A Self Grooming Pet

We are the proud owners of two pure mutt dogs. They are the rabble rousers at our house and keep everyone entertained with their continuous antics. Our first dog was a fox terrier named Brownie. She was very smart and very temperamental but we did not spoil her. My sister would feed her dog ice cream and give them table scraps while our dog was given dry food and too bad if she wanted something else. The kids quickly threw a monkey wrench into that decision with their “see the funny doggy” as they tossed food off the high chair. After thirteen years, she became arthritis ridden, could no longer get on and of the porch, and became incontinent and we knew it was time to put her down. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

Our two newest pets have it considerably better. We have a female that is part Whippet and part Border Collie. The other is a male whose mother was a Border Collie and the father must have been a hound. They get dry dog food mixed with Alpo chunks and stirred with warm water. We try to keep them groomed a little better and purchased toe nail clippers to keep their feet from becoming deformed. The female lets us hold her and was relatively complacent when we trimmed her toe nails. The male wanted nothing to do with trimming his nails. I held him and my wife grabbed his front paw. He started peeing all over. We stopped and tried to calm him down. The second time he peed on us (of course when I say us, I mean me.) Since I was holding him, I got the brunt of the stream. Not being one to get bested by a dog, I draped him with a towel and held him tighter for the third try. Somehow he managed to fling the towel off and once again, he peed on me. Needless to say I had enough. I had to ask myself who was the smarter one. I had my doubts.

So we decided to take him to the vet to get his nails trimmed. Well, a couple weeks went by and we looked at his paws to see if it was time. To our amazement, they were trimmed. I looked at my wife who shrugged her shoulders and commented “not me.” So I started watching him and low and behold, he chews his own nails. He wakes up from a nap, licks his feet and if he finds a toe nail too long, starts to gnaw on it. He also has managed to figure out a way to open the back sliding glass door to let himself out. If we can get him to close it when he comes back in, we may have something.


Icool

Cobb