Nails

Nails can be an issue but if dealt with in a positive and patient manner; you too can conquer the nail cutting thing. At the moment I am using a dremel tool for nails.  Jessie started objecting to having her nails done about a year and a half ago and they got a tad long.  I stopped cutting her nails for a while because it became such an ordeal; this at the age of 14, not like it was something new.  So I decided to try the dremel and take a bit off at a time.

I bought this dremel, and I see that mine was quite a deal at the time at only 24.99.  Once I got the dremel I never looked back.  I love that I can whip through a lot of feet in no time and no one seems to mind at all.  Elsa even let me do it the second day here with no objections.  Everyone gets a treat when they are done; Elsa gets a treat for every foot at this point in time but that will change as she gets more use to it.

There are a few things that you need to be cautious about with a dremel.

1.  They heat up the nail quickly because of friction so no a quick 2 second count on each nail at a time.  I often go through all the nails once, then do them again if I want them shorter.

2.  Watch out for dogs with longer hair on their feet or body.  Elsa wiggled her way into a tangle one day which was luckily fixed pronto.  I got the dremel tangled in some of her hair and because she was wiggling so much it took a bit to turn the dang thing off.  Nothing bad happened but it could have; I grabbed  the hair that it was caught in immediately so it couldn't pull it in and tighter.  Take care.

3.  The dust is gross; of course it's gross it's nail dust.  I use to wear a mask but hated it so now I just blow on the nails as I'm doing them.  That or do it so that the wind is blowing away from you.

4.  You must hold each nail firmly as you grind; otherwise you will end up grinding everything but the nail.

5.   If you have more than one dog; be sure that they aren't nosey literally and end up getting their nose dremeled.

I sometimes still use my regular nail clippers; mostly on Luke because the middle two toes on his front feet grow faster than the rest.  Often chopping them off is quicker than grinding.  But the dremel allows you to take tiny bits off at a time which is good for those who are apprehensive about the whole nail thing as a whole.