caroline429

I started out dremeling my Rottweilers' nails with a cordless one. I found the same thing as Ms Stella so I bought a full-size corded one. When I got my mpoo, Cali, I knew I wanted to dremel her nails and didn't see any reason to downsize the dremel. I have always had a flex-shaft attachment for mine though that makes it much easier to use since you don't have to physically hold the heavy dremel. https://www.dremel.com/en-ca/Attachm...spx?pid=225-01

Here's how I trained Cali to accept it. For the first week, I didn't turn it on. On the first day, I just put it down beside her on the table where I groom her. She sniffed at it and I gave her a treat. Being a poodle, by day two she couldn't sniff it enough! LOL On day 3, with it still off, I briefly touched a nail with it and treated. She didn't look the least bit worried, so I touched another nail and another treat. I was able to touch all of her nails on day 3. If she had shown any hesitation, I would have stopped for the day. The next day, she actually lifted her paw up when she saw the dremel approaching her! LOL I didn't want to rush her so I just spent the rest of that first week slowly increasing the length of each touch and treating for every single one.

Week two, I turned it on but didn't take it anywhere near her. Being a poodle and having had FFT done, she didn't seem unduly upset by the noise. I was stuffing her face full of treats the whole time. I did this for a few days and then very briefly touched one nail with it on. She looked a tad apprehensive so I stuffed her full of treats and didn't go any further. I just moved at her speed, taking my cues from her as to when to increase the number of nails and length of dremel time on each one. By the end of week 3 I was dremeling her nails.

I always give her a little treat for each nail I do. She's so blase about the whole thing now, and so focused on the treats, that I sometimes wonder if she even notices her nails being done.

CT Girl

I want to thank everyone for the great Dremel advice. I think I am going to try it and I feel a lot more confidant about the best way to use it and getting Swizzle accustomed to it.

msminnamouse

I HIGHLY recommend the Dremel Minimite. I LOVE mine. I put ears in socks to prevent them from being caught. And make sure to hold your hand over the foot hair so it doesn't get caught either, in case it's long enough or a cuff reaches down there. BUT if it does get caught, the Minimite stops spinning. I really appreciate that. But it's still powerful enough for even the biggest nails and really quiet too. The corded ones generally don't stop when they catch hair. Pet specific ones have been a waste of money, they always die out on me. This includes corded or uncorded.

The Minimite is around $24 from Amazon but you can also find it at Walmart, etc.

I take the battery out and have the dog investigate and reward. Then I touch the nails (dog should be used to paw manipulation and pressure) and reward. Then I turn it on and work on getting it closer and closer to the dog, heavily counter conditioning. I take the grinding bit out for this. Eventually I touch the nails and pretend to grind. Start only tapping each nail once or twice and move on to the next nail. Use on the low setting, then try high.

Use a high value reinforcer. The reinforcer should go away when the Dremel does and come out when the Dremel does.

Ginger just lies there when I do her nails.

With nail clipping, you need very sharp blades. And you're supposed to shave off small increments rather than just cut off chunks. From back to front, rather than side to side. It's very hard to do quick the dog or squeeze the quick when doing it this way. It would only still hurt if there's a crack in the nail. Sometimes there are hairline cracks you can't see.

I used to hate doing nails until I started clipping them that way. Most dogs still prefer Dremeling though.

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