We adopted Camilla, a 5-year-old, on Saturday. She'd been with a wonderful foster family for the last six months, and we know nothing about her travels before that. The foster family had her nails clipped at the vet. For the short term, we can do that, but I would really like to be able to do it myself.

I have used a grinder on the nails of our former greyhounds and on my parents' doberman. With two of those dogs, you could just lay on top of them and do the nails with no problem. With our last greyhound, I would leash him to our TV stand and grind his nails like I was shoeing a horse. 

With Camilla, she lets me handle her feet to wipe mud off of them, but the instant she figures out that I want to clip or grind her nails, she does not want to cooperate. To overcome some of that, I've been talking to her in a soothing voice and feeding her little bits of turkey while I handle her feet and nails. I start with the grinder in view, but turned off. As I progress, I turn the grinder on, but leave it on the floor, hoping she'll become accustomed to the noise. I've tried touching the grinder to her nails with it turned off, but she quickly decides she'd like to be elsewhere. 

Am I on the right track? Anyone have any tips? Thanks in advance.

I feel your pain!  I tried and tried to grind both Zoe & Archer's nails with no success.  I finally gave up and now take them to Petsmart to have them done.  Zoe doesn't like it but she'll tolerate it.  Archer HATES it and it takes two people to do his nails - one person does the grinding while the other one basically holds him in a head lock - otherwise he gets "mouthy" with the person doing the grinding, he doesn't bite but he gently tries to pursuade her to stop by putting his mouth on her hand.

I much prefer the dremel over nippers as there's more control and less chance of traumatizing the dog with pain (especially with dark nails).  Humphrey, who had long nails when I got him, doesn't like it but I try to work on at least one foot each day and we're making progress--although slow, the vet did compliment me!  Chelsea hates it and will leave if possible, but if I can sneak up on her while she's lying down she usually submits with martyred expression!  I think if you just keep gently working at it, with treats, you'll get there. 

I really do miss my old yard, which was half covered with concrete paving stones to keep the dirt down--worked wonders on nails!  Now I have grass and a wood deck, which is useless as a nail file.