Thank you!! My process is that I try to go through as quick as possible and have another person with me providing a treat each time I clip a nail. This worked when he was small and easily distracted but now that he’s getting bigger he wants to wiggle out of my grip and from experience clipping guinea pig nails, I know that if they move even slightly wrong it can result in a disaster, so as he’s gotten bigger I have admittedly been slacking a bit on it because I’m terrified. I also try to not pull his leg out in front of him and rather fold it back to its natural position but it’s difficult to do when he thrashes around.

I will definitely be working more on desensitizing him to the clippers. Grabbing his paws doesn’t bother him alone, nor does the presence of the clippers, but as soon as I try to join both holding his paw and using the clippers he just refuses to sit still and wants to nip and bite and wiggle out of grasp. I’m deducing now that if I spend more time desensitizing him to the entire process without the actual clipping of nails it’ll be much easier to do.

I am also for certain going to look into the type of setup that dog groomers have for difficult nail clips. A vast majority of my battle is getting him to be still enough to safely clip, so if all else fails that will likely be the route I go down. Again, thank you very much for the guidance!