I have heard that it is very painful too. I wouldn't do it. Almost all of my dogs have had dew claws and have had no problems. There have been some threads in the past on this. I did a search for "dew claw removal" and several threads came up. There are lots of opinions on this thread
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...l-docking.html
If I remember correctly most people said they wouldn't do it.