Elvis Update

A few days after my last entry I successfully trimmed Elvis's toe nails with my Dremel tool for the first time..... ever!

Elvis is 7 1/2 years old. He has always fought me on nail trimming and has easily won these encounters since being old enough to really throw his weight around.... that would be since he was about 10 months old. I have over the years tried muzzling him; I have worn a bike helmet to prevent his head slamming into mine.... which has happened, and boy did that hurt! I have sat on him and I have restrained him. All to no avail. For the past 5 years the vet has trimmed his nails. I have not even been able to touch his feet or toes in all that time. Needless to say, every tactic I used years ago made his experience terrible and he wasn't going there again. Overcoming this seemed an impossible task only a few months ago.

Since October, I've had less than half a dozen TTouch sessions with Elvis..... where I actually worked with him for 20 minutes or more. Each time he relaxed and accepted more TTouches and accepted having his feet handled more and more. His warning growls reducing every time.

The nail trimming adventure was amazing. He accepted the noise and vibration of the tool fairly quickly and as TTouch increased his trust a thousand fold, he showed no tension or resistance to the Dremel making contact with his toenails. Once he realized the Dremel would not *hurt* like a traditional nail tool, he relaxed. ** I can not use a traditional nail tool after having incurred tendon damage to my hands in a bike accident.

I look back and recall how Elvis used to be with nail trimming. It would terrify him so much that he would loose all self control and reason. It was horrific and at his size.... dangerous.

TTouch works wonders.