Being the obsessed dog mom I am I of course care about my puppers’ health – especially their teeth. That’s why I brush their teeth every day.
Just kidding. Who really does that?
While I don’t often shove a toothbrush into my dogs’ mouths I do take their oral health seriously. Periodontal disease is really common in dogs and causes all kinds of issues:
Periodontal disease is the most common dental condition in dogs and cats – by the time your pet is 3 years old, he or she will very likely have some early evidence of periodontal disease, which will worsen as your pet grows older if effective preventive measures aren’t taken. Early detection and treatment are critical, because advanced periodontal disease can cause severe problems and pain for your pet. Periodontal disease doesn’t just affect your pet’s mouth. Other health problems found in association with periodontal disease include kidney, liver, and heart muscle changes. – American Veterinary Medical Association
Not only does poor dental hygiene create unpleasant problems for your dog it also causes unpleasant problems for your wallet. For dental work to be done dogs must go under anesthesia – which is expensive. You can end up spending thousands of dollars on tooth extractions and other needed dental work.
So isn’t it better to preemptively care for your dog’s teeth so you don’t end up having to deal with all of that?
Vets will recommend brushing your dog’s teeth every day, but let’s be real – that’s not happening. I highly suggest adding a teeth cleaning to your grooming bill but don’t just rely on that! Regular care is required.
So what’s a busy dog owner to do?
I decided to try out 3 dental dog toys designed specifically to help keep dog teeth clean.
Here’s what I found:
Arm & Hammer Super Treadz Gorilla Dental Chew Toy
The toy has a hole in the bottom to put treats inside to help increase the dog’s interest in the toy. I put some treats inside (though honestly they were a little too big for this hole and wouldn’t come out).
Grizzly just looked at it like, “what the @#$% am I supposed to do with this?”
He then pushed it around the kitchen trying to get the treats out – but failed.
You can see from the video this was a failure. He had no interest in chewing on it and just wanted the treats to fall out.
Korier Dog Chew Toothbrush
I wanted to try this dog toothbrush toy because it has a reservoir to squeeze the toothpaste into. I had such high expectations for it. It seemed so easy! So genius! Yeah….
First off, the dog toothpaste I had on hand did not fit into the tiny reservoir hole:
Not ideal. So I took a small funnel I had and stuck it into the hole and squeezed the toothpaste into that:
After I got enough of the toothpaste into the toy I handed it off my to my boys to test it out:
Yeah. They both instantly flipped it around to chew on the bottom part – the part without the bristles and without the toothpaste. The totally useless part.
I took it away and smeared some peanut butter into the bristle sections to see if that enticed them to chew on the right side. Nope. They just licked it off.
Another failure.
PetSafe Busy Buddy Bristle Bone Chew Toy
This is the first teeth-cleaning dog toy I ever purchased – and I bought a second one when we added Grizzly to the family. Grizzly LOVES this toy – he’ll spend good thirty minutes chewing it to get the rawhide treat rings off.
Ranger on the other hand… the rawhide rings just don’t seem to to excite him that much. He’ll chew on it for a little bit but quickly get bored by it.
It’s pretty common for Ranger to abandon the toy and Grizzly will steal it.
I also don’t love giving them rawhide treats – this is the only time I use them. They are small enough I don’t worry too much about them causing blockages but it’s still something I give sparingly.
That said, of the three dental dog toys we tried this is still the best one. The rubber nubs and bristles do a great job of cleaning gunk off their teeth and the rawhide treats stay on long enough for them to really get a good “brushing” in.
I am always in the market for dental dog toys that work – so if you have one your dog loves share a link in the comments!
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