I just brushed my dog's teeth today and he hates it!! I'm trying to make this a habit, because I know small breeds tend to have many problems with teeth loss later on in life. I do it once a week and also use that spray that helps reducing tartar and plaque.
How often do you brush it and how do you make them stay still??

Christina&Billy

Hi, i feed my dogs on the BARF diet, their teeth are pearly white, my dobe is 8 years old and does not have one stain, or discolouring on her teeth they are as white as the day she got them.  I can recommend marrow bones for pearly whites if you dont feed BARF. Though can recommend BARF and there are some excellent books on the market you can research on if you are not sure its the diet for your dogs.

Yo0u can get tablets called Fragaria....just give them one a day for a week, then one a week...the tartar drops off like magic!!

Thanks for information both of you! I've never heard of those tablets though.... it sounds great!! But do they actually eat it? Because I can't imagine my dog putting anything in his mought unless it's absolutely tasty :rolleyes: .....

Well, I don't have any problems! With the big girls I throw it onto their dinner and it just gets woofed down! With the wee boys I wrap a piece of chicken around it, or put it in a cube of cheese and woofed down again!!

They had no effect whatsoever on my dogs. :(

Really?? I'm surprised at that?? I had a Bernese who never chewed anything in her life!! Always gobbled it down without touching the sides!! Didn't even matter if I gave her chew hides or anything On fragaria she had clean teeth within a week! Maybe they were old stock? They do deteriorate if left on the shelf for too long?? All the best, Dawn

Are we talking about herbal fragaria or homoeopathic?  I could just about buy into herbal having some effect................

They were small, white tablets - I can't recall the name of the company unless I heard it. It was something recommended in the dog papers. It was a waste of time and money.

Dorwest Herbs do Fragaria [wood strawberry] (homeopathic) and it, like a lot of things, homeopathic or otherwise ;), has done wonderful things for some dogs (and humans) teeth and not touched others.

Dogs, humans and their teeth are all different.

I feed raw so do not need to brush or administer fragaria, there is another product called plaque off which is mainly seaweed which is alleged to help however I do not know anyone who uses it.

Mine get Dentastix, and I brush about once a week, and every so often scrape any stubborn bits with a 5p piece (a tip from my breeder). At first I just rubbed the toothpaste over their teeth with my fingers, then gradually moved to using the toothbrush. They're not desperately keen though!

i tried plaque off and it didn't help one bit. waste of money in my opinion. i am getting some fragaria today (after reading this post) and will wait and see what happens. my dogs sometimes have chicken wings and they seem to clean them the best

Fragaria didn't work for mine, but Logic Gel did.

Bones & raw meat keep my dogs teeth lovely & clean :D

I just use bicarb or dog tooth paste if I've been shopping somewhere that does it :)  Not sure if it works or not as I've never seen any build up on the dogs teeth anyway, just do it as part of my grooming routine, you need to be checking your dogs mouth regularly anyway.  Mine always seem to enjoy it, offering their faces up for it!

I use Dorwest's "Roast Dinner Toothpaste".  It smells a bit like a cross between roast lamb and, er, toothpaste. 

I originally used a doggy toothbrush but found that either these get chomped to pieces while I'm trying to brush or the dog doesn't want the plastic toothbrush in his/her mouth.

So now I use those finger tooth brush things - you slip them on over a finger, put the toothpaste on your finger, and rub over the teeth.  I find it easier to get access to the mouth if you go in from the side, lift up the flaps of the top lip and go in there.  When the dog opens mouth, get between the teeth. 

Be ready to say "Ow" if the dog bites down on your finger - I think it's good practise for keeping bite inhibition fresh, besides keeping teeth clean!