Dremel 761-03 Cordless Pet Nail Grooming Rotary Tool

I've got 2 pitbulls, I used this on them yesterday without any problems. They were a bit apprehensive of the sound at first but once they got accustomed to it they didn't have any fear. I think that all of the people who gave this product 1 or 2 stars must have not read the instructions beforehand. I actually read them afterwards since I already knew what I was doing and a lot of the problems people had could most likely have been solved with the manual. One negative thing I will say is that the wrench tool is not included...I don't know what it would be used for other than tightening the bolt on the piece which holds the sanding drum though. All in all it did a very good job on their nails.

This tool is too slow to do the entire nail job. Most dogs aren't that patient. Other problems that it causes are too much heat, and the rotating shaft snags hair very easily, which is a problem on long-haired breeds. It is best used to remove the sharp edge on the nail after you have used clippers on it.

I have a couple of dogs and have used a Dremel for decades to do all my dogs' nails. I was bummed when I saw that somebody 'invented' the PediPaws and is probably making a fortune! Coulda, woulda, shoulda... oh well.

In any case, a couple of years ago I bought this item: Dremel 1100-N/25 7.2-Volt Stylus Lithium-Ion Cordless Rotary Tool Kit with Docking Station since it was cordless. It is very compact and the shape makes it easy to use when doing the dog's nails. A big plus for me is the Lithium Ion batteries which hold a great charge and should last pretty much forever. It also has a variable speed instead of just a Hi-Lo setting. I know this is quite a bit more, but you can use this for just about anything instead of just pet nails. It is every bit as useful and powerful as my corded Dremels (yes that's plural - "He who dies with the most tools WINS").

All that being said, I also have a PediPaws which is far inferior to the power of the Dremel, but the nice thing is that the PediPaws has a housing that catches the majority of the toe nail grindings. I use it for touchups in the house when the weather does not allow me to do it outside. I will not use the Dremel in the house since it does kick up quite a bit of (let's call it) dust. I only use the Dremel outside and don't worry about the dust. My dogs are around 70 pounds, so if you have a small dog, this might not be a problem for you.

One thing I always do is pre-trim the nails with a standard pet nail clipper to get started and then finish up with the Dremel. goes much quicker and saves a lot of grinding. I don't try to get them too close with the clipper, and save the final pedicure for the Dremel. The dog will let you know when you're getting too close and if you do it every couple of weeks, you'll be surprised how short their nails can be maintained since the quick will actually recede with regular trimming. And, the pre-trim saves the drums from wearing out so quickly.

One last thing, Dremel sells various sizes of drums. I have found that the large size work better since they don't tend to drift in use and they also last a lot longer than the tiny ones.

And a last, last thing... DO NOT crank this up to high speed when doing the nails. You should never go above 4 or 5 since the high speed will heat up the nails and you don't want to torture your dog any more than you must. Just doing the nails is torture enough.

With fresh batteries, this tool is still very slow. Not nearly fast enough to do the job quickly (which is essential with an animal that doesn't like to be held).

Don't waste your time.
It's weak, has low RPMs and BURNS through batteries.
FOUR at a time no less.
WELL worth the money to get a real Dremel tool, it's much
easier on the pets nails and gets the job done so much
faster that they don't fidget as much. There's far less
vibration with the extra RPMs as well.