[jfinner1]

Every animal I've owned in the past has had clear nails, so I could always see the quick and know how far to cut. Now, one of our 5 dogs has black nails. We use a PediPaw (different brand, same concept) to cut all the dogs' nails, but I've been noticing that Princey (the one with black nails) doesn't get them cut far enough back. I know this is because whoever does his nails (usually my husband or his mother) is afraid of hurting him, but I also know that if they keep going like this, his nails are going to get way too long. They're already starting to look too long, and I want to put a stop to the problem before it gets out of hand. I've heard that there's some sort of sign that you're getting close to the quick when you dremel the nails, a white dot or something? Could someone please explain this better, and give me any other tips that you think would help? Thanks in advance.

[briteday]

Please take the time to read the whole thing before getting started. If power dremel type tools are a bit too much you can always use a manicure file, the rugged type they use for acrylic nails on humans. But this site has the pictures of nail beds that will help you with black nails.

http://homepages.udayton.edu/~merens...el/dremel.html

[Best*In*Show]

Thanks for posting that, Briteday -- it gives me hope that I will be able to trim Ruby's dark nails safely -- and that she might even like it.

[railNtrailcowgrl]

Thanks Briteday! I've been dremmeling my dog's nails for a while now, but they were starting to "curl" no matter how often I was trimming them. That site showed me that I needed to make the nail perpendicular to the floor, duh, why didn't I think of that Pebs is freshly dremmled and her nails look much better and I got them shorter w/o getting to the quick! Bravo!