Trying to find the best dental chews/treats for my border  collie any help gratefully recived

Raw recreational bones ;-)

Do you have an issue you are trying to manage?  Most commercially available 'dental' treats do nothing to deal with plaque build up or freshen breath - at best they occupy a minute or two of time and at worst they just add pointless sugar to your dogs diet!

If you have a dog whom you wish to occupy - try a stuffed Kong or other hollow type chew and freeze the contents to make them last longer.

If you have dental issue then you could look at other options depending on the age of your dog and the precise nature of the problem.  If you let us have a few more details we might be able to give more specific advice :)

Thanks hes a 18week old pup im new to dogs so im trying to do the best for him.I have a kong and he loves it with peanut butter in,was looking to keep his mouth in trim.

Definitely raw bones, they work better than anything else. If you don't like meaty ones from the butcher, the sterilised ones that come with some fake meat filling are very popular with all my dogs and can be bought from virtually any petshop or supermarket. The dogs spend ages chewing at them trying to get the filling out. I used to give my Papillons (breed notorious for bad teeth as the teeth are so small) dental chews but after one dog got really ill from it and had to go to the vet I've never used them again.

Be careful with raw bones I gave one to one of my collies years ago when he was a puppy and he broke one his front teeth

Raw bones for sure. There's nothing quite like seeing a dog with a raw bone.

We get ours from here http://www.berriewoodwholesale.co.uk/ The medium ones are large.

OK so he has probably now lost his very sharp baby teeth ?

Diet is one of the best ways to look after adult teeth so avoid high sugar, high coloured treats and cheap dog food.  My dogs teeth are better on a raw diet but I appreciate it doesn't suit everyone.  However you can give some bones if you wish.  Do check with your pups breeder if this worries you but you can give a frozen chicken wing or two every week as a bare minimum.  Freezing the wing first means their jaws, teeth and gums all get a good work out, it helps with teething, and ensures that they don't eat it too quickly.  The very first time you feed a wing you might find it takes ages, as chewing this type of food takes practise, but in future you'll find your dog will cope very well and eat it quite quickly.

I like poultry bones best and don't ever feed weight bearing bones from large animals.  I've had a dogs tooth break on a beef bone...  I do appreciate that some people think differently but I'm not prepared to risk it.  My dogs get enough of what they need from poultry bones and turkey necks are a favourites for my adult dogs

You can also get your youngster acclimatised to having his teeth cleaned.  Regular brushing with water is often good enough to stop plaque getting a hold and you don't need to buy dog toothpaste.  It's a good idea to get your dog used to having his mouth and teeth handled but do be gentle if your dog is teething.  Their mouths can be very sore at this time and rough handling make might make him a bit anxious about you messing around in there.

Kongs are pretty good but peanut butter is very high in fat, sugar, and salt so don't feed too much or too often.  Fish 4 Dogs do a very nice salmon mousse which you can use to stuff the Kong and then freeze before feeding to make it last longer.  You can also make a stiff paste by soaking puppy kibble which works well too.  Whatever you use though don't give the pup his Kong on carpet -a wipe clean floor is a must!!

I agree raw bones are the best things for their teeth.

> I agree raw bones are the best things for their teeth

Yes :) I've just watched my 15+ year old crunching his way through a bowl of turkey neck and he loves rib bones etc for chewing as well. I'm not sure that his teeth would still be in such good shape if I had relied on dental chews all these years :) I've never actually cleaned his teeth. When we got him (in 1999) as a rescue his teeth were in a shocking state but soon cleaned up giving him bones.

What's the next best thing to raw bones? Hubby is dead against raw feeding, I've tried the occasional bone with fake filling from pet shops while he's been away on business but they haven't seemed all that keen. My boy who's nearly 12 hasn't got bad teeth for his age but obviously I'd like to improve them and stop the younger ones getting bad as they get older. :-)

Not wanting to appear rude or anything, but I was just wondering why your husband is so against raw? I don't feed raw, but I like to give my pup raw bones once or twice a week. She thoroughly enjoys them and her teeth are looking great. I must confess that I am more then a little concerned about this nasty disease (neosporosis) that dogs can carry which causes cows to abort and is beginning to cause a lot of problems amongst cattle farmers. It seems the virus can be given to dogs via an infected cow, which has left me wondering if now that more dogs are eating raw could this be a reason why there seems to be and upsurge in cattle at the moment. I don't know and it appears that it's not clear cut, but has me concerned. Consequently the advice is to freeze raw dog food for several days before feeding to dogs and I understand this will kill off the virus and probably any other possible nasties in the food.

Ok so every one is in agreement about raw bones,my next worry is pup choking on small bones from chicken.I understand about large beef bones and breaking teeth .I feed pup on vets kitchen puppy food with additions of chicken breast cooked and cooked salmon

I don't really know, he gets all scientific and says that just because dogs are descended from wolves it doesn't mean their stomachs are still geared up for raw feeding, but I suspect he's really just squeamish - he doesn't even like soft tinned food etc, it's kibble all the way here! Luckily our dogs all do very well on a high quality kibble, but I would like the older two's teeth to be a bit cleaner.