# Do you trim your own dogs nails?



## Montana (Apr 10, 2011)

Do you cut your dogs nails? Or do you have it done by someone else? 

I have to admit nail trimming is one of my least favorite things to do, but I do it myself. I think I'm getting better with practice. ;P 
Montana does very well with it (enticed with a little bit of cheese), but her nail beds and quick are very long though because she never had them done for the first 3+ years of her life. I've heard the quick will recede over time the more you trim them, yes?


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## Savage Destiny (Mar 16, 2011)

I do both of my dogs' nails myself, but I'm a groomer so I don't think it really counts. lol. I dremel their nails once a week. 

Quicks will recede over time, but you won't get them to do it by just clipping. You have to use a dremel tool. The basic idea is that you dremel down until you can see the quick (but not make it bleed), then dremel all around the outside of the quick so its exposed, although still not bleeding. Having the quick exposed means that it will die off as the dog walks around, and the dying off is what makes them recede.


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## Angelwing (Feb 20, 2011)

I cut nails myself but I am also a groomer. Yes, dremmel to get quicks to recede but some quicks won't recede too much, but this is generally on older dogs.

I would suggest taking the dog to a groomer as opposed to a vet (if you don't want to do it yourself) because vets will not get the nail as short as possible plus they way overcharge for the job they do. They also don't tend to dremmel.


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

I have Tobi's done, i can't see investing in a dremel when he is so fussy with it, they ahve the equipment and it is nice to have him acclimated to others handling him as well.


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## Jack Monzon (Jul 25, 2010)

My dog's nails have never been trimmed by anyone. That option is missing in the poll.


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## Unosmom (May 3, 2009)

I agree, I've never trimmed Uno's nails, we walk a lot on pavement so it naturally trims his.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I just got done trimming 126 dog toenails. It took about 1/2 hour. I try and trim them every other week or so to keep them nice a short. Everyone is pretty good about it.


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## stajbs (Jun 5, 2010)

I, no we, have always hated nail trimming. In all the years with multiple dogs we did the trimming,and when the dogs were running and more active the nail trimming was less necessary and not so frequent. Then one day about 3 years ago we cut the quick on one of our girl's nails, and our hearts sank(dumb I know) but we managed to get through with the rest of her nails and then just sat back, took a deep breath and said "never again." LOL. It's pitiful but it's something you expect you will do at least once especially when cutting so many nails but when we finally did it, even though the bleeding was minimal and the dog was fine after a second we just didn't want to do it anymore. So, now that we only have two dogs they get trimmed at the vet. We are there at least two/three times a year with our seniors for blood work or some other issue so it's not bitten into our wallets too badly. Someone posted earlier in the thread that most vets don't cut them as short as they could be and I have noticed that as well, but I guess we're lucky with only two dogs. When and if we get a puppy I think we will tackle it again, but with grown rescues I am now vet bound. 

We're also fortunate, our vet is reasonable....we fostered a dog for four days last week who was mid transit to NY and their forever home, and I took him into the vet when I went in to pay on my bill. She charged me 5 bucks to do his nails, and yay...my balance is currently payed in full for a change. lol That boys nails were so terribly long, and he was sweet, but skittish, and our vet is so soothing...he actually did not balk too badly.


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## SilverBeat (Jan 16, 2011)

I trim all my bunnies' and guinea pigs' nails myself but Wallaby's nails are black and he is a fussy fusspot so I take him to a groomer to have them done.


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## Lisa_j (Apr 7, 2011)

I dremmel all of my dogs nails!!!! My fosters even get dremmeled if they tolerate it. Nails are a pet peve of mine, I hate, HATE when they are long. I like nails so short that they shoud not be heard on a hard floor!!!!!!!!!! JMO!!!!!!


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

Not often...I mean seriously, maybe once or twice a year...But my dogs keep their nails pretty short or they just don't grow much at all, don't ask me how they keep them so short. My guess is all the work they do on pavement and running up and down our really long drive way at the lake...I haven't done the pups nails in well over 6 months and they are still pretty short and no where near needing to be trimmed. I have a PediPaws but don't use it. Our dog Puck is the only exception, his nails grow relatively fast and when we take him to the vet to have his "spa treatment" they do his nails for us. He is such a little jerk about his nails with us but for them he is much better.


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## Nani (Apr 14, 2010)

I dremel the dogs once a week and trim the kitties once a month. I require my animals to have very short nails. I can't stand long nails and I too don't want to hear their nails on the floor. All of mine are good for it cause I have done it weekly since they were babies.


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## Savage Destiny (Mar 16, 2011)

Lisa_j said:


> I dremmel all of my dogs nails!!!! My fosters even get dremmeled if they tolerate it. Nails are a pet peve of mine, I hate, HATE when they are long. I like nails so short that they shoud not be heard on a hard floor!!!!!!!!!! JMO!!!!!!


THIS. 

I cannot tolerate long nails. They look so hideous and awful. I can't even get Riddle's as short as I like them doing them weekly- they refuse to recede any more. Melon's thankfully I can keep tiny little nubs, so I don't have to stress out about his lol.


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## pudlemom (Jul 11, 2010)

I dremmel my gangs nails too,I am not a groomer by trade but learned to groom myself with 5 HIGH maintenance dogs I coulnd never afford to take them all to the groomer.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

I have always trimmed all the dogs, cats, and guinea pigs myself. Chelsy has so much hair that grows around the nails that she never wore them down herself. And Shade has SOOOOOO many extra toes (two extra dewclaws per foot and one random toe up on his elbow) that he actually can't wear down some of his toenails. I wish those extra dewclaws had been removed by the rescue when he was neutered because I"m always afraid he's going to snag a toenail on something and rip them off, they just flop around on his ankles.


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## bernadettelevis (Feb 2, 2011)

I do it myself, but i really only have to do it in winter! In summer all the running does it!


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

I clip Tucker's (and the cats') nails myself. I told mom before we brought him home that she HAD to touch his feet all the time so he'd be okay with trimming, she did and it worked well. I would've liked to dremmel them (they are super sharp after I cut them) but he's really scared of the tool, I might work on that this summer.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

My dogs are a pain the a**, I believe my female might have some zinc deficiency that has caused her nails to curl into her pads and become very thick and hard, I have a dremmel and have two different types of nail clippers. I usually take them in to have them done at the vet every month but it sounds like thats not enough, I've been reading up on this on the B.T. site and some of those dog show people have done some drastic things to keep those nails short that have gotten out of hand.

I'm not sure what I might do with my female, as I have never seen such thick nails, I can't remember when this really changed as her nails weren't always like this. It's the shits to get old and you can't remember anything and days run into one another.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Even with all the exercise Mollie and I do, her nails get so long its not funny. I asked my petshop/grooming lady why that was, and she said that Mol walks flat on her feet, so her nails never touch the ground. Why me?  
And, of course Mol absolutely HATES having them clipped or dremmeled which is my own bloody fault. It only sunk in to the old brain fairly recently that my clippers are useless - they were squeezing her nails and leaving them ragged instead of a nice clean cut, so here's poor Mol screaming and carrying on and me telling her she's soft and I was hurting the poor little sob. I've now bought some nice new sharp clippers and we are starting life all over again. 
When she had her dentistry done a couple of weeks ago and was asleep, the vet clipped them nice and short for me.


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

We use a dremel (small sanding cylinder attachment) to do Zio's nails; a trick we learned from his breeder.

FYI, unless you have a tiny dog like a Yorkie, the "Pet-icure" versions you get at the drug store or similar are absolutely useless.


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## werecatrising (Oct 15, 2010)

whiteleo said:


> My dogs are a pain the a**, I believe my female might have some zinc deficiency that has caused her nails to curl into her pads and become very thick and hard, I have a dremmel and have two different types of nail clippers. I usually take them in to have them done at the vet every month but it sounds like thats not enough, I've been reading up on this on the B.T. site and some of those dog show people have done some drastic things to keep those nails short that have gotten out of hand.
> 
> I'm not sure what I might do with my female, as I have never seen such thick nails, I can't remember when this really changed as her nails weren't always like this. It's the shits to get old and you can't remember anything and days run into one another.


Is this bull terrier trait? We only see a few at the hospital, but it seems they all have super thick nails that want to curl in. There is on dog inparticular who has had problems arise from it. It is so hard to trim them. You can barely take any off and pinch the pads when you do it. She will be boarding for a few weeks. I am hoping to het them back a bit with my dremmel.


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

I clip Abbie's. I dremel Murph's. Murph grew up in a show home that used a dremel so he was more used to that. I finally caved and bought a pet dremel (not a pedi paws lol) after several attempts at clipping them and bad experiences. He's much better for a dremel. This dremel works well but doesn't seem as powerful as the one my friend had, which I think was just an all purpose dremel. They are still longer than I'd like after taking the dremel to them twice. Humph.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

Is this bull terrier trait? We only see a few at the hospital, but it seems they all have super thick nails that want to curl in. There is on dog inparticular who has had problems arise from it. It is so hard to trim them. You can barely take any off and pinch the pads when you do it. She will be boarding for a few weeks. I am hoping to het them back a bit with my dremmel
. I'm not sure if it is or not, her two siblings that I also have do not have this issue with their nails. It was brought up on another group that deals with nothing but B.T's that it could possibly be a zinc deficiency, and I'm not sure how to have my vet test for that or if I need to take her to a specialist. Some of the things they have done is have their vet knock the dog out and cut them really short and then cauterize the nail, I don't think I could do that though. But I really need to find out if in fact it is a zinc deficiency.

I wish someone would give me a lesson on how to reply to someone's specific question with the quote thingy...................................


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## KC23 (Nov 17, 2010)

I take my dogs to the groomer. Rodney & Reagan have black nails, and Reagan gets too worked up. Buddy's have stayed pretty short--we were able to just trim the long dewclaws ourselves this time.


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

I hate laptops sometimes. Let me try this, AGAIN!

I started handling the hoodlums' feet when they were young to desensitize them, in preparation for this event. The nails are black and that makes it harder but I also went out and got some clippers that have the light on them. Green means you are good for take off. Yellow, be careful, you're gettin' kinda close. Red, you're going to amputate your dog.

I've had a dog before and I'd trim her nails and it always turned in to WWF Smackdown. But, I still did it and I figured it couldn't get any worse than that.

HA!

Day of the event arrived, I got everything set up and gathered the hoodlums over. We spoke about things, I put them in a calm mood, played some Enya, lit some candles...zen...total zen....

I got the clippers, turned them on, grabbed a foot. There was a lot of crying, sobbing, "Why God, WHY?", carrying on, etc involved from me. The second they saw those clippers near their toes, they freaked. So, the light on the clippers was going green, green, red, red, yellow, red, yellow, green, yellow, green, red, red, red, green, red, yellow, yellow, red, green, green, red, yellow...oh forget it!

The boy had that look on his face that made me believe I might actually get a nip from him...so, ya know, let's let the professionals handle this.

When I took the girl hoodlum in for her wrist injury, (blown out of proportion, by her), I brought the boy in as well and had the vet techs do it. Princess hoodlum was done in seconds. (Show offs.) Boy hoodlum was put on the table, let out a yelp and the next thing I knew, a tech left the room to the back and came back with a muzzle. 

Seems the boy nipped at one of them. 

When they muzzled him, (taking two people to hold him down), they were also done in seconds. (I find comfort in the fact that it took two of them so CLEARLY it was impossible to be done by me, one person, and it did not reflect at all on my lack of dog toenail clipping skills....face is saved.)

So, because of that, I've decided they can do it. That way I don't look like the bad guy. I look like the one who came in and rescued them from these evil aliens conducting horrible experiments on them. Win-win. And worth the $8.


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## Montana (Apr 10, 2011)

:lol: Serenity! Not trying to laugh at your expense but I understand completely the stress of it. My family dog growing up used to shriek like a banshee as soon as the clippers came close to his nail. 

Sorry I wasn't trying to offend anyone who doesn't need to trim nails, I was just curious about the ones that do.

Montana's nails are too long for my liking, they don't click on the floor too bad but they're just obscene.. she looks like she's got bear claws, her quick is just so long... Sounds like I might need to get a dremel tool! Do you guys have suggestions on which ones are good and which ones to stay away from?


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## Little Brown Jug (Dec 7, 2010)

Do it myself. Woof could care less. He comes over I flip him onto his back between my legs and cut away. I find if I look at the underside of the nail I can generally tell where the quick is. Boone almost has a heart attack, he comes over reluctantly, shaking, eyes popping out of his head, very tense. I put him on his back between my legs (just a position I find is easiest for me) and start cutting. Generally his take longer because he's such a nervous wreck, he'll jerk his leg between each nail. While he's leery about me for a few minutes I see it as he'd be a lot more wound up if I had to take him to the groomer or vet to get done.


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## 3Musketeers (Nov 4, 2010)

I clip my own dogs nails, I'm extra careful with Patchie though as she has some black nails. Do have to wrestle them a bit as they really don't like getting their nails cut, not like they bleed or anything.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Ha, I know what you mean about his eyes popping out of his head LBJ. Mollie does the same, your bloomin google eyes I call them (sometimes I call them her Lindsay Lohan eyes).
Question. Dremmel. I've been told that you should hold the dremmel on the nail no longer than 5 seconds, otherwise it starts to burn and hurts the dog;. Is this true?
And, those clippers with the green/yellow/red lights. Do they really work, or is it a gimmick?


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## Savage Destiny (Mar 16, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> Ha, I know what you mean about his eyes popping out of his head LBJ. Mollie does the same, your bloomin google eyes I call them (sometimes I call them her Lindsay Lohan eyes).
> Question. Dremmel. I've been told that you should hold the dremmel on the nail no longer than 5 seconds, otherwise it starts to burn and hurts the dog;. Is this true?
> And, those clippers with the green/yellow/red lights. Do they really work, or is it a gimmick?


The key is to keep the dremel moving. Touch, lift, touch, lift, keep it off of one spot. If you just hold it in place, it will heat up and get uncomfortable. But for a nice round nail you need to be constantly moving it anyway. 

The clippers with the "quick finder" are a load of BS. I tried one out, on clear nails where I could see the quick. It gave me green when I was over the quick and red when I was over pure nail. 

I just use a cordless dremel by Dremel brand. I think I got it at Home Depot.


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

my GF does our dogs nails. she uses a dremmel. my dog was in a
puppy class at 10 weeks old and doing nails started then.
in the begining it was done as a game. while the pups were
playing they would rub/touch the pups on their bodies with dremmel
while it was on. sometimes they would take a pup
and just touch a nail with the dremmel. at home when the pup
was eating we would touch him with the dremmel. everyday
several times a day there was some contact with the dremmel.
whenever we used the dremmel there was always praise and a treat.
now when his nails are done he just lays there. i give him a biscuit or
smear peanut butter on a place while his nails are being done. sometimes
his nails are done with only praise being given.

we had a Grey Hound that wouldn't let us near her feet.
the groomer could do whatever she wanted with her.
no leash, no muzzle. she would sit, lay down or do 
whatever the groomer wanted her to do.


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## Khan (Jan 17, 2010)

We dremel all the dogs. Even for all the walking we do, it doesn't keep them short enough.
Bonzi has gotten waay better since living with us. He use to be a nipper; but now he tolerates it. He goes first, otherwise he hides. 
Shelby is the easy one, hers are so little the dremel makes quick work on her. 
Khan is not bad; but he can get flailing around as if we are killing him! Even with all the paw touching, and desensitizing you do when they are puppies, I think sometimes they just enjoy throwing a fit!
One trick I do think really works is after each one is done, they know they get a treat. I make sure that even when they ALL come running into the kitchen only the one who's finished gets one. The others look at me like, hey what the heck, we are right here, yet they get nothing. Really has helped.
I also think they know when we are weak, and will just give up. My rottie was one of these. He would act as though I was cutting of his leg, then when I took him to get it done, he would sit perfectly. As if he was looking at the girl saying, Yes I am the BEST dog ever, I have no idea what her problem is!!


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## Pimzilla (May 1, 2011)

Khan said:


> I also think they know when we are weak, and will just give up. My rottie was one of these. He would act as though I was cutting of his leg, then when I took him to get it done, he would sit perfectly. As if he was looking at the girl saying, Yes I am the BEST dog ever, I have no idea what her problem is!!


I know this is totally off topic but it got me to think of my mums first dog. Whenever she went on vacation for a week he had to stay with grandmother. The dog was limping the whole week so he wouldn't have to go for long walks and refused to eat unless my grandmother cooked for him, which she was doing since she didn't want the dog to starve to death :becky:

Needless to say, he always had to go on a diet when we came back home. And the limping was gone weirdly enough.


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## Dagmar Scherer (Apr 29, 2011)

I always cut my dog's toe nails. I did so since I adopted them at 6 years of age, they are used to it and just let me do it with no drama, thank god!


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