Trimming toenails

[Bareftbohmians]

Clip or file/grind? Which is best? And they are all black toenails... Oh, and we wouldn't be doing them at all, I am not familiar enough with how to do it to feel comfortable doing it. I have a friend who is a groomer that we'll use, but she clips and someone else mentioned that filing/grinding is preferred over clipping.

[BusyBee]

I dremel our dogs nails.

For many years I never touched the dogs' nails. I let the vet/groomer do it or they would wear down themselves. Then when Otis began to stay in the house more, and I got too cheap to pay out, I looked into doing them myself. I found a site that was really good at explaining how to do it and what they should look like. I don't like for my dogs' nails to stay as short as hers, but she shows you how to do it with pictures from her own dogs- dobies- and they all have black nails. I did Otis' nails and they were all black. He always HATED to have his nails clipped, but it didn't take him long at all to get use to dremeling. He laid very still and let me do them without a problem.

I also do our bichon and terrier this way, too. I'll never pick up another set of clippers again. Supposedly the clippers pinch, even if you don't hit the quick, which is uncomfortable for the dog. When you use a dremel, its like using an emery board on your own nails. No pain, no problem!

The site I learned from is http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/ ... remel.html

Good luck!

[JessaraePapillon]

I am a certified dog groomer and we also use a dremel especially if the owner is ill, elderly, or has young children. I usually clip the nails first and then use the dremel.
Also be careful not to cut the kwick. Stop just before the pink on a dogs' nails. If your dog has dark nails, look for a faint grey line and that is the kwick. Sometimes dogs have long kwicks and they will bleed even by tipping the nails