The rear ones look good (the first photo yes?)
Front ones, I'd knock the tips off along the green line I've put here:

That's a guestimate on my part BTW, You'll have to see where his quick is, but you might be able to knock that all off in one session. From there his quicks should recede and you should be able to take more off.

 

Jack is lying next to me on the sofa so I tried turning on the sander to see how he reacted to the noise.

He didn’t, apart from raising his head so I tried stroking him with my finger while holding it in that hand. No reaction apart from laying his head back down.

So I tried holding a paw in my free hand and isolated a nail between two fingers and touched it with the grinding end. Again, nothing so I gave it a brief tinkle round the tip and took off about a millimetre. Did the same on another and then stopped.

Will try a bit more later.

Really pleased at his relaxed attitude to it

 

Jack is lying next to me on the sofa so I tried turning on the sander to see how he reacted to the noise.

He didn't, apart from raising his head so I tried stroking him with my finger while holding it in that hand. No reaction apart from laying his head back down.

So I tried holding a paw in my free hand and isolated a nail between two fingers and touched it with the grinding end. Again, nothing so I gave it a brief tinkle round the tip and took off about a millimetre. Did the same on another and then stopped.

Will try a bit more later.

Really pleased at his relaxed attitude to it

That's what I did with Milly. . She wasn't having any of it with her front paws, but her back paws were fair game. I still need to take more off, but hey, still progress.

Good boy Jack.

 

That's excellent news @Lurcherlad - aren't you glad now that you joined nail club

Great going for you too @LinznMilly - murph is better too with his back feet.

I'm focusing on keeping murph tangle free before he goes to the groomer on Wednesday. He is matting up on a daily basis atm. Really dont want him losing his lovely locks

 

Managed to cut the hair around Honey's feet this afternoon I preparation for the grinder. Expected much more drama from my little diva, but apart from a look that said "WTF are you doing?" she didn't react.

I'm under no illusion that it'll be that easy with the grinder.

 

Amazing news!!!!!!! You know how i have just been using a distraction technique with murph and he has been standing up not at all happy really (except when he had his nose in the beef)


Well. MAJOR ADVANCE FORWARD i had him lying in the game on position. And i have been able to tap the switched off grinder against his nail before, but he has always shot up when it switches on.


So today, i tapped it against murphs' nail on a FRONT paw 3 times, saying 'tap' each time. So tap, tap, tap.

Then i told him i was switching on, talked him through it (murph does respond well to a human voice telling him how well he is doing)


And then i swiched on to low speed and tapped 3 times and HE DIDNT MOVE AT ALL!!!!!

Can you even believe that???!!!!!!


And i did it again!

Just one nail and didnt take anything much off at all but i really think this is a huge breakthrough.

Once he believes it wont hurt, i think i will actually get him loving his nails done like he loves being combed and brushed.

Very, very optimistic about this now.

 

Took some more off the nails off Milly's hind feet. I stopped when I caught her lick her lips out of the corner of my eye.

 

Today Elliot's decided he doesn't like the dremel Kenzie will let me sit next to her on the sofa and do little bits on hers provided the treats keep coming, but Elliot's totally not on board. I've started sitting on the floor with a pile of treats and the dremel turned on and treating him if he approaches, which he will do if he sees Kenzie getting all the treats! :Hilarious

 

FOMO can definitely help in these situations!

 

Update (it's possible I'm getting too emotionally involved in nail club...): McKenzie is a superstar. Elliot is good with the noise, good with me picking up his foot. Not good with me putting the switched off dremel to his nail, so that's our next step. Oh and picking up our diamond tip this morning

 

Update (it's possible I'm getting too emotionally involved in nail club...): McKenzie is a superstar.

I dont think it can be possible to get too emotionally involved in such a great club as Nail Club can it? :Hilarious

Sounds like you're getting on brilliantly there

Managed to get another 3 taps on murphs' nail with the switched on dremel today. And that was him. But he was sore for grooming too. Im going to have to up his rimadyl i think to avoid the short clip on Wednesday. This cold weather i think. We are only 4 degrees here today. Brrrrrrr:Cold

Tilly was just a total wriggle bot today. Going to be a long haul with her

 

Jack wasn’t so keen on Sunday when I tried, but I think I chose the wrong moment and angle.

He wasn’t sleepy enough and I wasn’t sneaky enough

 

Eeek made more progress on novas front paws! They are even shorter now and I'm so pleased. Never had them this length. I'm now wanting to buy a dremel !!! This nail club is really egging me on

She's not keen on paw photos though

 

*Ordered a nail grinder*

 

You won't regret it !

 

@McKenzie this one from Mighty Ape

@Beth78 that sounds great! I've „only" cut into Novas quick a couple of times and it was only a Small nick each time so not much blood luckily

 

Milly's definitely not happy with getting her front nails done, so I'm doing a mix of rewarding for offering paw, rewarding a gentle tap with the grinder in my hand, and occasionally for a tap of the grinder against a claw, but it's just that - a tap and off.

Even if you aren't actually doing their nails I find having them there with the noise and seeing the treats (and yes I'm a softy and the onlookers will get treats now and then too...:Shy ) makes them happier with the whole situation and helps them want to get involved. Any way to desensitise and make the whole thing better for them has got to be a good thing.

So does Honey. :Bag

 

We will have to give this a try again. We’ve had some bad experiences trying to cut nails lol.

I tried the clippers and got a muzzle punch to the hand. Since that she runs as soon as she sees the clippers so haven’t tried it since.

Tried the Dremel, she seemed pretty chill with the noise so I picked up her paw and touched the nail with it only for her to grab the top spinning bit with her mouth. No physical damage but she doesn’t like the dremel either now

she’s recently learnt to dig on command though, I can tap the ground with my foot and say ‘dig dig’ and she’ll start digging lol. It does seem to be shortening the nails slightly but I expect I could get it done quicker with a grinder, so we will try again but start slowly this time lol

 

We will have to give this a try again. We've had some bad experiences trying to cut nails lol.

I tried the clippers and got a muzzle punch to the hand. Since that she runs as soon as she sees the clippers so haven't tried it since.

Tried the Dremel, she seemed pretty chill with the noise so I picked up her paw and touched the nail with it only for her to grab the top spinning bit with her mouth. No physical damage but she doesn't like the dremel either now

she's recently learnt to dig on command though, I can tap the ground with my foot and say 'dig dig' and she'll start digging lol. It does seem to be shortening the nails slightly but I expect I could get it done quicker with a grinder, so we will try again but start slowly this time lol

If she knows dig - you could potentially use a scratch board, while working on getting her comfortable with her paws and nails being handled.

It's basically a firm board, or clipboard, often held at an angle with sandpaper attached to it - so they file their own nails by scratching the board, it can be a little tricker for the back paws but useful for front paws.

 

Spa day today

Fronts

Back

I'm pretty happy with those so back to just maintaining them now.

 

Had Jack at the vets today for an infected sebaceous cyst and to get some antibiotics and mentioned his nails to the vet and that I’m trying to get them shorter with a grinder.

She said his were actually not too bad for a greyhound

She had a good look at them and advised grinding the tips at a 90 degree angle so the top edge was shorter (as the blood line runs under the nail). That should help improve the stance of the paw and encourage the line to recede with less risk of hitting it.

I’ll try later when he’s snoozing in the right position next to me, which worked well last time

 

She said his were actually not too bad for a greyhound

Oh high praise indeed!

She had a good look at them and advised grinding the tips at a 90 degree angle so the top edge was shorter (as the blood line runs under the nail). That should help improve the stance of the paw and encourage the line to recede with less risk of hitting it.

Yup, that's the alternate cut line - look at the photo I edited for McKenzie. I don't do a full 90* angle, but near to it. You'll get the feel for what is comfortable for Jack as you grind. But yes, once you have the bottoms ground, you can keep going at the top, and it does help the quick recede.

 

Vet has a greyhound herself so I figure she knows her stuff on them

 

Okay I’m at work and the nail grinder just arrived. I’m so excited. Just in time for the weekend. Muahahahaha. Poor Nova!

 

Just a couple of videos to give some ideas:
- How to ease in to the sensation of the dremel by touching the foot with the hand holding the dremel.
- Different positions you can have the dog in.
- Working on duration, eventually you want the dog to be okay with you holding the paw for a more extended time.

Things to notice with your dog:
Penny is nervous/fidgety, but is able to eat, and chooses not to leave. She's not restrained in any way, if she wanted to leave, she could, but she doesn't.
I can restrain Penny and knock the nails back (2 person job), but I much prefer that she let me do it unrestrained and in the long term, that's really what you want to shoot for.

Bates did get treats! I promise

 

Now if it was either of my 2 they would have their snouts in the bowl and inhale the lot!

 

Thank you @O2.0 I'll definitely start working with her this weekend. Even if it's Just getting familiar with it switched off. Nova can be very suspicious of new objects. Luckily food is her biggest weakness.

 

Did some more grinder training this morning, after a walk around the block. I've been concentrating on Milly's front nails and this is what I've got so far;

Should have taken Before pics, as her nails were embarrassingly long, but I think I can see a change in her posture now.

There was a little avoidance going on, probably because I persisted a bit too long, but she was still taking treats, and I'd stop and give her a break once I noticed.

Meanwhile Honey's practically sitting on the grinder. With it turned on. Try to grab her foot while holding the grinder though... :Shifty

 

What grinder is everyone using? I don't know if I got one that's too big :Facepalm

I'm using this thing it's basically a dremel but a cheaper brand because I'm cheap :Hilarious

anyway I took it out the box and daisy went upstairs and lied on my bed :Hilarious

Im thinking of trying to make a scratch pad like @ShibaPup suggested lol

 

What grinder is everyone using? I don't know if I got one that's too big :Facepalm

I'm using this thing it's basically a dremel but a cheaper brand because I'm cheap :Hilarious
View attachment 466341

anyway I took it out the box and daisy went upstairs and lied on my bed :Hilarious

Im thinking of trying to make a scratch pad like @ShibaPup suggested lol

This one;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Casfuy-Dog...1YMZ/ref=sr_1_16?dchild=1&keywords=Nail+grinder+for+dogs&qid=1618037250&sr=8-16

I used the scratch pad initially too, but it wasn't taking enough off Milly's nails. Maybe I didn't persistent enough.

 

Yay. Success! I worked with Nova today. Just letting her see and sniff the dremel switched off. She was fine so switched it on and after a few seconds she was happy sitting next to me while I had it switched on. Left it for a few hours and then touched her paws with it and it was switched off. No worries. Long story short she was fine with me having a go at all her nails. But I kept it a short session even though she wasn’t stressed. Do a little bit each day I think rather than a lengthy one go session.

So proud of her. Didn’t think she’d give it a go. Once she realised it doesn’t hurt or anything she didn’t care about the noise or it touching her paws.

 

Well after trying for a week to touch Elliot's feet with the dremel and not making any progress, I decided he was just being silly about it. Put him up on the grooming table, had lots of treats on hand, and just did it - and he was fine I'll keep working on holding his feet as I think that's the bit he doesn't like. Kenzie will let me do them just sitting next to her on the sofa, which is huge for her.

I'm not sure the diamond tip I have is the right one - it doesn't seem to take off as much as the sandpaper was.

 

Took just the tips off all of Jack’s back nails this morning as he snoozed on the sofa