Dog's Nails & Clipping

[GaryM]

Glad you had a good experience! Is your Dremel corded or battery?

Might be an excuse to buy another tool. [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Gary, my Dremel is an old Christmas gift from years ago; a "model 770, type 1" 7.2 volt, 2-speed. I used the slower speed; 7,500 rpm, and the small sanding drum.

[Fred]

Glad everything worked out for you, Bird.
My dremel is pretty old... about 30 years anyway, but works well, too. By coincidence, we were just discussing nail trimming on a list I am on and I was told that there is a small grinding tool at Walmart that is pretty quiet for around $20. Maybe Wahl? I've never used a dremel on a dog as small as a Chi. I think the hardest part would be grabbing a hold of a toe to stabilize it when the drum sander hits it. I use regular toe nail clippers on cats and small dogs and they work well, but a small cordless dremel-type tool might be in order.

[Bird]

Fred, I guess I can't really say for sure that this is going to work. I just very lightly did each of the dog's nails to see how she'd react. I still need to do a little more to each of them. And yes, holding onto them is the biggest problem. She didn't seem to mind the Dremel at all, but she's skirming and wanting to play all the time.

[schmism]

we grind nails via a dremel the cordless version works best (its low speed so it doesnt heat the nail up as much which is irratating for the dog) and is like $20 at wally world.




it took us a couple of months for the dogs to get use do it. Zeus (the brown one) doesnt mind at all, Stacy (the yellow) doesnt care for it much but knows she has no choice so reluctanly puts up with it. (mostly has to do with the fact we started zeus as a pup and stacy when she was about 2)

I do ours about every 2 weeks (or less). The advantage with grinding is you dont have to worry about cutting into the quick and if you do start to get close to it the dog WILL let you know.

As a reminder if your dogs are walking on a hard surface and you can hear their claws clicking, they are 2 long.

NOTE: if you havent handled your dogs feet in the past they generally dont like it and you will have to let them know that you WILL be handing there feet and it WILL be accepted.
you might have to spend a week or 2 just working with the dog handling feet before you try to bust out the dremel on them.

Dont try to do all 12-14 nails the first time, start with 1 paw, or just 1 or 2 nails and over a week or more work your way up to doing more and more. After a few months they should accept it as normal routine. NOTE: if you have diggers it will help discourge the digging as its not nearly as fun when you dont have any fingernails (least thats the case with mine)

[Bird]

I've found that I use both the nail clippers and my cordless dremel at different times.