As Dempsey, our polydactal, “clicked” across the store counter, I groaned knowing he needed a pedicure. Dempsey’s eight additional nails—a few which are challenging with the extra toes, makes nail trimmings a bit more unpleasant. The client at the register chimed in with her own difficulties of clipping her cat’s nails—she’d even tried approaching hers while he was sound asleep.
Smarty pants here asked if she’d ever rewarded him for having even one of his nails trimmed and the look of puzzlement gave me my answer. So I proceeded to describe my success with my 4 yr old, 70 lb., lab’s fear of nail trimming. From the time we brought her home at four months, Olive trembled as I tried to trim. The more I held her, the more she pulled away. And of course I trimmed too close in the struggle and ended up working on stopping the bleeding.
Fortunately, Olive is food motivated so I started laying out treats to distract her. The problem was in her distraction to reach them, she pulled in the opposite direction. Then one day while making a peanut butter sandwich for myself, it dawned me the peanut butter could be applied to attract her focus. I pulled out the trimmers and smeared peanut butter on the top of my hand that held them. Yep, we got peanut everywhere the first few times, but she focused on my hand and was distracted from the trimming. Over the next few trimming, the amount of required peanut butter reduced but the so did the time it took to trim all her nails.
And that’s when it hit me . . . I could to the same approach with Dempsey! I found the feline nail trimmers, picked up the ghee (clarified butter, great treat for older cats and a great source of fat for them) and smeared a glob on top my hand. I let him get a whiff and a lick. Then trimmed one nail. Then two and a third, with licks in-between. I even reached for the most uncomfortable one—a nail that’s wedged between an extra toe and his main paw. Not a grumble! With that success, I let him down. I will repeat the process over several days until I get all 22 nails. Plus, after getting down he set about cleaning up the ghee that had gotten on him, instead of running off in a snit. I wasn’t frustrated and he was onto getting the last taste of butter.
Fortunately, Olive is food motivated so I started laying out treats to distract her. The problem was in her distraction to reach them, she pulled in the opposite direction. Then one day while making a peanut butter sandwich for myself, it dawned me the peanut butter could be applied to attract her focus. I pulled out the trimmers and smeared peanut butter on the top of my hand that held them. Yep, we got peanut everywhere the first few times, but she focused on my hand and was distracted from the trimming. Over the next few trimming, the amount of required peanut butter reduced but the so did the time it took to trim all her nails.
And that’s when it hit me . . . I could to the same approach with Dempsey! I found the feline nail trimmers, picked up the ghee (clarified butter, great treat for older cats and a great source of fat for them) and smeared a glob on top my hand. I let him get a whiff and a lick. Then trimmed one nail. Then two and a third, with licks in-between. I even reached for the most uncomfortable one—a nail that’s wedged between an extra toe and his main paw. Not a grumble! With that success, I let him down. I will repeat the process over several days until I get all 22 nails. Plus, after getting down he set about cleaning up the ghee that had gotten on him, instead of running off in a snit. I wasn’t frustrated and he was onto getting the last taste of butter.
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