I've been revisiting the New Skete books with great pleasure. In the first one (Dog's Best Friend) they talk about grooming -- cleaning ears, clipping nails, brushing, etc. -- and emphasize that we should make this a pleasurable ritual that dog and owner alike will look forward to. Accompany with lots of massage, verbal reassurance, etc., as you get into the ears with cleaning fluid, get to the nails with clippers, and such.
This has not exactly worked with Josie, at least not lately. She's learned to recognize the bottle that holds the ear liquid -- a fluid that smells like rubbing alcohol. So after Elizabeth steadies her comfortably, I approach with the bottle, and watch the dog get super-uneasy, ears flop back smoothly against her head. I get in there somehow with a squirt of the fluid and the cotton balls. And just when we all think it's over, she does a great head shake that sends the liquid all over us.
Today it was nail-clipping day. I still look forward to these things, but Josie, again, panics. If our floor hadn't been well polyurethaned, there'd be claw marks all over it today from Lizzie dragging Jose over to where I could get to clip her. Thing is, in the end, she does calm down, and we're still all the happier for it, just to have had a good cuddle. You see that's another thing: we're supposed to hold back on petting and handling her in order to reserve that for when she has earned praise. But that's really hard to do. As I keep saying: she's a puppy after all.
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