I clip the excess and THEN dremel to get them really short and rounded, once every week-2 weeks.
My dogs will sit still for their whole nail trim, no matter who is trimming them, raise each paw for you, and will poke you for a treat afterwards if not provided.
I am also one of those super fortunate people who "does nails" for other people's dogs. I'm known for being good with aggressive/difficult dogs, so I get all of the dogs who think the clippers/dremel are the end of the world!
I recently was told that I had to clip a Pug's nails; no biggie right? Oh my god. She was 10 years old and very unhealthy to begin with (fed Beneful), she was morbidly obese (her name was Chubs), and her nails looked as though they had never once been trimmed. They curled completely under, to the point that she was literally walking on the sides of her feet and had massive callouses, AND her paw pads were falling off. I wanted her owners turned in for cruelty. D:< So, me and another girl set out to do her nails. She couldn't be muzzled, as she was a Pug, and she was trying to rip into me with the few teeth she had. The other girl was doing the worst job ever at holding her still/keeping me from being bitten, so after I had painstakingly done one foot, I told her to do the others while I held her. The first nail she clipped, she quicked severely! It was very very hard not to quick those ridiculous nails. The Pug began thrashing, blood gushed from her nose, and she went limp. I thought she had died. I was running to the Vet with her when she came to... it was the scariest experience ever. I can't believe people let their dogs get like that.
I've had to clip dewclaws that were so long they had wounds on their legs, dozens of times. I think some people don't even realize that their dogs have dewclaws.