Grinding Nails With A Dremel

[Baby Dragon]

I was wondering if anyone's had problems getting their dog to accept a dremel on their nails?

It probably took about 5 times and lots of treats to get my boy to accept it. It's still not his favourite thing, but he will let me do it for treats, and he accepts it better than nail clippers. As long as I have treats it's fairly easy now.

But my new girl just won't have a bar of it. I've tried introducing it to her slowly, with lots of treats, but she's not interested in treats at the time and just backs away. I've even tried just holding the dremel (switched off) in the same hand as the treat and giving that to her, and she eventually came and got the treat but it doesn't seem to be translating to her accepting the dremel better.

At the moment she's a little better with the nail clippers than the dremel, but even then she still wiggles and it makes it really difficult. I much prefer using a dremel than the clippers because I'm worried about accidentally nicking the quick.

She also has dew claws and I've never had to deal with them before (my other dog didn't have them when I got him.) Is there a trick to doing them?

I'd love any advice about how to make this easier on my girl. She's really obedient in just about everything else, but doing her nails seems to be the one thing she doesn't want to cooperate in.

[Gogee]

I think it takes alot of patience and persistance

I introduced my boy to it over a few weeks VERY gradually (as he was a big sook when it comes to nails), and found that using a clicker helped enormously to get him to make positive associations with the Dremel....and now although he doesn't love it as such, he still sits there and waits for me to finish his nails just to get his treatie

If you haven't seen this link before, it's well worth a look as it helped me when I first started out with the Dremel

How to Dremel A Dog's Nails - Doberdawn

Cheers and best of luck!

[Nekhbet]

My belgian no worries, she listened even if she didnt like it. THe dogue threw a pink fit then say there was treats and got over it.

Rottie threw a tantrum but I'd probably get poo pooed for how I got him over it

[Baby Dragon]

Thanks guys, I'll keep persevering. I'm a lot more comfortable using the dremel, I think it's safer than nail clippers on a wiggly dog.

[dancinbcs]

I only recently started using the dremel again after several years break. My current two wimps were terrified of it until I bought a Pedipaws. They were quite happy to accept the pedipaws but it wasn't strong enough to do more than a tidy up. After several sessions with it I decided to try the dremel again. This time they were much better about it. They are still not fussed about nails in general and I need someone to help hold them still and importantly to hold all the hair out of the way but they are much happier now with the dremel than with clippers.

So a pedipaws might be what you need to use as a training tool. As to the dew claws, just trim them the same as you do the other nails. If they are white trim back as short as possible without touching the visible vein. If they are black trim back the point until they are evenly rounded.