Canine dental health is so important for your pup’s overall health! Despite most people knowing this, around eighty percent of dogs over three years of age have some form of dental disease, including teeth, and/or gums. At our house, we are big fans of a healthy mouth, so every year for National Pet Dental Health Month, we share some of our tips.
Canine Dental Health
These pretty pink gums and shiny white chompers belong to me, Madison. I’m proud to have a pretty and healthy smile. At our last vet visit, we all got a score of .5 on the dental scale with 0 being new teeth, and 4 being gums and teeth in the worst shape. These scores are phenomenal especially for Bailie at seven years old. Mom wants us to have a healthy mouth because it means good kissing breath, a healthier dog, and avoiding expensive teeth cleaning where we would need to be under anesthesia.
Let me tell you how we do our best to keep healthy teeth and gums at our house.
Brush Your Dog’s Teeth
One simple thing you can do for your dog’s teeth and gums is to brush them. We brush our teeth every night before bed, and that is starting the day Mom brings us home. All of us love it, and we sit patiently waiting for our turn before we go to sleep. We use special toothpaste for dogs, and Mom’s old toothbrush. When she gets a new one, we take the old one, so every six months or so.
It doesn’t have to be a long session of brushing, but try to get all the teeth and some of the gum area to stimulate the blood flow and clean out any old food or things that don’t belong in our mouth. If you brush using a finger brush, be careful it doesn’t come off your finger in your dog’s mouth as it could be swallowed and become a chocking hazard.
Feed A Good Dog Food
As you probably know, Mom has gone from cheap kibble to top of the line kibble, to adding protein to a healthy base, and now we are eating a raw diet. The better the food, the better it is for a dog’s teeth. Cheap food is not only lacking in nutrients, but can lead to staining of teeth. Now our raw food, while ground, still has bone in it and all the other things that come in raw food. When we eat and chew our meals, it helps scrape plaque and tarter off our teeth.
You don’t need to feed your dog a raw diet for good canine dental health. We switched for many reasons, and improved dental health is one “side effect”.
Plaque Off Powder
We love this Plaque Off powder. It is expensive, but we feel it is worth it. Even me, the picky one, has had it on my food for a few years now and I don’t mind a bit. At first we were skeptical about it, but it has proven to actually be a good tool in combating dental diseases for us. It is always amazing when we talk about something like this powder, we find out how many other people actually use it too!
Healthy Chews Help
Evenings at our house, if we are home, mean time to relax and have a nice chew. I’d say about five nights a week we get a chew to give our teeth and gums a nice, healthy workout. Healthy chews work in two ways:
- They stimulate saliva in the mouth bathing the teeth with proteins and minerals that protect tooth enamel and reduce gum disease.
- Chewing on hard or semi-hard dog chews scrapes away plaque and tarter on and between a dog’s teeth.
We have a variety of chews we enjoy, all pretty much single ingredient chews: marrow bones, bully sticks, bladder sticks, green tripe, duck feet, lamb lung, beef gullet, just to name a few. Variety is the spice of life, right?
In Conclusion
Your dog shouldn’t ever be afraid to smile! Canine dental health will effect your dog’s overall health,and a dog needs a healthy mouth just as humans do. It is not really hard to keep your pup’s mouth in good shape if you follow our tips that are working fabulously for us!
My GBGV Life is happy, so we’re joining Comedy Plus for Happy Tuesday!
We’ve never heard of Plaque Off powder before. We need to check this out. We love your sweet smile, Madison!
Thank you. We first heard about it from Emma’s breeder in England, then over here too. We get it on Amazon. One big jar would last you a long time.
WOW, you have beautiful teeth sweet Madison, very impressive and congrats on the 5 everyone!
Thank you. We love having shiny chompers.
Madison OMDs what gorgeous pearly whites that is a million dollar smile for sure. You 3 ladies are so very smart to let mom brush you teeth. I bet the felines aren’t at all cooperative. I tried one of those plastic feline brushes that you slip over your finger she gave me a stinky eye and a hiss at that. Thankful for several years when Madi was young she’d chew on a toothbrush with kitty toothpaste.
Hugs Cecilia
No brushing for the cats. Naughty cat bro Bert has eaten into our tube of toothpaste before, but that is about it for the felines.
Beautiful teeth
Thank you.
This is so very true and our Angel Little Bit had her teeth brushed each morning. She was almost 13 when she went to the rainbow bridge and she had beautiful teeth. Our vet was so pleased with us.
Thank you for joining the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Happy Tuesday. Scritches to the pups and the kitties. ♥
Vets are always surprised at how nice all our teeth are. Most dogs have dental issues and need cleanings every few years. Katie, Mom’s Kuvasz was 14 and never had her teeth cleaned.
So true! And you all have beautiful chompers!! Just one question: is your Mom still using Dr. Harvey’s?
We will be 100% switched over to raw starting tomorrow actually. We found the pre ground raw here, and several people recommended it, so we are going all raw. Dr Harveys was great, but Mom felt we could still eat better with absolutely no fillers. It is super yummy! Our food journey has been a long road of steps that have just happened at the right times.
What a great post! I am going to look at the plaque off powder! Although I brushed all the before dogs teeth, Cinnamon has NEVER let anyone brush hers! (I can’t cut her toe nails either). I do everything else, home made dog food, quality kibble, good treats and chews but her teeth were 2.5 last time at the vet. I have looked at it, but not heard any recommendations. THANK YOU! Have a stupendous day!
We have recommendations for plaque off from England, Emma’s breeder, and people over here. It isn’t cheap if you have multiple dogs, but we feel it really does help make a difference, otherwise we wouldn’t keep using it.
we do it 3 or 4 times per wekk but nevertheless… phenny has to see da vet for a professional cleaning…. sigh…
Oh dear, that is not good. Hope it all goes well.
I will be ordering the plaque off for my Alex. Thank you for the recommendation gals!
Give it a couple months to really start to work. We bet it will make a difference.
Excellent advice! Yes, i will share this with Little Girl for Coda, she wants to keep her precious friend healthy and happy.
Good idea. There is always more to learn about these things. We are always open to new tips too.
Of all the pups, Leo, our gentle giant loves to hae his teeth brushed. I think the years he was locked in a kennel 14 hours a day made him so appreciate a loving home and he loves to be brushed, have his teeth brushed and overall, just be the center of attention when he can. He knows he is not allowed on our bed and yet his mischief eyes glisten has he hops up and dares me to tell him to move. Ha Ha. Washing our fuzzy cover to keep the comforter clean is nothing compared to the joy in his eyes when he lays beside me and softly sighs. Your post was well appreciated for us. The pups do get good dental care although a couple of them dislike it. Thank you for being such a good friend. Have a terrific finish to this week.
We all sleep in bed. Mom has a big old blanket she puts over the comforter at night so we don’t ruin it. It also gets washed weekly. So happy for Leo. None of us had a bad start like he did, but we still appreciate a lot of things.
I just had my first dental cleaning and momma is gonna start being better about brushing my teeth.
With freshly cleaned chompers, it is the perfect time to work on a routine to keep them shiny clean!
Got to keep those choppers shiny and bright! Great job ladies
It would be terrible to not have teeth, so we do our best to keep them healthy.