Something for TOUGH Nails??

Okay. Kharma's nails . . . well, to put it mildly, Wolverine's got NUTHIN on her nails. I have seriously never seen anything like them.

And she is twitchy as all hells about having her paws messed with. I had her tolerance level at a pretty decent point until she was about 7 months old. When she got shot in the foot that pretty much ruined it. I can get two or three nails done at a time -- or I COULD, if I'd been able to find anything that will deal with them. A standard dremel tool is out. She hears that and there is nothing and no one that has a chance at holding her feet. I've even tried to file them by hand. Oh, yah . . . like THAT worked :rofl1:

To top it off, she has the very black nails of her breed (nails with any white are a no-no in the Fila world as they are much weaker). Shiva has some white on her nails and you can really tell the difference.

Walking keeps them down some, but not really enough.

Need advice too Renee !! Or another pair of hands !

We use something that looks like this. You know, those thing that look like they can take a whole finger off?


Walking on pavement afterwards smooths the ends off pretty well. I cut his quick one time, and for the next few months he would only allow it while he was sleeping. Don't know if that would be a good idea with a fila.

How is she with bribes? lol

I hear ya on the black nails. All of Strider's are black except the dews and there is a huge difference.

I use the same clippers on mine except for two of them. Luckily one chews his nails, and the other (Max) you don't dare go near his nails.

I broke a pair of those on her nails

She doesn't take bribes. Not EVEN.

I even resorted to trying a pair of heavy wire cutters, but they shred the nail

When Keith wakes up I will ask him what tool it is we use on Brutie's nails.(he is off today and had dog duty lastnight) Our reg clippers can't handle the thickness of his nails, so he uses one of his tools. I'm not strong enough to clip those suckers anymore so Keith does it. I do run a file over them as it does not leave them pretty or smooth after clipping, but it gets the job done.

If you can, get a picture of them? Even if you have to just do a cell phone shot and send it to me that way? I'd appreciate it mightily!

Kharma might not, lol, but I'll have to deal with that And we won't tell her where it came from

Will do!

*makes mental note to get her Fila used to a dremel early on*

*informs zoom that while it sounds like a good plan, it doesn't work that way on all dogs*

Those are like mine , but I've had them at least 15 years and may be just dull and tired !

Oh goodness yes Grammy! I've had mine for less than 1/4 of that time and they're too dull to use...they need constant sharpening or replacing, depending on type!

Wonder if I can get them sharpened ..... probably just as much as a new pair .

I'd just go get a new pair myself...

Got my credit card in front of me as I type !

I would take her back to square one. First, all I would do is have the dremel present for ALL good events in her day...especially eating. The dremel would be off but visable and close to where these events take place. The dremel would ONLY come out during these events so that the presence of the dremel starts to MEAN that these wonderful experiences are about to happen.

Once she starts to see the dremel as a signal that something great is going to happen and is completely comfortable with it being around, I would turn it on for tiny intervals DURING the event (again, if she's 'foody', while she's chowing down)

Only when she shows no reaction to the sound, would I increase the duration of the dremel being on, and only have the event happen while the dremel is runnning. When the dremel turns off, all good things go away.

When that association has clearly been made, I would pick her paw up while holding the dremel but would not touch it to her nail. It would be great if you had a second person reinforcing these 2 actions with her being fed something wonderful.

Once she has no problem with the paw hole, dremel close...while feeding, I would attempt on quick session with ONE NAIL ONLY.

If you do this slowly enough and with the intention of desensitizing rather than nail trimming for the first few weeks, I'd bet $$ that you'll eventually have success.

2 of my dogs were SO sensitive to paw touching of any kind. When Lola came to me, you couldn't even look at her without her peeing AND her nails had NEVER been cut. They were curled right around and the ends were actually poking into her paw pads. She would SCREAM if you even touched her paws.

Lola now lays on her back, feet up in the air like a dead spider and allows me to dremel without a problem.

It takes a lot of time a patience but I've never met a dog that can't get there with the slow progression of desensitization.

Doc, what do you do with a dog for whom there is NOTHING she won't walk away from? Food, she has no interest in toys, she's even fully capable of turning her back on her beloved animal crackers to make her point :wall:

Most of the time I can talk her through to doing things because I want her to, but so far I've not had that success. I've had just enough to clip two or three nails -- and then the clippers break.

Yah, she is REALLY my dog, lol!

It helps a great deal to not start out with an idiot who insists on letting the dogs run so that you end up with a puppy with a .22 in her paw :madgo:

None of mine really like nail clipping, even though I've made it a practice to handle their feet and clip from the beginning. The older they get the worse it gets. :wall:

Hmmm try sugar cookies.

Cleo has converted over to sugar or peanut butter cookies instead of animal crackers. She won't eat them now.

I don't have a problem with the handling of Brutus feet, nails, but what I saw... I was twisting his nail while trying to cut it. I'm sure that was uncomfortable. The darned things are so thick you have to have something sharp and someone with strong hands to slice through them. The vet can't even get through them with his clippers.

I hold the paw up and Keith clips. It works so much quicker that way. I may do some research into dremels.

Want to send Keith here ??

Sure!! I'd be happy to share his nail clipping skills with you.