When we’re looking at your dog’s oral health or dental health there are lots of ways that we can be helping our dog’s teeth and that help us keep an eye on them. From an early age if you have a puppy or from this point on if your dog is an adolescent or adult it’s equally important.
Ultimately, it helps if you know what you’re looking for when we talk about looking after your dog’s dental health! What happens in dog’s mouths is that bacteria forms a biofilm over the teeth which creates plaque. Over time the plaque mineralises your form tartar which is what we can see on the teeth. Tartar attracts more bacteria to stick to it so more tartar forms.
Now, it’s not really advisable to just leave things until your dog has a problem, because then you’ve got a lot of work to undo, and often it can’t all be undone. So whatever age your dog is now, now is a great time to start looking at ways to help their oral health. You can start when your dog is a puppy, but it’s also not too late to start when your dog is a teenager, adult or senior dog!!
You might be able to prevent gum disease, infections etc from happening by doing just a few things regularly. However, if you already find that their gums bleed or they’ve got quite deep red gums, it might be that they’ve got some gingivitis in there already. By starting to look after your dog’s mouth more now you can reduce the gum issues and help your dog be more comfortable but preventing gum disease from starting is even better! If you know your dog has already got some teeth or gum issues then ideally you want to brush / wipe / do something much more regularly than once a week once your dog is ok with the methods. But like I say, once a week is better than none a week.
Realistically, if you’re trying to undo damage that’s been done to the teeth and gums, then you’re going to want to do a lot more. Dogs are like us in that what’s in the genes can determine what their oral health is like. So some dogs or breeds just don’t have very good teeth while other breeds are much better. Some dogs, it won’t be in the breed at all. It’ll be some dogs are okay, some aren’t. So you might get away with having a dog that you never brush their teeth at all, and they never give them bones or gentle chews, and they go through the whole life well into their teens, never needing a dental. You might have a dog that you brush their teeth every day, and they have dental chews and they have dental powders on their food and at two years old they still need their teeth cleaned because their teeth are bad. That unfortunately is in the genes, but we can still do a lot to help them.
Wiping Teeth:
Basically what happens, and I have this on good authority courtesy of Merlin himself who has had dental work done a few years ago where his his bottom teeth were a bit wobbly. The vet that we had – Gavin – was a very nice vet and he explained to us that basically dogs teeth can be the same as ours and they get a film of dirt over the teeth just from the day’s eating, playing etc and then if you can keep that off by giving the teeth a wipe a couple of times a day it will help prevent things like the plaque build up and the tartar build up on top of that. So even if you can just wipe your dog’s teeth, even if you can’t get a toothbrush in there, wiping your dog’s teeth can actually make quite a difference.
I was recommended to use a muslin cloth as this works quite well. There are also things like a soft tooth cleaner that just goes on the finger and then you can just use that to literally clean around your dog’s mouth and just get the dirt off.
Some finger cleaners actually have an antibacterial action in there too so help in multiple ways. Lintbells do a great teeth cleaner that goes on the finger.
Also, as I mentioned above, a piece of muslin cloth over a finger will work really well, just push around the teeth and the gums and you’ll see what comes off!
So you can start with something as simple as that to help your dogs Dental Health!!
Don’t leave out the gums!!!
Dental health isn’t just the teeth but the gums are so important too. For example, Massaging the gum a little bit can really help towards good dental health because the dirt / bacteria etc on the gums can then lead to periodontal disease, gingivitis etc. And you don’t want anything getting between the gum and the tooth, because that’s then where you start getting more problems underneath the surface and you can’t see what’s going on underneath there. So you want to try and massage as much of the dog’s mouth as you possibly can but build up to this and start with a few teeth at the front or even one tooth and the gum above or below it. You can then gradually build it up and get them to the point where actually they’re quite happy having the teeth brushed. Now, every day is recommended. Twice a day is definitely recommended. But if you can only do once a week, it’s better than not doing it at all.
Chews and Dental Toys:
You can give your dogs chews and toys designed to work the gums and the teeth themselves. So dental chews help dogs give their mouth a bit of a clean while they enjoy the chew and there are so many different types available! Some are quite tough and shaped to help scrape the teeth while being chewed. Others are softer and have ingredients that help break down tartar or plaque. I’ve tried lots to see what works for my dogs as same as with bones Merlin and Ripley aren’t keen on anything too solid and just won’t chew them!!
Soopa do some really nice dental chews that are quite soft, as do YuMove and that has a ‘core’ that Ripley loves! Both of these are plant based so less chance of allergies and better ingredients overall. Fish cubes and skins can really good for getting in there and scratching at the plaque and tartar. Loads of places sell these including Fish 4 Dogs, JR Pet Products and Green & Wilds.
Then you can get caught in a whole world of different dental chews; tripe sticks, vegetable based ones shaped as toothbrushes, chews that have various shapes like triangles, stars etc so that as your dog chews the shapes rub against the tooth to help the cleaning process. Some have added ingredients to make the surface of the chew more abrasive. The idea is that it’s rubbing on the teeth, it’s rubbing on the gums and this helps to get that film of dirt off, and then that helps prevent the tartar and the plaque. If they’ve got tartar and / or plaque, they should be able to take a lot of it off themselves by giving them these sorts of things to chew on regularly but once it’s there often dogs will need something extra to help reduce the coverage on the teeth.
The dental toys have various textures, knobbly parts to rub the teeth and gums while dogs are chewing them and can encourage more chewing as well.
The hard stuff tends to be a little bit harder to take off, and you want to be a bit careful with that as well, because if they’ve got a lot of tartar on there and you start taking that off what you might find is actually the tartar is helping keep the tooth there! And then once you start taking big chunks of plaque off the tooth underneath can be exposed and then that can actually start causing new problems. So if there’s only a little bit of plaque there you can look at helping reduce it yourself, but obviously you can always go and speak to your vet to check what they advise as well.
Teeth Brushing:
You might want to go a little another step further and do actual brushing. Not all dogs will automatically accept a toothbrush, and doing the wiping as above will be a great start if you cannot brush the teeth. My own dogs have got various types of dog toothbrushes including bamboo toothbrushes as I like to keep things natural and thinking about landfill etc plus the bamboo toothbrushes are nice and light for my hands and small for my dogs!
Teeth brushing and wiping are just one side of things. There are many ways to look after your dog’s teeth without needing to touch the teeth yourself and these options can also be used alongside brushing too.
Dental Powders and Liquids:
You can get all sorts of different powders that go on their food to help prevent tartar buildup while others help breakdown what is already build up. Some work by helping produce enzymes etc in the saliva once digested and this helps to prevent anything sticking to the teeth such as bacteria that forms plaque. That helps as a prevention rather than a treatment. There are also liquids that you add to your dog’s drinking water and it helps by coating the teeth and gums to prevent build up and to break down tartar etc.
Ultrasonic Toothbrushes
Another further option along from regular brushing is using an ultrasonic toothbrush. These are very different to an electric toothbrush which of course have a moving head as ultrasonic toothbrushes don’t vibrate or even make a noise! It’s completely silent which makes it handy for dogs who are noise sensitive. There’s no brushing action required at all in fact and is why I quite like using; Ripley has got such a tiny mouth I feel awful trying to get a toothbrush in there for her back teeth let alone actually brushing! So having something I can place over the tooth and gum for a short time then move to the next one appeals greatly to me! But it does need to be done regularly and they cost more than the average dog toothbrush!! They are hard to know if they are switched on other than a light coming on as once you put the toothpaste on you turn it on, put the head in the water, and there will be tiny fizzy bubbles. That is pretty much the only way you know it’s working at the time!
The Ultrasonic style toothbrushes work by causing lots of little tiny oxygen bubbles in the mouth and around the tooth and gumline which helps release everything and lift things off the tooth plus is antibacterial and kills off bacteria so helps reduce the risk of gingivitis and other gum issues. But it’s not for everyone, just like any method! If you don’t want to splash out on buying one there are many places offering teeth cleaning using ultrasonic toothbrushes – the most popular is the EmmiPet. Be aware that although this can be marketed as a complete dental without anaesthetic, it still doesn’t go below the gumline like a dental would and not all practitioners using ultrasonic toothbrushes can pick up on or diagnose things like gum disease, loose teeth, infections etc. These sessions can help your dog’s mouth look and smell so much better and help a lot but shouldn’t replace vet visits overall.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you use a toothbrush, a finger brush, cloth or an ultrasonic toothbrush, but doing your chosen method(s) as regularly as possible is one of the big keys to good oral health. Plus every time you wipe or brush your dog’s teeth you can check what’s going on in your dog’s mouth: Is there suddenly a bump that wasn’t there before? Have they lost a tooth that you might need to go and check out? Or broken a tooth, perhaps? So it’s actually another good way of keeping an eye on what your dog’ mouth is doing.
Now, you can also get other bits and pieces to help with your dogs teeth such as scrapers. After doing some brushing or using dental powders etc you can try releasing tartar or plaque that has been loosened or reduced. You don’t need to go over the whole mouth as that’s a lot for a dog but can try to have a go at just lifting a little bit off if you can see or feel it is looser. Sometimes you can use your nail and pieces of plaque ping off so you don’t need a scraper if you don’t like the idea of using one.
Remember, if you’re not sure, go and see the vet. They can advice on cleaning, what’s happening in your dog’s mouth right now etc. You can book them at your vets to get their teeth cleaned. They do have to go under anaesthetic, unfortunately, but will have a thorough cleaning of the teeth, gumline and under the gumline where we cannot see or reach. Obviously anaesthetic isn’t something we want to use on dogs too often so if you can clean them yourself, it saves your dog having to keep going under anaesthetic for teeth cleaning. It will also save you a lot of money because generally operations for routine or even emergency teeth cleaning and teeth extraction due to periodontal disease or gingivitis or just a dental to keep on top of tartar build up are not covered by most pet insurance. You’re looking at several hundred pounds each time your dog goes under for teeth. So if you can keep on top of your dogs teeth health then that’s even better because it saves your dog going under, it saves you a lot of money, and like I mentioned earlier it’s great chance to bond with your dogs and get to know when something isn’t right.
So you’ve got numerous ways of keeping their teeth nice and clean. What I will mention now is if your dog is kibble fed and you think, “well, kibble will clean their teeth”, it actually doesn’t. There are so many vets online now that are conventional vets, holistic vets, etc. that are confirming that kibble doesn’t clean teeth, so just bear that in mind. There are a few kibble types that are designed to help clean teeth and have a more abrasive coating so this is different to majority of kibbles! I’ll also mention – and I know this from experience – that if you are giving your dog’s bones to clean their teeth, they can work really, really well but it’s not foolproof. It doesn’t work for every single dog. It depends on your dog. My 5 1/2 year old Terrier Ripley doesn’t really chew them and is more likely to stare at you blankly until you chop it smaller. Merlin, my 12 year old, likes to swallow a whole wing, for example, and then he’ll bring it back up a bit and he’ll chew it a bit and swallow it again. And both dogs are raw fed so know what bones are for! But the bone doesn’t actually do a lot of work for them so they still need extra help.
So bones can be good, but don’t rely on just bones and nothing else.
If you ask most vets they will say the best way of keeping the dog’s teeth clean, is always going to be to actually clean their teeth, brush their teeth, keep them nice and clean, and at the same time as you’re doing you’re also getting used to what your dog’s teeth and mouth looks like and that can help with checking if anything comes up that isn’t quite right.
As we have seen there are quite a few ways of brushing your dog’s teeth and keeping them clean, so you can work with your dog and what they are more comfortable with.
Introducing Teeth Cleaning:
With teeth brushing, as with everything else, we want to take it really, really slowly. Work your dogs up really, really slowly and praise them at every stage to make it really nice and pleasant. Looking after your dog’s mouth is worth the effort of helping your dog feel comfortable having teeth and gums looked at and cleaned and building up a positive association for your dog is vital. Once your dog is happy to have this routine done they can literally thank you for it: my dogs queue up waiting their turn to have their mouths looked at, teeth cleaned, gums wiped etc as they get that one on one time with me, treats, praise etc!
Getting Started:
Before you stick a toothbrush in your dog’s mouth, you can start by getting your dog used to you initially lifting the gum, massaging the face around the mouth area, letting your dog lick the dog toothpaste off your finger to get used to it. Using the teeth and gum wiping method from above can help your dog get used to having something touching their teeth and gums before the toothbrush is introduced.
Progressing to putting the the brush near the mouth or touching the lip for a second, then treating them for that is a good next stage. Try further down the mouth and gradually moving it around if your dog is ready. Initially you don’t need to worry about actual brushing, just focus on your dog being happy with your hands near their mouth, the toothbrush being close etc.
If you’ve got a puppy that’s never had this done, or you’ve got an older dog or a rehome dog, and they’ve just not used to having their teeth brushed, then that’s what you want to do is start with getting them comfortable with your fingers touching teeth, then the brush or cloth touching teeth without brushing etc and really short sessions. Although you want to get on top of it at some point, you don’t have to rush into it if your dog’s never going to let you touch them. So you’re just doing a very small amount initially just to get them used to you touching a tooth and then treating your dog for it. Initially, I’m not worried about actual brushing as if a dog isn’t happy about seeing the toothbrush or having something put in their mouth you won’t get much brushing done!!
And you can gradually then build it up and go to the back teeth or the top teeth or bottom teeth as much as you possibly can just touching the tooth then a swipe then a small brush etc. You may find you can start cleaning the canine teeth but still just a quick touch of the tooth with the brush and that is fine, keep going at your dog’s pace.
It can help to introduce dog toothpaste or something else on your finger or toothbrush like coconut oil (great antibacterial properties and dogs often love the taste!), squeezy dog treat paste like liver flavour, squeezy cheese but just a small amount etc. So your dog has an instant good experience with something happening around their mouth.
Toothpaste for Dogs:
You can get so many types of doggy toothpaste. Now it’s very different from humans. Don’t use human toothpaste for your dogs because it has fluoride in which dogs can’t have. Consider that even we’re not meant to have too much that’s why we spit it out! Most toothpastes for dogs have got flavouring in them as well to make them a bit nicer to taste and to help dogs feel happier about the cleaning process. There’s Roast Dinner flavour from Dorwest Herbs, Liver Flavour from Beaphar and even Vanilla and Ginger from Arm and Hammer! They have different ways of helping too – some have antibacterial properties as well as helping with cleaning, softening tartar, loosening pWhen we’re looking at your dog’s oral health or dental health there are lots of ways that we can be helping our dog’s teeth and that help us keep an eye on them. From an early age if you have a puppy or from this point on if your dog is an adolescent or adult it’s equally important.
Ultimately, it helps if you know what you’re looking for when we talk about looking after your dog’s dental health! What happens in dog’s mouths is that bacteria forms a biofilm over the teeth which creates plaque. Over time the plaque mineralises your form tartar which is what we can see on the teeth. Tartar attracts more bacteria to stick to it so more tartar forms.
🌟 Over 80% of dogs over the age of three have active dental disease, making it the most common disease affecting pet dogs.
Now, it’s not really advisable to just leave things until your dog has a problem, because then you’ve got a lot of work to undo, and often it can’t all be undone. So whatever age your dog is now, now is a great time to start looking at ways to help their oral health. You can start when your dog is a puppy, but it’s also not too late to start when your dog is a teenager, adult or senior dog!!
You might be able to prevent gum disease, infections etc from happening by doing just a few things regularly. However, if you already find that their gums bleed or they’ve got quite deep red gums, it might be that they’ve got some gingivitis in there already. By starting to look after your dog’s mouth more now you can reduce the gum issues and help your dog be more comfortable but preventing gum disease from starting is even better! If you know your dog has already got some teeth or gum issues then ideally you want to brush / wipe / do something much more regularly than once a week once your dog is ok with the methods. But like I say, once a week is better than none a week.
Realistically, if you’re trying to undo damage that’s been done to the teeth and gums, then you’re going to want to do a lot more. Dogs are like us in that what’s in the genes can determine what their oral health is like. So some dogs or breeds just don’t have very good teeth while other breeds are much better. Some dogs, it won’t be in the breed at all. It’ll be some dogs are okay, some aren’t. So you might get away with having a dog that you never brush their teeth at all, and they never give them bones or gentle chews, and they go through the whole life well into their teens, never needing a dental. You might have a dog that you brush their teeth every day, and they have dental chews and they have dental powders on their food and at two years old they still need their teeth cleaned because their teeth are bad. That unfortunately is in the genes, but we can still do a lot to help them.
Wiping Teeth:
Basically what happens, and I have this on good authority courtesy of Merlin himself who has had dental work done a few years ago where his his bottom teeth were a bit wobbly. The vet that we had – Gavin – was a very nice vet and he explained to us that basically dogs teeth can be the same as ours and they get a film of dirt over the teeth just from the day’s eating, playing etc and then if you can keep that off by giving the teeth a wipe a couple of times a day it will help prevent things like the plaque build up and the tartar build up on top of that. So even if you can just wipe your dog’s teeth, even if you can’t get a toothbrush in there, wiping your dog’s teeth can actually make quite a difference.
I was recommended to use a muslin cloth as this works quite well. There are also things like a soft tooth cleaner that just goes on the finger and then you can just use that to literally clean around your dog’s mouth and just get the dirt off.
Some finger cleaners actually have an antibacterial action in there too so help in multiple ways. Lintbells do a great teeth cleaner that goes on the finger.
Also, as I mentioned above, a piece of muslin cloth over a finger will work really well, just push around the teeth and the gums and you’ll see what comes off!
So you can start with something as simple as that to help your dogs Dental Health!!
Don’t leave out the gums!!!
Dental health isn’t just the teeth but the gums are so important too. For example, Massaging the gum a little bit can really help towards good dental health because the dirt / bacteria etc on the gums can then lead to periodontal disease, gingivitis etc. And you don’t want anything getting between the gum and the tooth, because that’s then where you start getting more problems underneath the surface and you can’t see what’s going on underneath there. So you want to try and massage as much of the dog’s mouth as you possibly can but build up to this and start with a few teeth at the front or even one tooth and the gum above or below it. You can then gradually build it up and get them to the point where actually they’re quite happy having the teeth brushed. Now, every day is recommended. Twice a day is definitely recommended. But if you can only do once a week, it’s better than not doing it at all.
Chews and Dental Toys:
You can give your dogs chews and toys designed to work the gums and the teeth themselves. So dental chews help dogs give their mouth a bit of a clean while they enjoy the chew and there are so many different types available! Some are quite tough and shaped to help scrape the teeth while being chewed. Others are softer and have ingredients that help break down tartar or plaque. I’ve tried lots to see what works for my dogs as same as with bones Merlin and Ripley aren’t keen on anything too solid and just won’t chew them!!
Soopa do some really nice dental chews that are quite soft, as do YuMove and that has a ‘core’ that Ripley loves! Both of these are plant based so less chance of allergies and better ingredients overall. Fish cubes and skins can really good for getting in there and scratching at the plaque and tartar. Loads of places sell these including Fish 4 Dogs, JR Pet Products and Green & Wilds.
Then you can get caught in a whole world of different dental chews; tripe sticks, vegetable based ones shaped as toothbrushes, chews that have various shapes like triangles, stars etc so that as your dog chews the shapes rub against the tooth to help the cleaning process. Some have added ingredients to make the surface of the chew more abrasive. The idea is that it’s rubbing on the teeth, it’s rubbing on the gums and this helps to get that film of dirt off, and then that helps prevent the tartar and the plaque. If they’ve got tartar and / or plaque, they should be able to take a lot of it off themselves by giving them these sorts of things to chew on regularly but once it’s there often dogs will need something extra to help reduce the coverage on the teeth.
The dental toys have various textures, knobbly parts to rub the teeth and gums while dogs are chewing them and can encourage more chewing as well.
The hard stuff tends to be a little bit harder to take off, and you want to be a bit careful with that as well, because if they’ve got a lot of tartar on there and you start taking that off what you might find is actually the tartar is helping keep the tooth there! And then once you start taking big chunks of plaque off the tooth underneath can be exposed and then that can actually start causing new problems. So if there’s only a little bit of plaque there you can look at helping reduce it yourself, but obviously you can always go and speak to your vet to check what they advise as well.
Teeth Brushing:
You might want to go a little another step further and do actual brushing. Not all dogs will automatically accept a toothbrush, and doing the wiping as above will be a great start if you cannot brush the teeth. My own dogs have got various types of dog toothbrushes including bamboo toothbrushes as I like to keep things natural and thinking about landfill etc plus the bamboo toothbrushes are nice and light for my hands and small for my dogs!
Teeth brushing and wiping are just one side of things. There are many ways to look after your dog’s teeth without needing to touch the teeth yourself and these options can also be used alongside brushing too.
Dental Powders and Liquids:
You can get all sorts of different powders that go on their food to help prevent tartar buildup while others help breakdown what is already build up. Some work by helping produce enzymes etc in the saliva once digested and this helps to prevent anything sticking to the teeth such as bacteria that forms plaque. That helps as a prevention rather than a treatment. There are also liquids that you add to your dog’s drinking water and it helps by coating the teeth and gums to prevent build up and to break down tartar etc.
Ultrasonic Toothbrushes
Another further option along from regular brushing is using an ultrasonic toothbrush. These are very different to an electric toothbrush which of course have a moving head as ultrasonic toothbrushes don’t vibrate or even make a noise! It’s completely silent which makes it handy for dogs who are noise sensitive. There’s no brushing action required at all in fact and is why I quite like using; Ripley has got such a tiny mouth I feel awful trying to get a toothbrush in there for her back teeth let alone actually brushing! So having something I can place over the tooth and gum for a short time then move to the next one appeals greatly to me! But it does need to be done regularly and they cost more than the average dog toothbrush!! They are hard to know if they are switched on other than a light coming on as once you put the toothpaste on you turn it on, put the head in the water, and there will be tiny fizzy bubbles. That is pretty much the only way you know it’s working at the time!
The Ultrasonic style toothbrushes work by causing lots of little tiny oxygen bubbles in the mouth and around the tooth and gumline which helps release everything and lift things off the tooth plus is antibacterial and kills off bacteria so helps reduce the risk of gingivitis and other gum issues. But it’s not for everyone, just like any method! If you don’t want to splash out on buying one there are many places offering teeth cleaning using ultrasonic toothbrushes – the most popular is the EmmiPet. Be aware that although this can be marketed as a complete dental without anaesthetic, it still doesn’t go below the gumline like a dental would and not all practitioners using ultrasonic toothbrushes can pick up on or diagnose things like gum disease, loose teeth, infections etc. These sessions can help your dog’s mouth look and smell so much better and help a lot but shouldn’t replace vet visits overall.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether you use a toothbrush, a finger brush, cloth or an ultrasonic toothbrush, but doing your chosen method(s) as regularly as possible is one of the big keys to good oral health. Plus every time you wipe or brush your dog’s teeth you can check what’s going on in your dog’s mouth: Is there suddenly a bump that wasn’t there before? Have they lost a tooth that you might need to go and check out? Or broken a tooth, perhaps? So it’s actually another good way of keeping an eye on what your dog’ mouth is doing.
Now, you can also get other bits and pieces to help with your dogs teeth such as scrapers. After doing some brushing or using dental powders etc you can try releasing tartar or plaque that has been loosened or reduced. You don’t need to go over the whole mouth as that’s a lot for a dog but can try to have a go at just lifting a little bit off if you can see or feel it is looser. Sometimes you can use your nail and pieces of plaque ping off so you don’t need a scraper if you don’t like the idea of using one.
Remember, if you’re not sure, go and see the vet. They can advice on cleaning, what’s happening in your dog’s mouth right now etc. You can book them at your vets to get their teeth cleaned. They do have to go under anaesthetic, unfortunately, but will have a thorough cleaning of the teeth, gumline and under the gumline where we cannot see or reach. Obviously anaesthetic isn’t something we want to use on dogs too often so if you can clean them yourself, it saves your dog having to keep going under anaesthetic for teeth cleaning. It will also save you a lot of money because generally operations for routine or even emergency teeth cleaning and teeth extraction due to periodontal disease or gingivitis or just a dental to keep on top of tartar build up are not covered by most pet insurance. You’re looking at several hundred pounds each time your dog goes under for teeth. So if you can keep on top of your dogs teeth health then that’s even better because it saves your dog going under, it saves you a lot of money, and like I mentioned earlier it’s great chance to bond with your dogs and get to know when something isn’t right.
So you’ve got numerous ways of keeping their teeth nice and clean. What I will mention now is if your dog is kibble fed and you think, “well, kibble will clean their teeth”, it actually doesn’t. There are so many vets online now that are conventional vets, holistic vets, etc. that are confirming that kibble doesn’t clean teeth, so just bear that in mind. There are a few kibble types that are designed to help clean teeth and have a more abrasive coating so this is different to majority of kibbles! I’ll also mention – and I know this from experience – that if you are giving your dog’s bones to clean their teeth, they can work really, really well but it’s not foolproof. It doesn’t work for every single dog. It depends on your dog. My 5 1/2 year old Terrier Ripley doesn’t really chew them and is more likely to stare at you blankly until you chop it smaller. Merlin, my 12 year old, likes to swallow a whole wing, for example, and then he’ll bring it back up a bit and he’ll chew it a bit and swallow it again. And both dogs are raw fed so know what bones are for! But the bone doesn’t actually do a lot of work for them so they still need extra help.
So bones can be good, but don’t rely on just bones and nothing else.
If you ask most vets they will say the best way of keeping the dog’s teeth clean, is always going to be to actually clean their teeth, brush their teeth, keep them nice and clean, and at the same time as you’re doing you’re also getting used to what your dog’s teeth and mouth looks like and that can help with checking if anything comes up that isn’t quite right.
As we have seen there are quite a few ways of brushing your dog’s teeth and keeping them clean, so you can work with your dog and what they are more comfortable with.
Introducing Teeth Cleaning:
With teeth brushing, as with everything else, we want to take it really, really slowly. Work your dogs up really, really slowly and praise them at every stage to make it really nice and pleasant. Looking after your dog’s mouth is worth the effort of helping your dog feel comfortable having teeth and gums looked at and cleaned and building up a positive association for your dog is vital. Once your dog is happy to have this routine done they can literally thank you for it: my dogs queue up waiting their turn to have their mouths looked at, teeth cleaned, gums wiped etc as they get that one on one time with me, treats, praise etc!
Getting Started:
Before you stick a toothbrush in your dog’s mouth, you can start by getting your dog used to you initially lifting the gum, massaging the face around the mouth area, letting your dog lick the dog toothpaste off your finger to get used to it. Using the teeth and gum wiping method from above can help your dog get used to having something touching their teeth and gums before the toothbrush is introduced.
Progressing to putting the the brush near the mouth or touching the lip for a second, then treating them for that is a good next stage. Try further down the mouth and gradually moving it around if your dog is ready. Initially you don’t need to worry about actual brushing, just focus on your dog being happy with your hands near their mouth, the toothbrush being close etc.
If you’ve got a puppy that’s never had this done, or you’ve got an older dog or a rehome dog, and they’ve just not used to having their teeth brushed, then that’s what you want to do is start with getting them comfortable with your fingers touching teeth, then the brush or cloth touching teeth without brushing etc and really short sessions. Although you want to get on top of it at some point, you don’t have to rush into it if your dog’s never going to let you touch them. So you’re just doing a very small amount initially just to get them used to you touching a tooth and then treating your dog for it. Initially, I’m not worried about actual brushing as if a dog isn’t happy about seeing the toothbrush or having something put in their mouth you won’t get much brushing done!!
And you can gradually then build it up and go to the back teeth or the top teeth or bottom teeth as much as you possibly can just touching the tooth then a swipe then a small brush etc. You may find you can start cleaning the canine teeth but still just a quick touch of the tooth with the brush and that is fine, keep going at your dog’s pace.
It can help to introduce dog toothpaste or something else on your finger or toothbrush like coconut oil (great antibacterial properties and dogs often love the taste!), squeezy dog treat paste like liver flavour, squeezy cheese but just a small amount etc. So your dog has an instant good experience with something happening around their mouth.
Toothpaste for Dogs:
You can get so many types of doggy toothpaste. Now it’s very different from humans. Don’t use human toothpaste for your dogs because it has fluoride in which dogs can’t have. Consider that even we’re not meant to have too much that’s why we spit it out! Most toothpastes for dogs have got flavouring in them as well to make them a bit nicer to taste and to help dogs feel happier about the cleaning process. There’s Roast Dinner flavour from Dorwest Herbs, Liver Flavour from Beaphar and even Vanilla and Ginger from Arm and Hammer! They have different ways of helping too – some have antibacterial properties as well as helping with cleaning, softening tartar, loosening plaque etc. Some help rebalance the ph levels inside your dogs mouth, and others react with the saliva in the mouth to become antibacterial.
Spend a little time looking for one that you like the look of, or ask friends and family what they use and why they like it. Start with putting a little bit on the brush and offer to your dog – a lot of the time they’re trying to lick it straight back off but it helps dogs see the toothbrush as a good item near their mouths and if they lick the toothpaste it goes into the mouth and can still play a small part in helping. You can literally just give a little bit of a brush or a swipe of the brush over a tooth or two to get the paste in there then give your dog a couple of treats. You don’t need to push to do all teeth in one go.
laque etc. Some help rebalance the ph levels inside your dogs mouth, and others react with the saliva in the mouth to become antibacterial.Spend a little time looking for one that you like the look of, or ask friends and family what they use and why they like it. Start with putting a little bit on the brush and offer to your dog – a lot of the time they’re trying to lick it straight back off but it helps dogs see the toothbrush as a good item near their mouths and if they lick the toothpaste it goes into the mouth and can still play a small part in helping. You can literally just give a little bit of a brush or a swipe of the brush over a tooth or two to get the paste in there then give your dog a couple of treats. You don’t need to do all teeth in one go.
February is Dog Dental Health Month and August 6th is National Fresh Breath Day – both great excuses for us pet dog owners to review how we are helping our dog’s dental health!!
