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Permalink Reply by Bob and SparkPlug on December 15, 2010 at 4:30pm

Nothing?

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Permalink Reply by Joanne Koppenaal on December 15, 2010 at 7:03pm

I have used the triple bristle toothbrush with Triple pet toothpaste. The puppy kinda chews on brush and just work it around get back teeth. Just take your time let them chew a bit and you brush a bit! My two older corgi's started this way and both don't mind it at all they like the toothpaste use a pea size on each side of their mouth! Cosmo three year old has vet glow about his teeth and says look great no need for scaling! Same with the others so it's worth the time to do. vet says at least once a week, hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by Michael on December 18, 2010 at 10:48pm

With my Corgi, Mac, I started with the finger brushes and an enzyme toothpaste. It took a few tries before he got used to it. Over time though, I got lazy and I also found the toothpaste to be relatively expensive compared to human toothpaste. So teeth cleanings became less frequent.

I ended up handing down my old toothbrushes to clean his teeth and simply using water with tad bit of baking soda at times. I wouldn't say this is the best way to do this. It's just what I ended up doing. But to be honest, I've gotten pretty lazy about doing it this year.

But what I also did was get Mac to trust me to a degree that allows me to scrape tartar off his teeth. I started with getting a small flat screwdriver (very small size) and simply getting him used to me scraping the tartar off. I later got an actual dental device that I think I got at a pet convention.

Every once in a while I simply scrape off the tarter. At first, It would build up quite a bit. But just this evening, I did a cleaning and noticed there was nearly no build up over the past few months. I think this has to do with his new toy. He has one of those rope toys now and I think it's reducing the amount of build up he's been getting lately.

Despite my laziness, the periodic (rare) brushing, rare teeth scraping, and rope toy have still resulted in Mac having very good teeth, at least from my perspective.

Though it's recommended that dogs get teeth cleanings once every year or two, I really don't see a need in Mac's case. He's even gotten compliments from the pet store personnel. Plus, I want to avoid having Mac sedated whenever possible.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on December 18, 2010 at 11:17pm

C.E.T is a good brand of enzymatic toothpaste. They also  make dental chews that work really well. I don't brush Franklin's teeth but he gets a chew every couple days and has plenty of toys, ropes, and bones to chew on so his teeth are sparkly clean. Any toothbrush should work, probably a fingerbrush to start and as he grows you can switch to a regular brush. Any enzymatic toothpaste for dogs should be fine.

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