doggie trauma

Brian and I go through the most traumatic experiences with Nikita when we cut her nails (of all things). I mean, we follow all the suggestions - constantly playing with her paws and nails and getting her used to us touching them. We give her lots of treats and praise while we're nail clipping too. But at the end of the day, when those clippers come out, the doggie ear muffs go on and Nikita wants nothing to do with us!

To make matters worse, we suffered serious doggie trauma this past weekend. In our usual roles of Brian as dog restrainer and me as nail clipper, I managed to severely cut through the quick on a nail on her back paw. Why didn't anyone tell me how much it REALLY bleeds?! There was blood all over my hands, the floor and Brian's pants, who was still holding a very stressed Nikita on his lap. Now, if you know Brian, you know how much pride he takes in having a nice hardwood floor. There was no way that he was letting Nikita get away until we stopped the bleeding!

I rushed to get the gold powder to press into her nail and stop the bleeding. But, no matter how much powder I used, it just kept bleeding! So, I held a paper towel to the nail end and applied constant pressure. By now, I was in tears and apologizing profusely to my dog - Brian told me that I had to let go of Nikita's paw and go find gauze and tape. So, I ran around the house completely beside myself and in tears, looking for something to tape off Nikita's paw. I ended up with band-aids and scotch tape. Needless to say, the top priority on the shopping list this weekend is a first aid kit.

During all this, Nikita was SO traumatized that she started to pee. On Brian's lap. So, now Brian is covered in dog pee and blood and I'm running around the house in tears. Nice picture, eh?! We finally stopped the bleeding by applying more pressure and using more powder. It took a little while, but aside from being exhausted, Nikita was fine in the end. Phew!

So, the moral of the story is that Brian and I now know when to admit defeat. Even though $10 seems like alot for a nail clipping, it is far less expensive than the trauma and mess suffered when we cut our dog's nails ourselves...