You've seen those ads on teevee, right? The "Peticure"© whoozit, where they show all these tail-wagging, contented dogs with beautifully short claws, sitting quietly and having their nails done by this whirring electric gadget? Shove the dog's toe into the little hole and it whirs away the dog's nail tip and the dog thanks you?
Trimming the dog's nails has been an issue for me. All my previous beasties have usually done their own nails, but this crew I have don't seem to wear their nails down or chomp on them. So every coupla weeks I would drag their furry butts off to PetSmart to have someone there clip the nails for $8.
This Peticure© thing. At first I was all "Oh, right, like my dogs're gonna sit still while I jam their nails into a whirring grinding noisy gadget, uh-yup." But I could not leave it alone. I like the concept of grinding instead of crunching the nails with a scissor-like nipper. How does it work?
It only took a little Googling to uncover a few ideas.
The Peticure© device itself is a small Dremel©-like tool with a sanding band. Using a Dremel© or similar tool with a sanding band to grind away dog nails is actually a fairly common technique, favored by many veterinarians and show-dog peeps. What makes the Peticure© unique is the cover with the hole you put the dog's nail into. It just shields the dog from the band, helps position the nail for optimal grinding, and collects the shavings. That is a nice idea. So if you already have a Dremel© (and what self-respecting Tool Boy or Girl (© Sylvia, Supreme Leader of misc.writing) does not?), then getting the $20 attachment might be a good idea ... provided, of course, you can actually Dremel© your dog's nails.
So that sent me off in another direction, and I found DoberDawn, who has pretty detailed (if oddly formatted) instructions on how to introduce grinding by Dremel© to your dog as a link on her site.
I've started introducting the Dremel© to my mutts and, so far, so good. I have not, as yet, started any grinding.
Crikey, that brings back fuzzy memories.
I remember trimming the nails of... what the hell was it, a dog, or a parakeet, or?
What I remember was that the issue was trimming the nail without hitting a vein. Is that a dog thing? Doesn't matter what tool you're using as far as I can see, the issue remains pretty much the same doesn't it?
Having never trimmed a parrot, I cannot comment, but dog nails have a hard outer shell, a somewhat softer inner component made of the same material but not hardened, and a vein (aka "quick"). We don't want to cut the vein.
Cutting is always dicey and I guess we often pinch the vein when clipping, causing pain. When grinding, you also risk getting the vein, but you don't pinch it.
The vein recedes as nail is worn down. If the nails are long, the vein reaches out further so the first trimming is not going to be taking the nail back very far.
DoberDawn drew a picture of a dog's claw: http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/dremel/diagram1.jpg
The Peticure ads (and videos on their site) show a dramatization of what sometimes takes place in clipping dog nails. I guess they use 'em on cats, too. Prolly use 'em for parrot beaks or whatever. Ask Sylvia.