[lgnutah]

I am almost ready to start acclimating Brooks to the Dremel.
I may not even grind his nails the first time I approach him with it, but once I do, do you use the fine or the coarse sander to do nails?
My Dremel has two speeds. Would I use high or low speed?
I was told to sand a bit, then touch the nail to check the heat. How long does that mean?
Thanks for help

 

[rappwizard]

I use the low speed; I understand that the high speed is too hot (sometimes) for the dog (???) Also, make sure you don't spend too much time on one part of the nail; move the Dremel over and around the nail--keeping it in one place will let the dog feel the heat in that one place and the dog will not like the sensation (we wouldn't either--having heat at our fingertips, even if it's at our nails).

I use the coarse on my golden. You are doing the right thing to get your dog used to the sound and sensation--get high value treats--the highest value you can (IMHO) to feed and praise your dog with in this endeavor. My golden is 18 months and she's "progressed" to the point where her back paws are a breeze--the front are still a struggle. Sometimes I can have a great session, and sometimes it's a borderline wrestling match.

My first golden would hear the sound of the Dremel and come over to me and give me his paws--he knew the treats were coming and he didn't mind it and loved being the center of attention. My second golden, up until the day she died, hated, hated, hated it. She was my Dremel failure.

Hopefully I'll have my youngster come around on her front paws.

 

[LibertyME]

I use coarse....low speed...until they get used to it...in about 2-3 second spurts -

 

[lgnutah]

Good, because the tool came with the coase sandpaper already installed---and if it was the fine, I'd have to figure out how to change it (I know I will have to eventually.....)

How long does one sandpaper tool last? I was going to order extra when I ordered the Dremel itself, but didn't know what kind was best.

 

[BajaOklahoma]

The guy who does my nails gave me a fine grit metal sander, like they use on my nails. And he worked with me on how to use it. All those of patronage paid off!

 

[rappwizard]

It's going to depend on a lot of things--how often you use it, and also how thick your golden's nails are; my ol' boy who passed had real thick nails and he could tear up a coarse Dremel pretty easily it seems. Maybe the boys have thicker nails?

I could tell I had to change it when it lost it's "nubbiness" and was smooth and didn't have the edges it seemed to grind the nails--like it seemed as if it was taking me longer to grind them. I can't really say in my case if it was 6 months, 3 months or a year because it just seemed so variable.

Right now, I'm grinding Mac's nails weekly so I'm sure I'll be changing more frequently.

When I got my Dremel, just to be on the safe side, I did get a spare packet of coarse grinders--it's the "neuro" in me!

 

[Prov31]

I found that an article on Doberdawns' website that is very good to show how to Dremel a dog's nail (includes pictures):

http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/index.html

 

[Pointgold]

I use one that is not super fine, nor coarse (Helpful, eh?) I've found that the one that is not so coarse buffs it down faster, so the job is done before I have to worry about too much heat...

 

[lgnutah]

I found that an article on Doberdawn.com's website that is very good to show how to Dremel a dog's nail (includes pictures):

http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merensjp/doberdawn/index.html

This is GREAT!!!! I have made a copy to refer to. Thank you

 

[Prov31]

This is GREAT!!!! I have made a copy to refer to. Thank you

You are most welcome. I love to share good information. Anything to help our dogs

 

[Taz Monkey]

I use the course, 60 grit sanding band. It will say 408 on the package. I buy all the packages they have at WalMart at one time. I honestly will go through 1 per dog. I might be wasteful but I hate having to work harder to get the nails sanded down so I just change the band. But they're so cheap it doesn't matter.
I sand for 2 or 3 seconds the move to the next nail. and so on until they're all as short as I want.