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Originally Posted by Juliealfies mum  The gentle paws sounds great. Alfie seems to always have had longer nails and the quick is very near the edge , he does let me trim them but sometimes it gets close to the quick. |
The Gentle Paws which I first found at Walmart is less powerful than many of the others, more powerful than a very weak one I've got(got it at PetCo I think for $12.95 or something) & Tibbe seems to be able to 'take' it longer than any others I've tried, so we get more done per session. I've tried all of them on my own nails to show him and after a bit, the vibration is a bit disquieting and gets quite warm so you can't blame them if you hold the grinder on the nail for longer than 20 seconds or so. So I keep each nail grind short and go back for seconds after moving on to other nails. All 16 nails takes about 2 minutes total time and I turn it off between feet to give him a break during that time. I remind him during the trimming that a treat is coming up and how smart he is go let me do his toenails, after which come the treats and hugs, praises, runs outside.
But after living with the Gentle Paws as part of his bed, always around his food bowl, his toys, his chewies,beside his own pillow up on the couch, when I finally turned it on, he wasn't especially moved, just looked. After 2 weeks of just running it around him, he was used to its sound. By the time I touched it to a nail, he wasn't panicky or anything and by that time, he was used to nail grinders meaning treats, praises but still didn't especially like but tolerated them okay. By the time we worked up to using the Gentle Paws as a nail grinder, he tolerated it far better than the other two I'd used and we've used one a year now for five years or more. They seem to be the right power and aren't too strong like the Dremel brand I used. It's so powerful you could practically carve wood with it and Tibbe never like it.
Don't know why I can't use regular toenail clippers but I hate those things, want to shudder every time I start to clip down and the 3 Yorkies I've had over the years (can use nail clippers quite well on larger dogs) have always known it, which is why I was so happy when the nail grinders appeared on the scene after I had Tibbe. They have been a godsend with my nail clipper fear.