10 Best Dog Nail Clippers in 2022 – Reviews & Top Picks

Bringing a dog into your family is full of ups and downs, but mostly ups. However, trimming your dog’s nails is most definitely one of the downers for many dog owners. The last thing you want to do is cause your dog to yelp when you accidentally nip the quick while trimming your dog’s nails. The dreaded ‘quick’ is the soft tissue found in the center of the nail. However, did you know that when you regularly trim their nails, the quick will gradually pull away from the end of the nail?

Next on your agenda is finding a pair of nail clippers that will work best for you and your dog’s needs, but where do you start? There are so many nail clippers on the market! Well, we’ve reviewed the top 10 nail clippers for you, so all you need to do is read each of the reviews and decide which one sounds best for you and your pup.

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A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites – Reviews 2022

The 10 Best Dog Nail Clippers

1. Safari Professional Dog Nail Clippers – Best Overall

The Safari Professional Nail Clippers are the best overall nail clippers. They are made with stainless steel that has a cutting edge that remains sharp for a long time. The cutter is also a double blade with a tension spring that makes trimming nails easier and can be used with either the right or left hand. The grip is made to be comfortable in the hand and is non-slip, so you won’t accidentally hurt your pup or drop it while trimming.

The Safari also has a safety stop, which helps you to not snip too far down the nail and accidentally nip the quick. It also comes in two sizes; small/medium and medium/large for dogs of all sizes, and comes with instructions.

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2. Millers Forge Dog Nail Clipper – Best Value

The Millers Forge Nail Clipper might just be the best dog clippers for the money. The handle is a smaller design than our number one choice and more closely resembles pliers with a comfortable, plastic grip. These clippers have a spring-loaded cutting blade with a safety stop to prevent overcutting. The Millers Forge clippers also have a lock that will hold the blades closed for storing safely, plus the blades are made from heat-treated stainless steel and can last for years.

However, these clippers only come in one size, and while they claim they work for dogs of all sizes, they won’t necessarily fit large dog nails. Plus, we found the handle opens up quite wide, which wasn’t always comfortable to hold.

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3. Resco Original Dog Nail Clippers – Premium Choice

The Resco Original Nail Clippers are our premium choice for several reasons. These clippers are a ‘guillotine’ style, which means you place the dog’s nail inside the opening, and the blade slices down to trim the end of the nail neatly. This style of clipper is best used for small or medium dogs, although Resco has these clippers in sizes small/medium and large. They are also the only guillotine-style clippers on this list.

The blades are durable steel and replaceable, unlike the scissor or plier-style clippers, so you don’t have to purchase new clippers when the blade dulls. The handles are covered in chrome plating, making them more durable and comfortable, and they are spring-loaded. And just for fun, they come in silver, red, blue, and purple.

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4. JW Pet Gripsoft Deluxe Dog Nail Clipper

The JW Pet Gripsoft lives up to its name with a super comfortable grip that is guaranteed not to slip thanks to it being covered in rubber. It has a cutting guard to stop you from clipping too far, and the blades are stainless steel. These clippers are available in large and are designed for large dogs and wouldn’t work well on smaller dogs.

It comes with a locking mechanism so you can lock the clippers when not in use; however, we found that this very same guard would move and lock up the clippers while in use, making them more challenging while trimming.

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5. Andis Pet Nail Clipper

The Andis Pet Nail Clippers are heat-treated stainless steel, which adds durability and strength for cutting nails. They are spring-loaded and have a safety stop as well as a safety lock, all of which make them safe to use and to store. The handle is non-slip and has a comfortable grip, which adds to the clippers’ safety and ease of use.

The Andis clippers are designed for dogs of all sizes, but we found them to be quite large in size, which might prove awkward and uncomfortable to use for people with smaller hands. They might work best for larger dogs.

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6. Hertzko Professional Dog Nail Clipper

The Hertzko clippers have the advantage of being combined with a nail file in addition to the clippers. The clipper blades are stainless steel, which makes them durable and precise, and the nail file is designed to help smooth the nails after using the clippers. Like most plier-style clippers, the Hertzko comes with a safety stop, a safety lock and is spring-loaded.

The handles are a rubber-like texture, making for a comfortable and non-slip grip, and shouldn’t cause any extra strain on your hand or wrist. However, these clippers are rather large in size and would work best for medium to large dogs. These clippers are also the most expensive on this list and might not be worth the extra money if you aren’t interested in the nail file.

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7. Hartz Groomer’s Best Pet Nail Clipper

The Hartz Groomer’s Best Nail Clippers are the least expensive clippers on this list. The handle is ergonomically designed and doesn’t slip, making for a comfortable and safe grip. The clipper blades are made with stainless steel and have a safety guard to prevent overcutting the nail.

We found that the safety guard meant to protect the dog’s quick had a tendency to loosen, and it was generally ineffective. Again, this is another set of clippers that claims to work for dogs of all sizes but are smaller in size and would probably work best with medium to small dogs. The handle of these clippers is made from a hard plastic, which may or may not last quite as long as the other clippers on this list.

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8. PetSpy Dog Nail Clipper

The PetSpy Dog & Cat Nail Clipper is moderately priced and has 3.5mm stainless steel blades that are claimed to last a lifetime. It includes a safety-stop and a locking mechanism for safety, and the handles are easy to hold and are non-slip. The PetSpy clippers additionally come with an included nail file.

However, this is another set of clippers with large handles that might be difficult to hold for those with small hands. They seemed slightly difficult to squeeze, which will be challenging for anyone that has issues with their hands, such as arthritis. These clippers have yet another one-size-fits-all claim, which isn’t the case if they are larger in size. The claim that they work for both dogs and cats is false as they were too large to trim a cat’s claws or a small dog’s nails.

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9. Pet Magasin Dog Nail Clippers

The Pet Magasin Dog Clippers are made with stainless steel that is said to be sharp, but there were mixed results on this. Most of the time, the dog’s nails came out ragged, but these clippers also include a nail file and can help smooth the edges. The handles are non-slip and cushiony, making for a comfortable grasp. The Pet Magasin comes with a safety stop, locking mechanism, and are spring-loaded.

These clippers are on the expensive side, and they didn’t last as long as some of the other clippers on this list. They are also advertised as working on all sizes of dogs, but like some of the other clippers already reviewed, they are best for medium to large-sized dogs.

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10. H&H Pets Dog Nail Clipper

This H&H Pets Dog & Cat Nail Clipper comes in small/medium and advertises their durable, stainless steel, hypoallergenic blades. The handles are non-slip and comfortable with a rubber coating, which will make for a safer grooming session, and the packaging includes instructions.

The H&H clippers are moderately priced, but we found that they were not as sharp as many of the other clippers on this list and tended to “chew up” the nails or not clip the ends of the nails off completely. They also do not include a stop-guard, and the handles were not comfortable for someone with small hands.

Buyer’s Guide: Selecting the Best Dog Nail Clipper

With the wide range of dog nail clippers available, finding the right one may seem daunting. Please read on as we will go over some of the considerations you should make when choosing a new set of nail clippers.

Dog Size

The size of your dog will determine his nail size and, consequently, the size of the clippers you should be looking for. You do not want to trim a large-sized dog’s nails with small clippers and tiny dog’s nails with large clippers. Generally speaking, the scissor-style clippers work best for small dogs, the guillotine-type clippers are best for small to medium dogs, and the plier-style works for dogs of all sizes. Our list includes all plier-style clippers and one guillotine-style. The size of the handles should also be considered. You’ll want to avoid large handles if you have small hands.

Stop-Guard

Next on the agenda is the stop-guard. The worst part about trimming your dog’s nails is when you accidentally nip the nail’s quick. This is where the stop-guard comes in handy as it’s designed to prevent you from taking too much off of your dog’s nails each time you take a snip of a nail. However, you should never rely solely on the guard because if the clipper is designed for a larger dog and you’re trimming a small dog’s nails, the space between the blades and the guard will be much wider, and you will probably hit the quick. The size of the clippers is a factor here again, and you may want to ensure the clippers you choose will give you the option to use the guard or push it out of the way so you can rely on your own experience.

Sharp Blades

The most important thing about choosing a clipper other than the size is the blades’ sharpness, particularly if you have a large dog. If the blades are dull, they will just crush rather than slice cleanly through the nail, which not only damages the nail but can be painful for your dog. When your clippers are not cutting cleanly, do consider replacing the blades if you use guillotine-style clippers or buy a new pair if you own the scissor or plier-style.

Conclusion: Dog Nail Clippers

The best overall dog clippers are the Safari Professional Nail Clippers for quality and durability. They are moderately priced but do the best job cutting dog’s nails, and they also come in two sizes for different-sized animals. The Millers Forge Nail Clippers were the runners-up as one of the least expensive clippers. They had a durable design and a smaller handle, which might suit those with equally small hands.

Nail trimming is a necessary part of taking care of a dog, and it certainly isn’t one of the more enjoyable grooming experiences. Hopefully, these reviews will make your job a little easier for finding the right clippers for both you and your dog.

Related Read: Dog Grooming Clippers vs Human Clippers: What’s the Difference?

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Featured image credit: kudrashka-a, Shutterstock