# Soft pet paws and other nail grinders



## Yadi (Jan 12, 2020)

Hello! My 6 month old puppy has all black nails. (Except for 1 white nail) which makes nail clipping quite scary. He hates it. I used to get his nails trimmed at the vet. Since Covid-19 lockdown i’ve Only trimmed his nails with nail clippers once and I only took off the tiniest bit from each nail. It took me four days because I could only do one paw day because it stressed both of us out too much.

I ordered a soft paws nail grinder. Does anyone have experience with this brand or other similar products? Any advice about how to use the nail grinders?

Thanks!

- Nikki


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

I use a normal Dremel grinder. I think they work MUCH better than the "pet" ones. I made some videos for the HF people on trimming feet and nails with the Dremel if it helps:


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

I use a regular Dremel from the hardware store. The pet ones I tried all looked like cheap pieces of junk.


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## Yadi (Jan 12, 2020)

Thank you for the videos and tips. I already ordered the pet nail grinder. If it does not work well, I’ll try a dremel from hardware store. I am new to pet nail grinding and I had seen dremels mentioned on the forum. I thought pet nail grinders and Dremels were actually the same thing. Thanks for clearing that up for me ! 😊👍🏽


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Regarding the actual Dremel brand, not just any rotary tool: The pet dremel and the “real” dremel are the same thing in a way, but it’s like the difference between one at the craft store and one from the hardware store. I have a stylus type dremel I love because it’s light and small and I use it all of the time. Just a couple of weeks ago I cut a cord slot in a desk and the little dremel never could have handled that. But, I had to hold the full sized dremel upside down in a cramped space for quite a while and even though it was faster, it was heavy and it was tiring. They each have their place. The “pet dremel” is actually somewhere between the the two as far as specs. I don’t remember how much it cost, but the Dremel brand grinder I bought is pretty good quality, good enough I could probably use it for other things in a pinch. 

If I had thought about it at the time, I would have bought the least expensive, lightest dremel for my puppy, regardless of whether or not it was intended for pets. Dog nail don’t need a powerful rotary tool, and the more powerful it is the louder it is, too. I just ordered the pet version because it was on amazon. 

I prefer a separate dremel for nails, though. I don’t want to go out to the garage to get it and potentially have to change the collet, find the separate bits. It’s probably very unlikely but I’d also hate some kind of cross contamination, like metal shavings ending up in his nails somehow. 

I don’t mean to imply that I spend a lot of time using the dremel on my dog’s nails. I did work on desensitizing my dog to the dremel, but I didn’t do enough to desensitize him to paw handling, which he hates. By the time I’m done grooming, if I did a good job on his paws, it always feels like pushing it to do his nails. I intended to do it myself, but it was easier to pay a couple of dollars extra when I took him to daycare (he used to go once a week and I added nails about every other week). 

My advice is to do a lot of paw handling! Also, spend some time helping him get used to the sound of the dremel and handling his paws before you touch him with it. There were a couple of YouTube videos i watched that were helpful, on introducing a puppy to a dremel.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> I prefer a separate dremel for nails, though. I don't want to go out to the garage to get it and potentially have to change the collet, find the separate bits. It's probably very unlikely but I'd also hate some kind of cross contamination, like metal shavings ending up in his nails somehow.


I agree. I hardly ever use my Dremel for anything BUT nails, so for the rare occasion that I DO use it for something else, I don't mind changing out the bit. But that might be once in 3 years. If I used it with ANY regularity for something else, I'd have a separate one. They are not very expensive.

Oh, And I MUCH prefer the battery-operated ones, and ALWAY buy at least one preplacement battery, so that I can have one on the charger and one on the Dremel. Especially with 3 to do, It seems like I'm always running out in the middle of doing nails!

I have a friend with one with a light built into the end, and I would LOVE to find one like that... But I haven't been able to find one!


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## Mama Mills (Jul 5, 2020)

krandall said:


> I use a normal Dremel grinder. I think they work MUCH better than the "pet" ones. I made some videos for the HF people on trimming feet and nails with the Dremel if it helps:


Thanks for the great videos Karen!


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## ShamaMama (Jul 27, 2015)

HOW MANY TIMES must I compose a reply and try to post it only to find out I have been logged out and lost all that I typed before I remember to ALWAYS copy/paste into Word before attempting to post (or compose in Word and then copy/paste to here)? HOW MANY?

Anyway, I watched the first video then got distracted by the ScrapScape video that popped up. I enjoyed watching that video almost as much as I enjoy watching my fish DVD ... :wink2: I liked how you could speed up the video while keeping the audio at regular speed. Where did you get your audio?

Back to the dremel videos now (after carefully posting this without losing it first!)

Now I'm editing to add my question for Karen: You don't need to file the nails of the dew claws after clipping them? When I was a kid, we would file the nails of our doberman after clipping them.

Maybe we'll try doing the nails of our next Havanese (which we are getting no time soon!)

Thanks for the educational videos, Karen!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

ShamaMama said:


> HOW MANY TIMES must I compose a reply and try to post it only to find out I have been logged out and lost all that I typed before I remember to ALWAYS copy/paste into Word before attempting to post (or compose in Word and then copy/paste to here)? HOW MANY?


I use "Notes" on my iPad and Apple computer, because they load quickly and organize easily. I have a folder just for "Havanese Forum" answers, so, like, for the litter box training, I don't have to type it out every time anymore... I can just cut and paste the whole thing. Same for puppies nipping and a few others that come up over and over again! LOL!



ShamaMama said:


> Anyway, I watched the first video then got distracted by the ScrapScape video that popped up. I enjoyed watching that video almost as much as I enjoy watching my fish DVD ... :wink2: I liked how you could speed up the video while keeping the audio at regular speed. Where did you get your audio?


LOL. Maybe I should have two channels... one for dog stuff and one for aquarium/vivarium stuff. But I'm really not a serious YouTuber AT ALL. Someone asks for something and I put something up. Or something interests me and I put it up. I'd NEVER have the discipline to "monetize" a channel. I always think it's a bit funny that anyone bothers to "follow" me, considering the mish-mash of stuff I post! LOL!

But the Scrapscape video was for a challenge started by a dear friend who IS a serious YouTuber while we were all in "shut-down" mode last spring. It was fun to try to do my first "artsy" video that wasn't just for my family. It's pretty amateurish, but I was happy with it! The music was from one of those online royalty-free sites where you pay a fee for the music. It wasn't very much... $9 maybe? (That's a DEEP rabbit hole you can fall down if you are putting music to your videos... there are ZILLIONS of those sites and a gaJILLION different recordings you can buy for a few $ each... but then you have to find a way to store them and remember what they are and where you put them! I've bought a few, and I always lose them "somewhere" on my computer, so even though I mean to keep them so I can use them again, I can never find them when I want to pick through them again.

Oh, and the reason the video speeds up and the music doesn't is that I did the video part, including speeding up the boring part, and then dropped the sound track in afterwards!



ShamaMama said:


> Back to the dremel videos now (after carefully posting this without losing it first!)
> 
> Now I'm editing to add my question for Karen: You don't need to file the nails of the dew claws after clipping them? When I was a kid, we would file the nails of our doberman after clipping them.


I don't file dewclaws. I don't find that they catch on things... maybe because they are up in their fur on a Havanese? If you wanted to, you could certainly run an emery board over the edges to take off any rough edges, I just haven't felt the need. I just wouldn't use the Dremel on dewclaws... there is just too much hair there on a Havanese... unless they were shaved close, I think the chances of getting the Dremel caught in their hair and hurting them is too great.


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