Yes I understand. I ‘took the bull by the horns’ the other day and clipped Red’s nails (fore legs, her back ones seem to get worn down naturally). I just asked F to hold her and I got on with it. Took about 3 minutes. Yes some people would say it’s not good to hold her but we did it gently and kindly - better done by us than someone else. She got a good treat too afterwards
Sometimes you have to do things. There is a time and a place for cooperative care, and that's the gold standard, of course. But there are times when you simply have to do a procedure for the good of the dog. This is where you don't even ask the question, "Can you do this now?". You set it up in a very different way and get through it as gently as possible.
For Willow, this is very rarely necessary these days, but in the past, there have been situations where she's been stressed continuously for such a long period that her nails needed doing and I knew she wouldn't be any less stressed the following day, or the one after. In those situations, I had J sit with her with a hand on her chest while I just got on with it. In this situation, I pick up her foot (her start button is offering me her foot, so I don't wait for that) and crack on. After a few goes with this, she didn't even need the hand. She understood that when J was sat with her, it was a time when she didn't have a choice. If not, she did. You just have to be very clear and, if you
do ask the question, you must
always respect the answer. So if you aren't prepared to accept a "no", just don't ask.
