Friday, September 4, 2009

the pawgiene routine

Okay, I'll come out of the closet. I have a thing for nattily groomed dachshund paws. Our previous two boys struggled too much in their younger years and were too arthritic in their older years to maintain a rigorous nail trimming schedule. By the time they became immobile and we carried them practically everywhere, their paws were like gnarled white boots tipped with bear claws. They did not have nails to be proud of, but both humans and dogs agreed the bear claw look was better than the trauma of frequent nail cutting, and we loved them, claws and all, til the day it was time to say goodbye.

Baxter has been a much easier sell on the nail trimming front, which isn't the same as saying trimming Baxter's nails is easy. Keeping Baxter's nails nubby cute comes with diligence and patience. And an extra set of hands doesn't hurt either. In our earliest days with Baxter, I tried the same bypass clippers that I used on our pair of boys, sticking to the method that worked so well before, of cutting nails while the subject was sound asleep on our sofa. While then ten-month-old Baxter gently made suckling noises to the dreams inside his head, I cleaved each nail in small amounts as a chef would shave a truffle, in hopes of avoiding the painful surprise of cutting into the quick. But two weeks later the inevitable happened, and the jig was up. This dachshund was too young and smart to sleep through anything he didn't want to have happening to him.

I next turned to all sorts of files - ceramic, metal, and emery - for human, dog, and even wood - and finally settled on the alternate use of the coarse side of a human nail file and a diamond cut swedish style foot file. Filing each nail, one by one, all while Baxter laid on his back atop a supportive pillow. Not unlike a day at the spa for Baxter, but incredibly time consuming and exhausting for his human. Surely there was something better for both of us.

By the time I was ready to move on from files, the rotary pet nail tool ads started appearing on tv. I was intrigued and tempted, but leery of overpaying for what might be a scary, loud piece of single-purpose junk. So I drove all over town in search of the Dremel Stylus, a cordless wonder that I knew to be fairly quiet and powerful from having worked with one at a friend's house. A tool that I could use for crafty projects should this whole experiment backfire.

But backfire it thankfully did not. It probably helped that I introduced dremel slowly, and always ended Baxter's early encounters before he had time to consider it foe. For the next eight weeks or so, the dremel worked itself in to his pawgiene routine, a couple of nails at a time. I experimented with various speeds and found that a setting of 2 was too slow to effectively remove nail quickly, and a setting of 4 was too fast and could cause uncomfortable heat buildup if the dremel lingered too long in one spot. I determined that 3 was the Goldilocks of settings, juuust right for Baxter's nails if I kept the tool in constant motion like I should. By the time the dremel replaced all the manual file work, it was clear that one more change to the new process was in order. Baxter's nails would be much better shaped if the dremel-er was not also the person holding the dremel-ee. And thus was born our two person dremel process, with me dremelling away while dad holds Baxter in his lap.

Baxter endures his mostly biweekly pawgiene sessions with begrudging tolerance, though he sometimes likes to test the waters to see what he can do to shorten the experience. He is a dachshund, after all. A curious wet nose too close to the sanding drum, a tug of his stubby paw out from grasping hands. But all in all he's been a good sport with my desire to maintain the cuteness of his paws. I'm sure he wonders what the fuss is all about. They're just paws, he thinks. If a rabbit doesn't care what they look like, why should he?

5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Lulu does not like me to touch her feet so clipping her nails is a chore. Luckily all the walking on sidewalks keeps them in check. She's in for a treat at the groomer today though!

Bludog said...

OK, so when you said "biweekly" did you mean that you do it once every two weeks - or twice every week? I bet you can guess which answer I have my paws crossed for...

One of our many German Shepherd girls, Lucie, really developed a thing about having her nails clipped as she got older. She was the happiest, most joyous dog in her youth, but she developed a chronic health problem which meant many long nights and many unpleasant trips to the vet. By the end of her life, we didn't even take her in the vet's office - they came out to the car to look at her. And the nails started to be pretty stressful for her too. We got to the point where we couldn't do it at home, and we tried one time to have the vet do it for us. They clipped one nail and she got a nosebleed. And the vet came out and said, "I don't think you understand ... dogs don't get nosebleeds!" She was that stressed out about it. Needless to say, hers really did look like bear claws.

With little miss Molly, we are able to cut her nails with the clippers - but she hates it. The consequence is that her trimmed nails have gotten longer and longer over time, and we need to try something new. We've been thinking about trying a Dremel for a while. What kind of attachment do you use on the Dremel? Is there anything special we need to know?

Baxter's nails look perfect, by the way.

Lorenza said...

Hi, Baxter!
Yes, your nails look perfect!
My Vet is the one who does my nails. He has to use the clipper thing because once he tried the dremel and I screamed like if he was killing me!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

kalyxcorn said...

Hi Elizabeth! that's super that walking helps to keep lulu's nails in check. When baxter was on his weight loss twice daily almost hour long walks each, the walking definitely helped, though I guess with the way Baxter uses his paws, they were wearing kinda funny like. Like he must have an instep sorta walk or something!

Hi Lorenza! yes I wasn't sure how scary the dremel was going to be when we first introduced it, that's for sure! but working it in slowly seemed to be a good way to do it with Baxter. I think the very first time, I just let him sniff and lick it.

Hi Bluedog! Every other week. i actually have considered but seem to never remember to try and do his nails weekly. It's a dilemma because if we did them more frequently it wouldn't take as long, but ya know, it's more frequent so he has more opportunities to get wise to the whole process. I currently use the barrel drum sander thingy, the fattest one which I think was the 1/4 inch. It looks like sandpaper on a roll. I don't like how there's a giant seam on it because it acts like a bump in the road, however, and if I remember one of these days, I want to get the stone-y one from Lowes.

I think you might already know that the quick grows as the nail does, so you have to work at the nails in small amounts so that the quick recedes. In other words, don't try to make them all nubbly wonderful on the first try else, just like the title of Daniel Day Lewis's movie, there will be blood.

I'll reread your comment tomorrow in case I missed anything cuz I am kinda pooped from yesterday's show and Baxter is lookin at me like I've been gone for months. :)

kalyxcorn said...

okay here is a picture which explains what I'm talking about regarding the kwik (apparently I don't know how to spell it!)

Poor little Lucie. Totally commiserate on the deteriorating chronic health issues...