Remy's nails are HUGE.  Have been for a couple of years at least and I don't seem to be able to beat them - is it possible, once they've gotten long?

I know the quick grows with them - when he was younger they were nice and short, but these days they are about an inch long and I can get 1/8 to 1/4 inch off them at the most before I hit the quick.  It doesn't seem to be getting any shorter once I've cut them, I'm just stopping them getting longer than an inch at the moment!

They are strange - they all used to be very dark brown as you'd expect on a dobe (even a fawn), but they are now almost all very pale/white and they grow like stink.  No-one's ever shed any light on it though.

Anyhoo.  I'm looking at the nail grinders - tried the JML one but absolute rubbish, it just slowed to a halt as soon as it touched.  His claws are very tough though.

the only way to get the quicks to recede again is to trim a little every week.

Hi
Now the 'proud' ?? owner of three Dobes, which is 12 Dobe feet!!
I use a dremel. They don't like it but when i tried clipping my first girl, I accidently
went too far - she screamed, I cried and she bled like mad!!
The dremel is really good as long as you do it in blasts as it gets quite warm.
It takes two of us to wrestle them. The back nails are easier cos they can't see them.
The pup is a nightmare - he really doesn't like it and fights like mad.
Having said all that, their nails are still longer than I would like them to be.

This is what you need:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgEwiH8CeUE

If my dogs really hated it and fought it I wouldn't do it - indeed I didn't touch Soli's nails for the best part of 3 years because she hated it and would bite me no hesitation!  Did a lot of clicker work with her, and although it's still a very slow process - I can do about 4 nails at a time, a few weeks apart, but for a stressy, worried girl who detests having her feet touched that is brilliant and more than I thought I'd get!

Also I found that playing with Remy's feet all the time when he was a pup was very useful - he's the best dog by far and will for the most part stand and let me do it, even though I've caught his quicks quite a few times now.  He lets me know when I'm about to now - if I don't just go straight for the cut he lets me know when the pressue is too painful because it's pressing on the quick, and I haven't caught any in a while.

Skip to about 3.05 on that vid - the first bit is the owner giving history on him.  Typical thing - other trainers have told her to dominate him and now he's an absolute mess.

Going back on topic - I will go with the dremel then.  I've tried weekly clipping but the amount I can take off each time then is so small that I can't do it safely with the nail clippers.

We did a Dobe in the salon yesterday and I was surprised how huge those claws were. The owners said 'You'll never be able to do his nails, he won't let us.' but he was an angel and let us do all of them! Because they were fairly long we just took off the tips and said she could pop in any time to have them trimmed again.

I know a collie like that - won't let the owner do a thing without a struggle but she was good as gold for me.

It's all in the handling - she's a nervous dog and the owner is an overbearing, pushy, aggressive bully with her dogs - and people (in other words, totally the wrong owner for a collie!) - so any struggle is met with physical restraint, force and telling off because the owner 'didn't have time' to be patient.  I took everything at the dog's pace - and always, without fail, did whatever needed doing a damn sight faster and with considerably less stress than the owner!

That was despite the fact the dog doesn't trust me at all.  How you handle them makes such a difference for a lot of dogs.

Soli's used to be huge - but her claws are the type that turn into talons, so the quicks stay short in the bulk of the nail and it's just the pointy end that needs to come off.  Thank goodness!

If i didn't cut them for 3 years, I think they'd be painful to walk on. It doesn't hurt them, they just don't like being restrained in any way. They are very good for the back feet, they just don't like their front feet held. You have to hold firmly so that you don't grind the wrong bit :)

They did wear down a bit though - it's not like she had 3 years of unchecked growth.  I only started cutting them for 'just in case' and to get her used to having her feet handled (or at least tolerating it, anyway) - and I'm glad I did, when she had her godawful nail infection a while back (pseudomonas that took over 3 months of serious antibiotics and bathing to get rid of, and not a few nails lost) I did have to really keep on top of a couple of nails when it was in its last stages - pressure on them had to be kept to an absolute minimum because any force at all but literally pushing them apart as they were so weak.  Since the infection I barely touch them - she lost most of the nails at one point or other and they have grown back but stayed very short.  If only I could start again with Remy's :-P

I get what you mean about having to hold firmly - I do with Remy.  But the clicker could still help if they are fighting it as much as you say, it would make the experience a lot less stressful for everyone :-)

I'll certainly give the clicker a go.  I'm not very good at clicker, I'm not very good at the timing which is crucial
I get a bit un coordinated when faced with a clicker - but luckily, my daughter is good so she can have a go :)

I clip a bit(looking under a black claw to see the indent curved shape, where it's dead , then using my clippers like scissors chibbling a bit off each side and at an angle back on the top , and   then hand file (millers forge nail file )The quicks then die back little by little and with pavement work (not carpet and grass). Have been doing a black whippets that were horrendous and twisted her feet . We are getting there now and they are off the ground now .She hides her head under my arm when I do it and fidgets a bit , but no malice.

> I'm looking at the nail grinders - tried the JML one but absolute rubbish, it just slowed to a halt as soon as it touched.

I had exactly the same problem with the JML one, complete waste of money. I have a dremel that I bought about 10 years ago and it is fabulous. I tried the JML one because I thought cordless would be easier... I guess I'll just have to splash out one day and buy a cordless dremel :-)

I could probably get a PhD in this....

It isn't often enough to JUST clip a bit off the end, however frequently. Two things seem to happen, one, the nail builds up a LOT of material above the quick (you will know it when you see it), for these you want to grind or nip off as much of this as you can without touching the quick as WELL as the area that contacts the ground.

The other thing is some will form almost tubular nails - for those you need to get an underneath view, either by standing the dog up and sitting down behind them, lifting the paw up and back as a farrier would with a horse - then nip, grind or even pick away the sides (they may have joined in the middle!) so you expose the underside of the quick (which would be exposed normally for a certain distance up the nail).

Then also cut/grind the bit that contacts the ground and any excess above.

If a nail has gone extremely tubular it can trap the quick and when that happens (most common on dew claws) you may find that when you get to the quick you get a horrible smell black ooze - its NOT blood and it is fine. Some dogs react and some dont, I would assume due to the sudden release of pressure - I have neve rhad one react the same as if you actually catch the quick.

One error some people make, especially on black nails, is they mistake the dry crumbling, and the next bit, the waxy bit of the quick for the actual live part. At the end (ground end) of the nail, it is very similar to the sole of a horses hoof. First you have the crumbly, sometimes chalky totally dead stuff that wants to come out, then  you have the waxy stuff, and THEN you have the live stuff. In a dog with healthy short nails there won't be very much of either before the live stuff, but in a dog iwth overly long nails, especially where that has built up over a long time, you can get a LOT of both before the live quick.

>One error some people make, especially on black nails, is they mistake the dry crumbling, and the next bit, the waxy bit of the quick for the actual live part. At the end (ground end) of the nail, it is very similar to the sole of a horses hoof. First you have the crumbly, sometimes chalky totally dead stuff that wants to come out, then  you have the waxy stuff, and THEN you have the live stuff. In a dog with healthy short nails there won't be very much of either before the live stuff, but in a dog iwth overly long nails, especially where that has built up over a long time, you can get a LOT of both before the live quick.

I find it useful to scrape out that dead stuff with my thumb nail first, then I can cut right back to that firm waxy stuff without worrying about going too far. Then I gently press my thumb nail into the waxy stuff to see if I have a reaction, if I don't I cut another mm, if I do then I know I have gone far enough.

If I am trying to get the quick further back i finish off with a couple of scrapes with coarse sandpaper, the quicks won't go back unless they 'feel' they are being damaged.

> I guess I'll just have to splash out one day and buy a cordless dremel :-)

I tried the cordless.  Took it back as it would not recharge :( but of course it could have been a rogue one.

I'm a complete wuss with black nails, I tend to either take the nail to where it's just barely off the table, or I just take the very tip, depending on the dog and the nail! I'm ok with white nails of course, they're easy. But I'd rather err on the side of caution, and I'm happy to show the owner how to do it or to have them pop in between groomings, rather than risk catching the quick. :-)

> I guess I'll just have to splash out one day and buy a cordless dremel :-)

Why bother with a cordless dremel, if you already got a non cordless? I would change my non cordless(unless it went wrong) for the world.

theemx - you've described his nails to a T, same all the way down.

When I've caught his quick it has definitely been the quick - I've cut enough nails in my time to be able to recognise it and when I've caught his, it is definitely blood that comes out.  Really can't get much off them before that happens.  I do try and trim the sides/top fo the nails too - but with such little to take before the quick it is hard with big cutters (and small ones just won't go through them).  So definitely going to have to get a dremelly thing I think.

Cordless Dremel here, it's fantastic.

The other thing to get is jewellers wire snips, though you have to shop around for the right sort as some have annoying blades that you cant get round a dogs nail (hard to describe unless you have seen them, but you want the kind where the blades are flat and the same width from the inside edge to the outside, NOT the kind where the outside is thick and then its a wedge shape down to the cutting edge)..

I have a great pair of these and you can then trim anyway you like with them. Proper dog nail clippers are rubbish in comparison!

Theemx, I just did a google image search and there are many different kinds of jewellers' wire snips.  Can you provide a link to a picture of the ones you mean?

> Why bother with a cordless dremel, if you already got a non cordless?

So I can use it anywhere without extension cables stretching over the floor :-) Would also be good to use it outside rather than have all that nail dust in the house.

Stooge, I have heard good things about the cordless one, hopefully yours was just a Friday afternoon model? :-)

I have never thought to use my cordless Drimel for the dogs nails.
But I use it extensively for craft work and love it. A fully charged battery works for a long time and would certainly give me enough power to do all my dogs nails. You can vary the rotation speed from 1 to 10 and I have asked it to do some tough stuff without it faltering at all.

> Stooge, I have heard good things about the cordless one, hopefully yours was just a Friday afternoon model?

I'm sure it was.  To be honest, her ladyship said don't come back with another one to try :)

> To be honest, her ladyship said don't come back with another one to try

:-)

Tchi is of the same opinion Amber was but with bear claws like his it's a must.

Good grief - all this talk of drilling, filing etc....my old dog is the only one who needs her nails clipped and she is a NIGHTMARE. There is no way I would have the time luxury to do all this lol

It's a quick weekly trim to keep on top of them and even that's a completely stressful event for us both!

Using a dremmel is alot quicker than using a file..(even a heavy duty one, with a naughty name)..particularly when you have 6 dogs to do(thats 96 nails!!). Filing is alot better & safer than clipping & you get a better finish with no rough edges too.

Fortunately for me, Remy is the only one whose nails really need regular attention - I imagine I'd have a full time job doing nails if all of them needed doing, 139 nails here (two with no dew claws, and Soli's missing a toe hence the odd number :-P)! :-O

Saffi's dews get done about once a fortnight but that's it.  Thank goodness!

This kind http://www.tickintimeworldofwatchtools.co.uk/jewellers-wire-snip-cutters-127mm-1149-p.asp

Much better than doggy nail clippers (obviously pick some that open wide enough but they arent really for cutting through teh whole nail in one go, rather snipping bits off more like a farrier would nip off bits of a hoof all the way round).

It is the fact that the blades are flat, not chunky m like...  http://www.beads4less.co.uk/acatalog/SD4J005.jpg that makes them so handy!