We happen to know a particular hound named Sophie who's endured more than her share of cracked nails and bleeding nail beds, the result of the standard guillotine-type nail trimmers. Though she was a bit wary of the Dremel, she sniffed at it and decided it was harmless. Then we set it on the floor and turned it on.

Sophie seemed concerned for a minute, but then lost interest. We let her get used to the sound of the Dremel for a few minutes, then got down to business. We expected her to cringe and pull away when we took paw in hand, for what usually follows is not pleasant for her. She submitted reluctantly at first to the Dremel, probably expecting the worst, but once we distracted her with a piece of rawhide, she forgot about the nail hubbub and let us carry on.

The whole thing was quick and painless, which made a change for Sophie, and was actually kind of soothing for the humans, which definitely made a change for us.

We followed the advice in the manual and alternated between two paws at a time, not keeping the abrasive on any nail for more than a couple of seconds, and we made sure each nail was cool before grinding it a second time.

If we had a criticism, it would be to wish only that Dremel would include the -inch drum for larger dogs like Sophie as well as the smaller one. Other than that, it's a tail-wagger. --Kris Jensen-Van Heste