I was already grown up and married by the time I got my first puppy, and my inexperience, especially with grooming upkeep, soon became abundantly clear. Although the puppy was only six weeks old when brought home, my husband and I soon noticed that his little claws were like needles every time he jumped up into our arms. I also noticed that the dew claws were beginning to grow so long that they actually curved inward again. Having had no previous knowledge of what to do with a dog’s claws, I figured that I would just clip them myself, as if they were human fingernails. This was my first mistake.
The day finally arrived when I decided that the claws must be clipped. I had been playing with my dog outside, and at one point he jumped up to retreive his toy from me. One of his paws scraped down my forearm and left several long, red marks that hurt as if I had been cut. I went inside and rummaged around my bathroom until I found a pair of fingernail clippers. Luring him with a treat, I got my dog to lie down and attempted to clip the claws off. The first problem was that the dog would not hold still. He was terrified of the fingernail clippers! I tried to let him sniff them and see that what I was doing was not actually hurting him, but the whites of his eyes showed with wild frenzy and I finally gave up. He scampered off happily and I was left on the floor with two tiny ends from his claws. I resolved to try again when my husband came home from work. Later that night I enlisted my husband to hold the puppy down while I tried again. The dog squirmed and whined, but we finally got him to hold still long enough to try cutting another claw. I intended to make the claw short, so as to make these claw sessions as few and far between as possible. Unfortunately, I made the claw too short. I clipped the first claw, and immediately a spurt of blood came shooting out of it! My puppy squealed and ran away, and it is only due to his generous nature that he ever liked me again. I felt awful. My husband finally got the bleeding stopped, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do this again. I decided to take the dog to a professional.
When I brought my puppy to the dog groomer, I was shocked to see how much a claw-clipping session would cost me. I knew that it really couldn’t take all that long, and that I was probably being ripped off. However, I was at the end of my wits, and I handed my puppy over the counter and watched as the groomer stood my dog on a table and
May 14, 2012 
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