Folsom Toenail Blues

SUMMARY: If Johnny Cash had a dog...

Radio Taj MuttHall (K-TMH) hasn't posted in a lonnnnng time. So here ya go. True story.

I hear those toenails comin',
They're clicking down the hall.
I ain't clipped those dog claws since
Adam was small.
I've got to grab those clippers
And then the Dremel tool.
Then I must clip them shorter
While doggies sit and drool.

When they were only puppies,
My groomer told me, gal,
Keep their toenails shorter to
Improve the dogs' morale
But I let them grow like bamboo,
So now they're ten feet long
And if those puppers jump me,
That sure will end thi

Doggy Scratchtoe

SUMMARY: More misbegotten lyrics from K-TMH radio and Mother Goose.

You know the English folk song/nursery rhyme--

Bobby Shafto's gone to sea,

Silver buckles at his knee;

He'll come back and marry me,

Bonny Bobby Shafto!

So. I'm very behind on trimming the Boy Beasts' nails.  I'm always very behind on trimming them. And Zorro has toenails like ... uh... like... untrimmed small dog toenails. Sharp! And then the weather was hot and I was wearing shorts, and then this happened with Zorro:

Doggy Scratchtoe paws at me,

Long red welts across my knee;

Will he stop? Let's wait and see.

Naughty Doggy Scratchtoe!

(Back in June. Just posting now. Whatev's.)

Dog Parts -- Tika Up Close and Personal

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Dagnabbit

SUMMARY: Teeters and toenails

I'm not usually very good about trimming my dogs' toenails. As I've mentioned before, Tika's hardly ever need it, and neither did Jake's or Remington's, or even Amber's or Sheba's, for that matter. So the fact that Boost's grow so long so quickly (it seems) is a problem for me.

I *did* think to actually trim them (Dremelling) before our last trial 2 weeks ago. AND I remembered to trim them again last week. AND I remembered to check them again this morning, and by golly, Boost's looked long enough to dig the Mariana Trench in my back yard. How is that even possible? I trimmed the first few, but then she fought me ferociously when I tried to do her--uh--pointer finger on her right front foot. I couldn't figure it out for a while, except that she'd let me do the others, but absolutely not that one. Finally discovered that she had cracked it on the underside, maybe 2/3 of the way towards the tip, into the quick.

This explains why, for the last few days, I keep thinking she's limping, but then when I watch closely, she's fine.

I gave up on Mister Dremel and managed to get one snip using the old standby doggie nail clippers, which she yelped at but at least I took off a little of the length.

Thing is, if I try to clip any more, I'll be hitting the very tip of her quick, looks like from here.

In class last night, too, never noticed a limp except, same as it's been, "was that a limp? oh, hmm, no, she looks fine now", and she was fine... Except for coming off the side of the *!@&@*%# teeter. Really, she used to have a BEAUTIFUL teeter that people would say, "I want my dog's teeter to be like Boost's!" Apparently I've completely ruined that somehow. Dang relaxed criteria. I did drag the teeter out into the yard after the last trial, and then Things got in the way--it was my last week at my current client, so more hours than usual trying to clean things up; got very sick Friday and so didn't have it in me to do much of anything on Saturday either, gone Sunday. Rained several days this week.

Anyway, point is, I was thinking now that the sun is out again, I'd do a ton of teeters with her today and tomorrow in preparation for Sunday's trial. (We're staying home Saturday so I can attend a friend's father's memorial service.)

But with a damaged toenail, nope, don't want to be doing anything at all with her today and tomorrow, and am mulling over calling the vet in the morning and seeing whether he'd trim another eighth of an inch off the end into the quick, or what... worried about running her on sunday either way, but I know that if I take her and do nothing with her, she'll be stir crazy by the end of the day.

Not to mention for the next 2 days! She's already antsy because I didn't do the usual walkies and playtime before dinner this evening.

Decisions, decisions...

Meanwhile, Tika *walked* through the tunnels last night in class, even the straight ones. OK, it had been raining earlier in the day and everything was wet. This just tells me again that Tika's getting older and more cautious, whether it's her bones or her eyes or what. Not sure she's going to be competing for another year. Makes me sad. But she seemed to be jumping well.

Expecting good weather for this weekend, for a change I'm not working any key position at the trial, and the trial is on the smaller side again, about 80 dogs in Masters/P3, so Sunday should be fun and fairly relaxing. I hope.

So that's our lives at the moment.

On Speed

SUMMARY: heat, age, toenails, prednisone...

I knew that Boost's toenails had gotten long again, before last weekend, and I meant to trim them. Carried the Dremel tool with me all weekend, but nooo.

Finally got around to it today.

So, tell me, how do Tika's toenails stay fairly well worn down all the time, but Boost's front center toenails were, please forgive me, at least half an inch beyond the quick?! It took a while to hone them all down.

Maybe that's why she was running a bit more circumspectly this last weekend--toenails uncomfortable?

Or was it the prednisone?

Or is she just getting better from running in agility circles around the yard rather than focusing on specific drills?

Tika was pretty danged fast the first two runs Saturday, then slowed down a bit, then sped up for the 6th run of the day. Fairly fast first thing Sunday, too, and had slowed significantly by the last run of the weekend.

The differences that I noticed seemed also to correspond to how cool and foggy it was: The cooler & foggier, the faster she got. So maybe it's not vision or arthritis, but simply that, as an older dog, she no longer has the tolerance for heat, even minor heat, that she once had. Given how much she flagged on the last hike we did, I'm realizing that I just might not have a fast dog when the cloud cover clears away. So strange to be saying this, as Tika was always On On On and the weather be danged.

So, anyway, the mysteries of my dogs' changing speed and successes keeps me guessing, but I am once again mostly looking forward to this weekend, and a large part of that is Boost having done so much better than usual last weekend. Hope it lasts.

One of THOSE Weekends

SUMMARY: Not what I'd planned for, although not a disaster.

Here's what I really wanted to get this three-day weekend:

• For Tika: Top Ten points in Gamblers, Snooker, and Standard. (More Top Ten points in Jumpers would be OK, but mainly as security padding, as I think we probably have enough to stay in the top 10 for the year already.)
• For Boost: Jumpers Qs and Snooker Super-Qs.

Here's what I got:

•  Tika: A very few Jumpers Top Ten points (4, out of 2 runs), one gamblers Q (no top 10 pts), one pairs Q, one Steeplechase Q and win ($20, pays our Steeplechase entry fee), a DAM team Q (not even in the top 3 for medals), and three "unattached" Qs for DAM individual classes that count towards lifetime totals but not towards anything else. Including a lovely win in Snooker and 3rd in Gamblers (sheesh--needed those in the *normal* snooker and gamblers classes!).
• Boost: Two gamblers Qs, one pairs Q, and a DAM team Q.

Sigh. It's definitely better than a no-Q weekend. And the dogs mostly held up well, no problems from Boost's broken dewclaw toenail. But really, couldn't I have gotten at least ONE of the things I particularly wanted?

I am amazingly exhausted and sore. I will undoubtedly write more at some other time.

DANG Dew Claws!

SUMMARY: Taj MuttHall Mom messed up again.

So, it was Thursday night. I noticed that the dogs' toenails were rather long again. Check the Dremel (for honing off the ends of the toenails) but the battery, as usual, had drained completely between uses. Plugged it in overnight.

So, it was Friday night before an agility trial. Exercising the dogs in the yard. Go up to the deck, grab the dremel to do the toenails. Boost is sitting there waiting, licking licking licking at her paw.

Yes indeed, it's a torn and bloody dew claw again. Waited too long to trim. Even a day too long is apparently too much. Not as badly ripped as last time, so I trimmed off the too-long end as best I could, poor baby dog, and I'm not going to pay $200 again to go to the emergency room to have them cut out and cauterize the broken nail.

And hope for the best. Just what I need, Friday night before a 3-day trial. Ah, me. Ah, Booster.

Ready for the Weekend

SUMMARY: Tidbits.

Thanks to folks who comment on my cry of horror about the slice halfway off Tika's dorsal pad. Tuesday I got up the gumption to see whether I could clip it off without hurting her and it wasn't too hard to do. (Used toenail clippers!) It looked fine then and it hasn't bothered her at all. Yay!

I've set up a few things in the yard this week to work on a very little bit. Did some very tough weave cross-behinds; Tika got them all but Boost took a little work. (Knew that because she spun out of them in Pairs last weekend when I tried one.)

Did just some running full out in circles using jumps and tunnels. A little tiny bit of dogwalk contact work. Some sending out to jumps. Some simple gambles. Now, we'll see.

Left MUTT MVR's side door open, and the zipper bag containing the trial dogfood unzipped. This afternoon when I went out there, discovered the gallon ziplock bag from the dogfood bag empty with a large hole torn in it. Someone got a way large food supplement today. Boost didn't want to take the Guard the House Goodie when I left, but that could've been stuffed belly or just that she didn't want me to go. Found a pile of tossed-up not-digested dogfood in the back yard when I went out. Seems to me that Boost was much slower than normal eating her dinner this evening. But don't know, probably never will know, and everyone should be fine by Saturday morning.

Then it's up at 5:00 a.m., drive through the beautiful sunrise countryside with the shreds of tule fog over the fields and off to Prunedale once again with friends and beasts.

Easy Come, Easy $180 Go

SUMMARY: Boost's toenail = vet visit.

Boost ran fine in class last night with vet wrap around her toenail, but when I unwrapped it, it was bleeding again. Wrapped it for play this morning, and again it was bleeding.

I looked more closely at it. The broken part that I didn't want to cut off because it's below the skin line is basically pinching the quick and continuing to injure it. So--off to the vet we go.

Vet won't cut into the skin without sedating the dog. I guess that makes sense, but it's very expensive: sedation and 3 hours under observation afterward. Plus they want her on antibiotics because the injured skin will be making contact with the ground. He said she will be fine for agility in the morning, but not this afternoon. So no bar-knocking drills today, either.

She's at the vet now. I picked a vet closer to home because today is very busy with work and packing for the weekend, and I didn't want to drive the half hour to our regular vet. I have to go pick her up at 4:00. I cry when I have to leave my dog at the vet, I'm such a wimp.

I'm a bit weepy, too, when I have to spend $180 for one broken toenail.

At least it's not raining.

Do Those Dewclaws That You Do So Well

SUMMARY: Poor Booster's little toeie has an owie.

Dinnertime last night, and Boost is lying in the corner lick lick licking her paw. I check it out: Dew claw toenail is broken in half at the quick and it's bleed bleed bleeding. Gotta hurt, too.

I don't trim them often enough, and it was pretty long, so I blame myself for this one. Thing is, Tika's dew claws (and back in the day, Amber's and Sheba's) kept themselves trimmed down--proof positive that some dogs indeed get traction from their dewclaws when running. Jake's *never* wore down at all; Boost's wear down a bit but not enough. So with one dog who doesn't need it at all and one dog who needs it seldom, I just forget.

I was able to trim off most of the broken part with no sign of pain on her part. A little styptic power to stop the bleeding, a nice flesh-colored bandaid (couldn't find any merle-colored bandaids) to cover it for a little while (chyeah, that stayed on for hours--not!), and some constant reminding to leave it alone.

By bedtime the bandaid was lonnnng gone and she was leaving it alone. Just trying to decide whether I want to wrap it in a bit of that mesh tape when she's outside running the next couple of days. In class tonight. And how about at the trial this weekend? Since I know that she uses them a bit, since they wear down a bit--

argh, decisions! [Gnaws at own nails--]

The Weekend

Note about photos: All scanned in, and I apparently did a crappy job of it. Will have to redo eventually. Not tonight. Sorry. They're blurry & not all that great-looking.

One: It was danged hot.

Tika ran very fast despite the heat, but it slowed her a bit eventually. She never did stop panting.

Probably in the high 90s each day, and progressively more humid each of the three days. Ah, agility in the Central Valley in July! I suspect the humidity might have had a lot to do with the neighbors flood-irrigating their huge, huge fields. The owner of the agility site says that that also has a lot to do with the clouds of mosquitos that we encountered at certain times of the day or night.

So we're busily emptying our flowerpot drip pans, and meanwhile there are gigantic fields of stagnant water all over the central valley--

But I digress from the heat. Even I, who usually perspires not a drop, had thouroughly soaked through my jeans and polo shirt by midday Monday.

Two: Toenails Too Long

Tika allows me to do her nails, but she always looks away or hides her head. I don't know why--noise? Smell? Can't bear to see whether Mom'll hit the quick?

Everyone got his or her toenails dremeled this weekend. Jake's toenails are mostly black, so I can't tell where the quick is, really. Boost's are white/clear and I've been trimming them fairly often and she's still fairly young so they haven't become overly long. Yet. Tika's are also clear and I can see the quick and it's much further down the toenails than one would ideally like. If only I had the get-up-and-go to just touch them with the Dremel every couple of days, I might chase the nails back to a reasonable length.

Three: The old guy

Jake, who's cool no matter the circumstances.

Jake ran in only 5 classes this weekend—three Jumpers, one Snooker, and one Jackpot (Gamblers). He was very smooth in all of them, but did not get the Gamble. Qed in four of five, what a good guy. Placed from first to third out of about 4 dogs, all considerably younger than himself. And he seemed pretty happy, although I've seen him run faster...for example, last night in class! Maybe it was the heat.

Four: The baby dog

Boost at five months.

Everyone tells me how cute Boost is. Of course I think so, and maybe they're just under the spell of puppydom, but it's nice to hear. She got to play with one of her sisters for a while, although Beck (your basic black & white BC) wanted to lie in the shade more than she wanted to run around like a crazy dog. It barely got Booster panting, although she did do quite a bit of running. I tried to remember to put her into a crate rather than the x-pen whenever I took one of the dogs out for an event or took both for a walk, but I forgot a couple of times, and one of those times she apparently climbed out of the pen, was caught by a neighbor, and plunked back into the pen. She didn't try again in the few opportunities she received.

Five: Tika's Championship Chase

Tika weaving, with both eyes open in the photo for once.

Tika Qed only 8 out of 15 this weekend, but there were some that were plenty my fault and not at all hers--

• I ran the wrong course in Snooker
• I forgot where I was going in one Jumpers and one Standard
• She had *two* chances at two different gambles in one Jackpot and missed both--thereby proving that I'm not training & practicing gamble-type operations nearly enough with her, as they were both fairly straight-forward (although only 3 dogs out of about 50 got either gamble--and those got BOTH gambles. So either you can gamble or you can't.)

However, she was running really nicely. Stayed at the start line, lying down only once. Left a couple of contacts early at the first opportunity on Saturday and I made her lie down after each (earning an elimination for training in the ring--there went another Q), and then she was good for the rest of the weekend. Hardly grabbed at my feet at all at the end of the run, although once she leaped in the air and grabbed my shirt, which could be a bad thing. Did her dangedest to do everything I asked her to, and very quickly. What a lovely girl!

Still, back to knocking bars again. Knocked a bar in probably half of the 15 runs. Better than sometimes, but not as good as the previous CPE weekend, with NONE down. So--back to practicing jumping drills regularly. Sighhhh--

We DID get another Jackpot that only a few dogs got. AND we got two Jumpers and two Colors legs (out of 3 and 2, respectively), towards our C-ATCH. So we could still finish at the Bay Team trial on the 23/24 if we get both Jumpers and both Colors. A long shot, but it could happen...

Get Them Toenails

Dogs' toenails grow. (Duh.) If they get too long, they can become painful to the dog when running or--for agility dogs--for things like descending a steep A-frame, jumping, and so on. Too-long nails are more likely to catch on things and possibly bruise the toe or even tear.

Remington and Jake never needed their toenails clipped at the Hacienda House. I thank our super-long asphalt driveway for that; we played fetch and did agility stuff like going through tunnels on the driveway, a lot, all the time, and that, I believe, kept the toenails down.

After we left there, however, the toenails started becoming obviously long. I hate using the various nail-clipping tools. No matter what kind of adjustment they provide, I often end up clipping down to the quick in the toenail (think of cutting or ripping your fingernail into the area where it's attached to the skin). It hurts them. It bleeds, although styptic (?) power seems to stop the bleeding quickly.

Friends introduced me to using a Dremel tool to sand away the toenails, and I like that, because I can go in increments and it's much harder to damage the quick. It didn't take long for Jake and Remington to accept the Dremel--I just gave them goodies as I brought it closer and closer to them and briefly touched their toenails and so on. Tika took slightly longer, being a little less accepting of touching her assorted personal parts (that would be any part of her, really...)

Boost has not been agreeable about getting gradually used to it. It worked fine up to where I actually touched it to her toenails, at which point she'd go nuts. After several days of trying to get past this point, and getting periodically scratched by her needle-pointed nails, last time I just settled her in my lap, held her firmly, and just did it. She struggled mightily and I just kept working at it. Every time I managed to get a bit of grinding done on a toenail (and we're talking maybe half a second to a second--it doesn't take much for toenails that tiny), I'd give her a goodie or two and praise and pet and snuggle. She held quite still for that part.

It was a mighty struggle, although eventually she relaxed and let me do the last several toenails without a struggle at all.

So I figured we had it figured out, right? Ha ha ha. It is to laugh. This morning I did Jake's and Tika's nails right in front of her crate, giving them and her goodies after each nail. Then I settled her into my lap, gripped her firmly, touched the Dremel to her toenail--and she went ballistic. It probably took 10 minutes of trying to hold her still long enough in a way that wouldn't hurt her but that still allowed me to make progress on her nails. And every nail she fought fought fought.

To her credit, she never bit at me. I'm quite pleased about that. However, because I was wearing my bathrobe, I ended up with dozens of scratches from sharp toenails all over the inside of my leg. Yowtch. Time to plan on not sweating for a while... And then, finally, for the last four or five nails, she waited quietly while I did them, and then was reasonably quiet while I went back and touched up some that I had done a bad job on while attempting to hold a wildly wiggling 20-pound pup firmly.

So has she accepted it yet? Next time shall tell...

I'm definitely thankful, however, that all of Boost's toenails are clear (white), so that I can see where the quick is inside! 16 of Jake's 18 are black; what a challenge.

Crate Training and Sharp Dewclaws

The crate-training games proceed apace. Not only will Boost sit if she's standing when I put my hand on the crate, but she's getting to where she'll actually sit up if she's lying down (a tougher concept) --and it works for the plastic/wire crate, the zippered fabric crate, and the wire x-pen! So she has generalized well. I'm proofing long & longer times with her sitting there, and me being in different positions. I'm afraid maybe I'm moving too quickly, as she's starting to stand up and head for the door before the release. So I'll have to take it easy.

I started to introduce her to the Dremel tool for doing her nails. It went reasonably well the first night but somehow we jumped from one instance where she was quietly accepting of the vibrating tool touching her toenail (not the tool part yet, just the handle) to her yelping and grabbing violently at it. So the next night I worked very very very slowly and was at the point where I could hold her toenail and touch it with the vibrating handle and immediately give her a goodie without her struggling, but it took dozens and dozens of doggie junk food to get there. And in the early struggle, she slashed my wrist with one of the very dewclaws I need to trim down--they are *very* sharp puppy dewclaws, like miniature scythes.

Then yesterday there was a work crew here all day working on my yard and I never had a chance to move to the next step. Dangerous little doggie feet!

Toenails that Make You Weep

I don't remember ever having to trim Amber's or Sheba's toenails. Remington's I trimmed occasionally as he got older--also after we moved away from The Old Big Yard, where we had a 150-foot asphalt driveway on which we played every day, his nails all grew faster than he could wear them away. Jake's never seemed to need trimming, even after we left the driveway trimmer behind.

I hated using nail clippers, even the guillotine type that had a guard that prevented them from going very far at one chop. Sooner or later I always ended up cutting into the quick, which I just absolutely hated. The books suggested always having Styptic (?) powder on hand so you could quickly stop the bleeding when you cut the quick, which tells me that everyone has this problem, but I still don't like it. I bought some of that stuff a few years back and it seemed to do the job but it didn't solve the problem of torturing my poor dogs.

About 3 years ago, some friends at a show were trimming their dogs' nails by filing down with a Dremel tool. It seemed very cool. I tried it on Remington and he didn't object nearly as much as he did with the cutters, and I could stop anywhere I wanted much more easily.

So I went out and bought a Dremel tool specifically for trimming my dogs' nails; how extravagant is *that*?

Jake's nails still virtually never need trimming, *except* that the dew claw on his right front foot gets longer and sharper and longer and sharper--go figure. What's his left foot doing that his right foot isn't?

Most of Tika's nails keep themselves well filed down, including her dew claws--but the two middle toes on both front feet keep getting longer and sharper and sharper and longer... How can that be? I wonder if any of this tells me anything about their gait and stride--?

I can tell I've waited too long between Dremellings when Tika's claws leave little indents or fine-lined scratches on my skin. And Jake has ripped off that dew nail once before when I didn't keep an eye on it. Talk about ouches.

Tika Scared of Jake

Now this is weird. Yesterday and today (and maybe the day before?) Tika has been acting frightened of Jake half the time. I haven't seen anything on Jake's part that would warrant this, although of course they have been alone in the house together occasionally.

Last couple of days, when Jake has started to sniff her underparts, she reacted as if he had threatened her--first time she kind of snarled and spun away off the bed with her tail down (too short to go between her legs) and wouldn't come back onto the bed; the second time I was just skritching her ears and Jake came over, Mr. Casual, and started to sniff, and she skittered away so abruptly it was almost as if he'd bitten her--which he didn't.

Now here in the office, I offered to let her half onto my lap to give me a hug. She complied, but when Jake ambled over, she again tucked tail and ears and tried to hide on the far side of my chair. Wouldn't come back to snuggle with me at all, even after I got Jake to lie down (where he lay quietly, obsessively licking his feet). Wouldn't walk by Jake--tried to hide behind another chair when I tried to call her over. This is so odd. She has never seemed intimidated by either dog before, even when Rem was grouchy and landed on her for various transgressions.

I think she was still crashing into him with her ball outside this morning as per SOP, but now I'm not so sure about that.

I'm thinking it might be some kind of delayed reaction to Remington being gone, but I can't think why or how or what.

She has also been licking between the two outer toes on her right foot a lot since Wednesday. I can't find anything there, no cuts or irritation or anything that feels swollen or embedded. Her toenails were pretty long, so I trimmed them back. Hard to tell if she stubbed a toe or something.

Toenails: Explain to me how a dog can keep her dew claws worn down to a stub but the middle front toenails grow unimpeded.