Trimming your dog’s nails is no easy task, especially if they hate their feet being touched. However, with many groomers closed during the COVID-19 quarantine, taking your dog in for a nail trim is not really an option. Instead, many dog parents have tried to find ways to groom their dogs from home. Sadly, the results aren’t usually as successful as expected.
Grooming from home might seem like a nightmare for people with difficult dogs, but there’s still hope. One woman found a genius way to trim her dog’s nails, leaving many people wondering how they didn’t think of it.
How to Successfully Trim Your Dog’s Nails
Traveling ICU nurse Lindsey Shelton posted a silly video of her trimming her dog’s nails on TikTok. With some extra free time during the quarantine, it gave her new opportunities to be creative. So, she found a new way to groom her dogs, and she was dying to try it!
To start, she wrapped a large amount of saran wrap around her forehead. Then, she took a spoonful of peanut butter and smeared it all over the saran wrap. She even made a point to acknowledge that the peanut butter she used is Xylitol-free. Xylitol is an artificial sweetener that is toxic to dogs, even in small amounts.
As she spread the peanut butter on her face, her husband could be seen in the background. He questioned what she was doing and called her a dork jokingly.
“I look like a dork, but I’m about to look like a genius!” Shelton said in the video.
While Shelton trimmed her dog’s nails, she kept the peanut butter on her head as a distraction. In the video, she tried it with her gray pup named Schmidt first. She showed Schmidt that she had peanut butter on her forehead, and he immediately started licking it. As he licked the peanut butter, she started trimming his nails right away. Sure enough, he didn’t squirm or resist at all.
When she took the video, that was the first time she tried the technique with her dogs. Shelton said that Schmidt let her trim all of his nails with no problems. Her other dog, Murphy, is a bit more difficult, but he still let her clip three nails with this method. From now on, she will always trim their nails this way!
A Viral Grooming Method
After posting the nail trim hack on TikTok, and then also on Instagram, Shelton soon became famous in no time. Many people commented, calling her a genius. Even professional groomers agreed that her efforts were extremely innovative. However, Shelton wants people to get more out of her viral video than just laughs.
“I hope people view my other TikTok videos and learn about fostering animals in need! That’s the main reason I made my TikTok,” said Shelton.
Shelton feels very strongly about adopting shelter dogs, and she hopes her fame can help plenty of dogs in need. She joked that she wishes should could have 87 dogs, but she doesn’t have the space at the moment. She and her husband recently sold their home so they could travel nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
RELATED: A Professional Groomer’s Guide To Stay-At-Home Dog Grooming
Shelton isn’t the only one that’s come up with this innovative idea before. Others have posted similar videos of them distracting their dogs with peanut butter while trimming their nails. In fact, the SPCA of Texas recently shared a video of them using the same methods to trim a dog’s nails. Sure enough, that dog was also much more willing to cooperate with the peanut butter in front of him. Perhaps this method will soon become a normal routine for dog nail trims!
You Can Watch Shelton’s Genius Video Here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_IgOB0DByQ/
H/T: buzzfeed.com
Featured Image: @linds.shelton/Instagram
Toledo, United States.
