Lucy is a pretty low maintenance dog.
Although she doesn’t enjoy it, she will let me give her a bath.
She doesn’t enjoy nail trims either, but she will let me clip her toenails. All my other dogs tried to pull their paws out of my hand when I tried to trim their nails. Lucy keeps hers there and likes to eat the clippings. I let her. I figure it is the canine equivalent of biting her nails and it is her reward for cooperating.
The only thing she really hates is getting her ears cleaned.
As soon as I go to the cupboard where the ear cleaner is kept, she starts paying attention. When she sees the container, she tries to hide, so I generally try to act nonchalant, hiding the bottle behind my back. I will do a few other things before sidling up to her, ear cleaner, cotton rounds and hands still behind my back.
As soon as she realizes that I tricked her again, doggone it, she tries to bolt. But, I am a stealthy ear cleaner. I have her literally cornered on the sofa. There is no escape. She bears the indignity on the first ear and I can see the little wheels turning in her brain as I switch to the second. I block her so she can’t escape before she gets the other ear done.
When the ordeal is over she runs away, shaking her head and rubbing her ears on the floor and sofa. At this point I usually offer her a treat, followed by a walk. By the time we get home, I have been forgiven.
booksandbassets 
Lucy sounds like a sweetheart! I suppose if ear cleaning is the only time when she gives you problems, then that’s okay. 🙂 ~JudyK
I love the humor in this slice…I can imagine the whole scenario!
Love Lucy’s picture. Tell her I don’t blame her. I go for a ENT every for months for a cleaning. I go willingly, but I don’t like it. I do go out for dinner afterwards so that makes it worthwhile.
This post made me laugh. My family has been talking about getting a dog, and yours is very cute!
Poor Lucy! I feel her pain and yours too. That’s the problem with long floppy ears. At least there’s a treat when it’s all over.
Funny! Our Golden Retriever loved having his ears cleaned! He would let me do it without any complaint. The long-earred dogs do need extra ear attention and I guess he thought that was fine!
I especially like the moment of your calculated nonchalance!
She looks so sweet! A good walk provides the cure for many things.
This post hits home for me because my dog has been fighting an ear infection for the past month, so I’ve been cleaning his ears, dropping in antiobiotics, and wiping them every day. Luckily, once he got past the pain, he doesn’t mind it. (Taking pills orally is another matter). I can’t imagine wha tI would have done if he didn’t let me clean his ears!
Fiona, who I lost 2,5 years ago, had chronic ear infections. I am an expert at deep cleaning with a bulb syringe and my vet said I was better at it than her. I hope your dog’s ear infection clears quickly.
This is great. I remember three years ago when a boy in my class wrote a book about his basset. The fact I couldn’t get over was that they sometimes trip over their own ears. I hadn’t really thought about the cleaning routine. That’s a lot of ear. We’ve had to do our share of cleaning with McGee’s tiny ears. I’m guessing the phrase, “I love Lucy” is common in your household.
Actually, I often say “Lucy, you got some splainin’ to do!” Just to be funny. She is a very good girl.