Resco used to be a really good brand of guillotine trimmers. They don't hold up as long as they used to, but since you're only trimming your dog's nails [not several dogs a day] I think they should hold up just fine.
The instructions say to hold them this way:
http://www.teclausa.com/resco/images/PF ... DELUXE.jpgI hold them this way:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4 ... AA300_.jpgAnd everyone I know holds them the same way I do, it how I was taught to use them. The thing about the long quicks is you need to trim once a week, and you need to expose the quick, so you need to trim the nail back, and trim the edges off so that the quick makes contact with the ground and wants to recede. This is of course without cutting the quick. It's hard to explain but when I trim their nails I make at least 3 cuts, I do a straight cut of the tip, and then trim the left and right edge. It's really hard to explain
. If you at least take the tips off once a week that will help get the nails shorter without quicking your dog.
I've used the scissor type nail trimmers, like these:
http://dogs.thefuntimesguide.com/images ... immers.jpgI'm not really a fan, they're just bulky.
I've used these:
http://i.ehow.com/images/a04/91/6f/clip ... 20X120.jpgThey aren't bad, but I rip the guard off because it gets in the way. I think these make it too easy to take too much off on accident.