Nail Trimming, it’s the arch nemesis to many of my four-legged friends – including myself. According to my mom it is a necessary evil to prevent ingrown nails, and trimming them allows me to put my full weight on the ground – instead of my nails, which could cause a deformed gait.

So despite the fact that I really don’t like to have my nails trimmed I’m here to share with you my opinion on some of the best and worst nail trimmers out there.

Below is a break-down of some of the tools I have tried.

1. Guillotine style nail clippers*

2. Scissor Style Nail Clippers*

3. PediPaws nail trimmer*

4. Dremel*

*contains affiliate links

The guillotine style nail trimmer is my least favorite type. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but it makes me cry! Mom also says she finds it awkward to hold and get into the right position and it doesn’t seem to make a clean cut, perhaps that’s why it hurts when it trims my nails.

The scissor style trimmer is at the top of my list because it’s quick and painless as long as you don’t trim the nails too short.

The particular scissor style trimmer that I have is made by JW Pet Company and also has a protective guard on it to help avoid cutting anything else (like little doxie noses).

The PediPaws nail sander works fairly well, but I’m not a huge fan of the way it vibrates my nails. I can only tolerate it for so long before I just won’t sit still any longer. It also seems to take a long time to trim the nails. The one nice thing about the pedi paw though is that it has a guard on it with an opening just big enough for a nail to fit through. This helps to make sure nothing else accidentally gets sanded.

The dremel tool isn’t something sold specifically for trimming dog’s nails but it’s practically the same thing as the PediPaws. The only difference is that this sands the nail a lot faster, but this also means it spins at a higher rate (and without a nail guard) so you have to be extra careful when trimming with it.

Now if it was up to me, I’d be trimming my nails myself.

But, you’d be surprised at how difficult it is when you don’t have opposable thumbs.

So to get my fabulous mani/pedi look, this is how my mom does it for a difficult nail trimming patient like myself…

She’s super sneaky and waits until I fall into a deep sleep then quickly and quietly snips some of my nails with the scissor style trimmer, making sure to cut my all black nails just before they begin to curve as to not cut the quick. If I happen to wake up (which I always do for my front nails) she feeds me some cookies and leaves me alone until I fall asleep again or sometimes waits until the next day to finish my nails. If she thinks some of her snips weren’t quite short enough, then she’ll break out the dremel or pedipaws to sand them down a bit further. I typically only tolerate the sanders for about 5 minutes so sometimes this is broken up over several days as well.

As much as I hate getting my nails trimmed I know I look fabulous when it’s all said and done.

So now I want to hear from my fans – what nail trimming secrets or products do you use? 

Disclosure: I was not paid or perked to write this review, I just thought it would be helpful to share my nail trimming tips with everyone.