Product Review: Conair Pet Nail Clipper

The Conair Pet Nail Clipper is a scissors-style clipper available at PetSmart. It features a no-slip grip and is available in two sizes. It's also pink. That's basically why I bought it. Nearly all my grooming stuff is pink of purple. This is a decent clipper, though.

Photo by Erin Koski

As a dog nerd, I find myself geeking out about weird stuff on a regular basis. Dog toenails are one of my geek specialties. I mean, most people can manage to hack a dog's nails shorter, just like most people can make a lasagna or paint a recognizable picture of a hippopotamus.

To trim nails really well though, it helps to know a bit about the anatomy of the toenail and the quick inside. If you're really nerdy though, you end up wanting to know everything you possibly can about managing dog toenails. You end up learning about trimming angles, how to shorten a quick, how to cut black toenails. dremeling and filing, how long toenails affect the dog's posture and joint health, what dewclaws are actually for...

I work at a doggy daycare facility that offers assorted grooming services including nail trims. This means I get to practice cutting a lot of different toenails on a lot of different dogs. It also means I get to find out what makes a good and bad nail trimmer. Sharpness is really the most important thing, more so than having a big trimmer for a big dog or a small trimmer for a small dog. A sharp trimmer allows me to take small slices off the nail, which is much more comfortable for the dog. You can tell a nail trimmer is dull when it takes a lot of force to chop through the nail. This is because it is breaking the nail rather than cutting it. Not comfortable for the dog, not good for precision trimming either.

Pros: Nice grippy handle even when wet. Sharp enough to cut small slices off both large and tiny toenails. It's pink.

Cons: I'm not sure how long it will stay sharp.

Bottom Line: I need to figure out how to sharpen nail clippers.