Just wanted to post a note of how proud I was of Suzzie. She let me grind her nails this weekend with my dremel. I had only one or two sessions of desensitizing her to it. I got her to touch it with her nose (while off) and I got her to not freak when I had it on. Then I went for it! I got down in the floor on her pillow with her and had her front paws in my lap with my arm wrapped around her head. I gave her a treat for each nail I touched and just kept working my way through each of her front nails. In about 5 minutes or so I had all of her front nails done to my satisfaction! The next day I had her lay down on her pillow and I did her back nails in about the same amount of time. She was so good and calm!

Bolstered with that success, I decided to try my 3 yr old Shi Tzu's nails (which are sadly very long). She pretty much freaked out as soon as I tried to even touch her nails with my hands. I tried to hold her and just touch her nails with my fingers, but she was so stressed she wouldn't even eat the treats. I've got a long way to go with her.

If the nails are really that long Doug, I'd go ahead and clip them. It's generally quicker and a little less of a fight.

I've actually found the opposite. It takes me LONGER to clip my dogs' nails because of the fight involved. With the Dremel, the fight happens until they realize that I'm just DREMELING and not clipping. Then it's like, oh..zzzzzzzzz... mind you it still takes around 30 minutes per dog. (Due to the time it takes to grind in 1 second increments...)

Your Shih Tzu is used to being clipped, so you'll have to mark for simple things like touching the paw for 1/2 second. etc. and work your way up to even showing her the dremel.

30 Min???? Lol, I think I'd probably give up. You're stronger willed then me Angela.

I am also working with my dogs. one of my dogs "cody" doesn't like his feet touched. Now when the dogs see the clipper/grinder I mean, they get excited because they are going to get a treat, and I can touch it to their feet, off, and with Bindi while on.
Cody is the hard sell, he is not liking that vibrating tool at all. Like you I am keeping up the disensitizing.
I started with just letting them look at the grinder and get treat, then asked them to touch it, and get a treat, and now I am touchin their paws and they get a treat.
I have felt like maybe I should take them in and get theirs trimmed since their nails are growing while I train them. But have decided it won't be worth it. One session with a stranger who is not rewarding them could undo all I have tried to do, so I wait.
Sharon

A good game of fetch on concrete or teaching them to belly crawl on the pavement can wear the nails down enough to keep them from getting out of control between nail grindings. (At least for my three)

my dog hates getting her nails done too. if i used the clippers she would hide in the corner of the bathroom and show her teeth at me. the grinding is a little easier, although she still hates it. luckily she is small, so what i do is pick her up in my arms while standing, and hold her paws. it can get really hard to do this though while i am trying to do the back nails! but i realize if i am standing, she is less likely to jump out of my arms or try to squirm out of it. I don't know if i will ever be able to get her to be comfortable with it.

I built a large concrete dog run in my yard. 30' x 33'. I did it so that I can still have grass and enjoy my yard in the spring and summer. I took one of my dogs to the vet last week for a routine visit and her nails didn't need clipping at all. If you can run them on concrete regularly it will take care of the nails and also toughen up the pads. So the concrete suggestion is a very good one. I struggled with clipping and grinding for a long time. No more.

Alec is right. Luc never needs his nails trimmed, Teagan has maybe once, and Neb hasn't for awhile now.

Though my brother did complain last night when Luc stretched out his feet and started flexing and pulling his feet....on my brother's foot.

Nonetheless, I was thinking of getting one of those pet store dremmels to have handy. Doug, what kind did you get? A dremmel dremmel or one of the pet store ones?