Covering all aspects of life with dog companions. We'll cover traveling, rate dog friendly hotels, test and rate products and talk about the ways dogs enrich our lives every day.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Are You Brushing Your Dogs Teeth?

Why does it seem weird to some people that they need to brush their dogs teeth?  You wouldn't go for years and not brush your own teeth...would you?  No, that would be disgusting.  But most people don't think they need to do the same for their dogs and then they're surprised when Skippy needs half his teeth pulled when he's only 5 years old.

From the first day I brought my puppies home I started brushing their teeth, I only use water on a child-size brush but it gets the job done and they love doing anything that earns them a treat.  

My oldest pup, Monty, is almost 12 years old and has never had his teeth cleaned at the Vet's office but he does get his teeth brushed every night at home.  Well, this past year I was unable to brush his teeth very well because I had an injured thumb and it was too painful for me.  So now that my thumb is finally healed I decided this past week to clean his teeth with my dental instruments and you know what I found?  That's right.....a cavity!  Yep, a tiny one but it's there and it's all because I wasn't able to brush his teeth for several months!  So you see....brushing your dogs teeth really makes a difference.  

Start brushing their teeth from the first day and make sure you give them a reward after, they'll end up loving it so much they'll run to the bathroom every night and stand in line to get brushed first.     

1 comment:

  1. I'm embarassed to say that when my mom person tried to brush my teeth I made it so horrible for her, that now she doesn't brush them. She was quite unhappy when I got the chicken flavored toothpaste in her mouth!

    Nubbin wiggles,
    Oskar

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