okay guys, mine arrived in the mail yesterday. It took a really really long time to come...about 8 weeks in all. I don't have a puppy yet (he is arriving on thursday) so i took it over to my best friends house last night to try it out. I used it on both of his two kitties who absolutely hate to have anyone do anything to their paws and they allowed me to use it with few problems...one looked completely bored and the other just looked annoyed but neither were frightened or upset by the noise (not as loud as i would have expected). The bands didn't look like they had been worn down much (i'll let you know how it goes when i actually get to use it on my puppy). Overall it was very quick and effective. I give this one a definite thumbs up