Nail Grinders

[drharps]

Our Border is super jittery having her nails clipped. My wife wants to use a nail grinder, but I think it's going to be harder to do because it'll vibrate her paw and take longer.

Have people used them? Thoughts? 

[GentleLake]

Will be watching for answers b/c I've been thinking about getting one too. Checking on Amazon it looks like there might be some quieter models than there used to be, and I'd love to know if anyone's used any of them and how they like them.

 

[SS Cressa]

The groomer uses them on my dogs and they work great. I love how you don’t have to worry about how sharp nails get after trimming. It also seem like less likely to hit their quick.

However I so much as glance at the grinder I have in my house and my dogs all hide. If I get one dog corral they act like I’m torturing them and each grind is one step closer to death.

[GentleLake]

1 hour ago, SS Cressa said:

However I so much as glance at the grinder I have in my house and my dogs all hide. If I get one dog corral they act like I’m torturing them and each grind is one step closer to death.

Funny how that works. I don't even have to clip either of the girls' nails -- they stay short on their own -- but if I'm cutting Bodhi's you'd think I'm planning mass murder. It's just so much easier to take Bodhi to the groomer. He still hates it but not nearly as much as he does when I do it (groomer also doesn't cut them as short as I do or trim them up so they're not blunt so it's not as much of an ordeal) and the girls are none the wiser and not trying to save and.or console him so it's so worth the 5 bucks he charges.

[Journey]

Been using one for decades..they're fantastic! I don't pay what they want for a *pet* one. Mini Dremel, Home Depot, $40. 20 minutes and all 4 dogs are done. No muss no fuss - it's not allowed. 

[Rigby]

It depends entirely on the dog, one of my dogs prefers clippers and one prefers the dremel. 

Either way though putting some real time and energy into conditioning a dog with cooperative care techniques will pay off for the rest of the life of a dog. 

I like to use food reward to desensitize and counter condition a dog to actually enjoy a nail trim.

Step one would be to show the dog the nail clippers or grinder, and then give the dog a treat. Moving slowly over time (might take a few moments a day for a few weeks)

You're not rewarding the dog for any specific behavior initially. Nail clippers or grinder makes treats appear. To avoid rewarding behavior you don't want the dog to exhibit you must not allow it to start by not pushing the dog. 

I really like to use the bucket game for this. If my dog is looking at the bucket I can trim her nails. If she isn't, I wait or stop for the day. She wants the engagement with me and the food reward and so almost always she's happy to participate. 

Oops forgot to link the bucket game http://www.allpetseducationandtraining.com.au/the-bucket-game.html

[D'Elle]

Rigby's ideas sound good to me.

As for the grinders themselves, most of the inexpensive ones do not have enough torque to do the job. I use a rotary tool that operates with a foot pedal and can be used for drilling and so on. It's called a flexible shaft drill. It can reach speeds of 2,000 RPM, so you have to be very careful with it. But it does the job very well and is a lot faster than tools that don't have that much power. I got mine many years ago at Harbor Freight but I bet there are lots you can get on the internet.