maintaining clean teeth

cakana

The only dog I've had as a puppy was my Samoyed and I trained her early on to like getting her teeth brushed. We did it every night right after I did my own. She liked it so much that if I skipped it and got into bed, she'd sit by the bathroom vanity until I got up again and brushed her teeth. I need to get Shane trained for that too. He has beautiful teeth now but Hi think he has stinky breath.

That's what I do with mine.  I just picked a time when I would be sure to remember to do it, I put the stuff right where I would have easy access to it. I just gave the dogs a drawer in the bathroom. I have their toothbrushes, toothpaste, their hairbrushes, and the dremel in their for them. If your dog won't let you do it right now, that's okay, you can work on it. For the first few days, I just brought Luke into the bathroom and let him lick the toothpaste off the brush, then let him lick it while I touched his face, and a bit more until I started brushing just a little on one side, and now I do the whole thing. He fights me a bit depending on how I hold on to his face, but he lets me get the job done. Callie on the other hand, never had her teeth brushed until March. I called her up to the bathroom, and just went at it to see what she would let me do. She let me give her a complete brushing right from the start. I have no clue why she was so good about this.

 Bugs will let me do anything to him..............except brush his teeth. It is impossible to get him to open his mouth and by golly you aren't going to pry it open.

Fortunately he is a heavy chewer and seems to be genetically prone to having good teeth.  I do also give him RMB's but not very often due to allergies I have very limited safe choices.

Last summer when he had a lump removed they checked his teeth and declared them great. He has cracked enamel on one but no plaque or tartar.

So keep on chewing!