Elephant Loves the Foot Pad Trim

C’mon you can’t clip your dog or cat’s nails – but this can happen…..from the ZooLeon in Leon, Mexico; this African elephant is simply asked to have his foot pads trimmed. He contentedly complies because he offered special treats.

The Fear Free initiative in veterinary medicine is all about reducing fear, anxiety and stress both for pets during visits to the veterinary clinic, and even in homes – so you can clips your pets’ nails yourself without you or your pets stressing out.

Dr. Sophia Yin does a superb job HERE of demonstrating how to counter-condition this spaniel-mix to allow his nails to be clipped. At first he clearly doesn’t like it. But quickly he accepts it using Yin’s technique, which isn’t all too different with what the keepers do here. If it can be done with an African elephant, it can be done with our pets.

(Note: ZooLeon is a terrific zoo. I am aware of the debate regarding keeping elephants in zoos, as is this zoo aware. That’s is not the point of this video – the point is to demonstrate that large animals – and you can’t get much larger – and potentially dangerous animals can readily and voluntarily offer behavior without force, using positive reinforcement.)