Keep Your Dog's Teeth Healthy

Teeth Speaker: Having a nice slobbery kiss from your dog can be a lovely sign of affection, but its not quite as nice if their mouth is full of rotten teeth. Also, apart from the discomfort of the dog licking you, there can be some rather unpleasant consequences for the dog as well, if they have dental disease; not only they can have pain in their mouth, they can have rotten teeth, but bacteria from their mouth can actually spread and cause infections in other parts of the body. So it's really important that you look after your dog's teeth; just really as well as you look after your own teeth. Now, to assess your dog's teeth first of all. I am just having a look. Get them used to this again by doing it on a regular basis, just get them used to you opening their mouth. Jack has got pretty good teeth, there is a little bit of tartar there, little bit of staining, but generally, they are pretty good. He has got nice white teeth, the gums are pink; they are not red, there is no sign of infection there. So that's a pretty good mouth. If your dog has got rotten teeth they will tend to be areas of gray, brown, tartar, there will be a deep redness to the gums, which is a sign of infection and inflammation in the gums, and it might be some loose and wobbly teeth in there as well. So what can you do about bed teeth and what can you do to prevent it? Well, just like us really, brushing is the number one thing. So you need to get yourself a special doggy toothbrush; they are nice and soft, so they don't damage the dog's gums. You have got generally two different sizes; there's sort of Chihuahua size, and you have Alsatian size. Then you need some toothpaste, and again, there's special dog toothpaste and its really important that you don't use your own toothpaste, because dogs, they don't spit, they don't rinse their mouth and spit out, they swallow it, and human toothpaste isn't designed to be swallowed. Your doggy toothpaste is perfectly safe to be swallowed. The other thing is, it comes in some lovely flavors, like there is one here, poultry flavored, which believe it or not, dogs would prefer to have a bit of mint flavor, that we might like. So apply a bit of that. Then the brushing process itself is very similar to how we brush own teeth. So in a circular motion, just gently there, and again, build up to this over time, to gradually, just a little bit, get them used to it over a few weeks or so, and especially when they are young, getting them used to it is a very good idea, and try and do that daily if you can. If your dog isn't too keen on having their teeth brushed; perhaps they don't really like it or you have got this new dog and they are not used to it, there are other products, such as this hygiene gel, which you can put on their food, or you can apply to their mouth; not just helps prevent the build up of tartar. Another thing is you can give them dental hygiene chews. So nice tough things, real hygiene chews, which actually clean the teeth as they chew. Also make sure they are on a dried complete diet, because the hard, crunchy biscuits should actually help just keep the teeth clean as well. So in summary then, for preventing dental problems with your dog, you should brush on a regular basis, if you can, preferable everyday. You should feed dental hygiene chews, so they are chewing on hard substances which clean the teeth. Use a gel in their food or directly onto their mouth if you can't brush. You should also feed a dried food, which is very good at cleaning the teeth as they eat. Do all this, and hopefully your dog won't need too many visits to the doggy dentist.