. I was just thinking like, because here comes our princess.

Pate:

Exactly. Because she walks down like you would, if she had a hand, she'd be doing this Yeah. She'd be doing this. Yeah. You know, and then her face isn't a smile, it's a, yeah. You know, that's, um,

jme:

like a subtle smirk.

Pate:

Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah. Like, she's like, you know, you know you love me. Mm-hmm You know, you do. And, uh, yeah. So that's Dutchy. So when it comes to the nails, she, she gets treated with the kid gloves for sure. But you don't have to do that with every dog, especially if you acclimate them. But yeah, I mean, some dogs do, like jme said, they, they do need a muzzle. I mean, do it really quick. You know, some dogs need two people. Someone needs to apply the treats while someone clips or dremels, you know.

jme:

You do a surprising number of, of nail trims by yourself though.

Pate:

Oh, I do.

jme:

I've always been surprised. Honestly, I don't like doing nail trims. When we offered them at the, at the daycare, I was like, I don't want to do it. Like, and I don't know what it is. I just don't like doing it. I'll do it if I have to, and I do it for my own dogs, but. It's just not my favorite thing to do. But some people really love doing it. Yeah. And I, I don't know.

Pate:

Yeah. And I don't, I don't mind it, I do say that my tool of preference is the Dremel, but not all dogs, if you don't train them to it, are accepting of that motor and the vibration. I do really like the Dremel because of the the quick. With the black nails and that it rounds out the, you know, and then some people will do a combination, they'll do a quick clip with the clippers and then do a quick little buzz with the Dremel just to get the edges off, that's good because sometimes if you've got time, the Dremel is great, but if you have a dog who doesn't accept being in the a certain position for very long and you want to do it quick and you need to do it quick, clip in real quick and then, smoothing out the edges with the Dremel is time effective. And if you're confident that you won't hit the quick, yeah, you know. Well, I think, I think that's why People are afraid, not afraid, they're just a little bit, they would have other people do the nails, just because they don't want to clip their dog. And I do understand that, most dogs will forgive you, they just won't like it, of course, but they'll forgive you, And there was one of Meatball's claws that was always, I always, No matter what I did, how little I clipped, it got the quick and so I think every nail trim involved getting the quick because his nails grew so fast, but maybe that's part of why I don't like doing it because I know that even as careful as I can be that sometimes those quicks are longer, some are longer than others and even if I'm taking a little bit, it's that guilt,

jme:

Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. I just

Pate:

you feel bad when they

jme:

I don't like taking showers. I don't like eating I don't like a lot of things that take my time So I guess it probably isn't surprising that I don't want to trim nails. Yeah I've had a nail go in my mouth

Pate:

I've had a nail hit me in the face.

jme:

No, it went right in my mouth Yeah, which reminds me of a really funny story. It's not a nail trimming story, but I was, you know, fostering and babysitting some dogs and probably I had 10 little dogs and they were all on the couch with me on my lap and one of them was kind of like sitting on my lap but decided to kind of back up my, or somehow was near my face and it was a pug I think. And it backed its butthole right into my teeth while I was smiling.

Pate:

Oh my god!

jme:

And, and I, like, so I'm smiling, and then the dog backs up, and its butthole Yeah, it made contact with my teeth.

Pate:

Oh, nasty.

jme:

And so then the next picture's like Yeah, that's a good story. Don't put buttholes on your teeth.

Pate:

So gross. All right. Well, yeah. And then another thing when you're doing nails, you should always, always before you even clip your dog's nails, you have to have something to stop the blood flow because if you don't, and you clip clip that quick, it's like Dexter, like, yeah, it's a Dexter. Murder scene, you know, there's blood splattered everywhere.

jme:

Yeah, and if your dog doesn't like you holding their paws either, you're gonna have a hard time trying to dab it with a paper towel or something.

Pate:

Well, and a paper towel won't make it stop.

jme:

No, it won't make it stop.

Pate:

It won't, it won't, It doesn't clot quick enough, so you have to have something that will,

jme:

it's called styptic powder.

Pate:

Yeah, you can get styptic powder. Some people use, what is it, corn starch? Yeah.

jme:

That gets all over your house.

Pate:

Does it? The corn starch, uh, no, I mean, yeah. I mean the styptic powder kind of looks like the corn starch because it's yellow.

jme:

Yeah, it works well though.

Pate:

Yeah, and it works so quickly. And normally what I've done, is styptic powder in the, the,

jme:

The lid.

Pate:

Yeah, and then I'll put the dog's paw in the styptic powder and dab it in the powder. Some people will take a pinch and then try to put it on the dog's, bleeding nail and no, I always, I always like dab it in the lid that seems to coat it really well

jme:

well, plus you don't waste so much and you don't contaminate the container.

Pate:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So before you do nails, you definitely should have, styptic powder that. You can get from pet stores, and it's on Amazon. Like you can get everything on Amazon.

jme:

It's only a couple bucks too. I mean, it's not a lot.

Pate:

But go to your pet stores instead of Amazon because Jeff Bezos has enough money.

jme:

So, I made a post, I made a post the other day and this woman told me that I, I'm going to be sued for libel for saying that, um, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg aren't very charitable.

Pate:

What? Really?

jme:

Yeah, and I was like Oh, that's so funny. I would die to go into it.

Pate:

Really?

jme:

Yeah. She's like, you want to revise your posts because you are making assumptions. And I'm like, I'm not making assumptions. I run a charity. And both of those companies stopped supporting charities. And it's hurt us by tens of thousands of dollars. I'm not sure how that's not true. But I was like, Can you imagine if they really did sue me? Like going to court and like little old me running an animal rescue.

Pate:

Here's my five dollars.

jme:

Yeah, like some big whatever powerhouse trying to trying to shut me down. Like I was just like, oh my god, I would welcome that.

Pate:

Right. Yeah.

jme:

So we're wrapping up nail trims. I'm jme.

Pate:

I'm Pate. Hopefully

jme:

you've learned something and if you haven't or you have questions, email us at rescue shit at motleyzoo. org

Pate:

or if you would like to have any tips on anything else, email us at

jme:

rescue shit at motleyzoo. org

Pate:

again. We're signing off. This is Pate.

jme:

I'm jme.

Pate:

Rock on.

jme:

Rescue on.

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Pate

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