Is it just me or is clipping your dog’s nail similar to nailing J-E-L-L-O to a tree? It was easy to have them done at the vet when the boys were pups and those nails were growing faster than weeds. But now (knock on wood) our vet appointments are much farther apart and I feel like it would be ridiculous to drive them all the way out there for a nail clipping when we can do it ourselves at home. However the do it yourself way hasn’t worked out so great for us.
You see I followed all the rules when I decided to buy some clippers and DIY the nail trimmings: made sure to touch their feet a lot so they would be used to being handled, introduced the clippers slowly and with treats to form a positive association, and waiting to clip until they were busy chewing or lounging so it wasn’t a big event. But then one day I had Chaos’s paw in my hand and the clippers in position and just as I squeezed, Chris walked in the door. It startled Chaos and he moved just as I clipped and what came off was much more than I had planned.
If you’ve ever done this you know the quick on a dog’s foot bleeds like a mother. Of course I felt awful because he yelped and I felt like the worst dog mommy ever and went into panic mode. Chris had a cooler head and immediately went into problem solving mode. There is this stuff called styptic powder you can buy that supposedly stops bleeding quickly by acting as a clotting agent and can be used on most animals. Of course I had this because our laundry room is a mecca of pet supplies since I’m crazy like that but we didn’t have time to search for it. So there we are in the kitchen, me white knuckling Chaos’s paw with a towel and flipping my shit because in my irrational mind he was going to bleed out and Chris trying his best to calm me down while searching for plan B. Apparently I kept saying, “I cut his finger off!” hysterically, which of course is hilarious now, but was horrifying at the time. But I am so glad Chris was there because the next thing I knew he had taken the bag of flour out of the cabinet, poured a little pile on the counter and shoved Chaos’s paw into it. BAM, bleeding stopped.
I’m by no means saying this is the best option, but it worked fast and, as we found out after a later incident, plain old flour kicks stypic powder’s butt. So my non-medical advice is to just keep flour on hand if you have dogs and don’t be afraid to slather it on them if they get a non-life threatening cut or clipped quick. Didn’t know that’s what they meant by all purpose flour but I’ll take it!
Okay so I’m not telling this story just for kicks. I do have a point. Not only has Chaos been terrified (rightly so) of the clippers ever since his traumatic experience, but Ares has doggie ADD and despises standing still long enough for us to get the job done. Oh and Ares has black nails on his back legs which are just plain dumb because it’s Russian Roulette when trying to figure out how far back to clip them without catching the quick.
Introducing Pedi Paws, yes, the as seen on TV electric nail files for dogs. It sounded like a good concept because the tool does all the work and if you accidently file to the quick it will seal off the opening before you can blink. It was $20 at Petsmart so we purchased it and gave it a whirl. But it was not at all what I had imagined. Chaos, the biggest baby ever, was scared of the noise and wouldn’t come near it. And Ares wasn’t feeling the fact that it took even longer than clipping so we would get maybe 1 or 2 nails done at a time. No good.
Fast forward to this past weekend when we finally found our solution to the nail clipping dilemma: The Dremel 3000. This is an actual tool you buy at a hardware store and not made with the intention as a nail trimmer for pets. That’s my little disclaimer but if you’re not an idiot, okay if you’re not a TOTAL idiot, you can absolutely use this tool safely on your dogs. The Dremel comes with many different attachments for the handheld base but of course the one to use for doggie nail trimming is the buffer. It looks just like the Pedi Paws but it’s thicker, stronger and faster.
We knew Chaos wouldn’t be thrilled with the noise and Ares might not be impressed with it at first either so we decided to take them with us to purchase it. On Saturday morning we took our walk and then headed off to our local Home Depot. I don’t know if it’s s general rule or not but as long as doggies are fairly well behaved they are welcome in the store near us. It probably helps that my boys are freaking adorable, but I might be biased. We got a few curious looks from other shoppers but mostly people were just smiling at us and complimenting us on our well behaved dogs. The staff could not have been friendlier. Alas, they were out of the model we wanted so we had to make a second stop.
Luckily there is a Lowe’s store not far from us as well. Again, at least at our local store they allow nice doggies. A few people weren’t thrilled to be shopping next to a big, bad, vicious Pit Bull and moved away like we were armed and dangerous. But the staff there was also very welcoming and we did a little trick show for a family who thought it was so fun we had brought our dogs to check out tools. And after perusing the aisles just for fun, we did find the Dremel 3000. It was price marked $10 higher than the same one at Home Depot so we asked if they would match it and sure enough, we were able to purchase it for the discounted amount. I don’t know if it differs by what area you are in but we bought ours for $59.95. I think it’s a decent price for a tool we will use forever on our dogs and Chris can use for many other household projects.
All dogs react differently to new stimuli but we know our boys pretty well so this is what we did to acclimate them to the new nail trimming tool. First we let them see and smell it. Chris at on the floor with it and let the boys come check it out for themselves. Then he plugged the Dremel in and turned it on. The model we have has several different speed settings so he started it out on a lower one. We just left it plugged in and on the counter while we went about other business. Periodically Chris would change the setting so we could desensitize them to all levels of the sound. Next he sat back down on the floor but this time he left the tool on. We praised the dogs thoroughly for getting up close to it and staying calm. We waited until the following day to complete the next step which was actually filing a nail. By this point it was old news to Ares and although he would rather skip nail trimming all together, he will stay put long enough to get all 4 paws buffed. Chaos needed a little more encouragement so we let him do what he loves most, sit on mommy’s lap and be fed bits of turkey dog. We did this in 2 sessions, front paws and then back, and also made sure to praise him like he made a buzzer shot to win the championship game. He eats that shit up.
So far we are very happy with our Dremel 3000 and will continue to use it for regular nail trimmings. It was so fun to get to bring the boys shopping with us and it also gives them more experience with new people and places. A special thanks to the Home Depot and Lowe’s staff for being so awesome to us on our visits!
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