Hi guys,

When my parents were picking out their puppy from the litter we checked her jaw alignment and the vet also double checked it and it was perfectly lined up to the top jaw.

Having checked it at six months old the lower jaw is now overshot. Does anyone know whether this is something that changes with the puppy as it grows and will it re-adjust itself

Has anyone else had experience of this

Sarah
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Hi Sarah

I can't remember which breed you have but in Dobes we tend to want a (very) fractionally overshot mouth as a pup as this is more likely to give a perfect scissor bite when adult.  Your pup's jaw will still be developing and will probably reach its final shape/position at around 12 months when the second "teething" process takes place.  Not all dogs go though a chewing stage at this time but many do.

Hi Kerioak,

I have Bullmastiff's and the adult teeth are coming through already at 6 months.

Can I assume that checking a pups jaw is no indication of how overshot/undershot they will be as adults?

Sarah
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Should Mastiffs have a scissor bite, if so this means that the top front teeth should tightly overlap the bottom teeth, not line up with them.

In a breed that has a scissor bite if a pup's milk teeth/jaw are very over or undershot as pups then you can assume that this will also occur in the adult but if it is close then it may get closer.  The bottom jaw seems to grow slightly more than the top one which is why I prefer a young pup to have close to a scissor bite but not a tight one.

I imagine your Bullmastiff has most of his adult teeth though now?  Just for your own records why not take a photo of his teeth now (be careful if he is still teething as his mouth will be sore) and another in 6 months time just so you can see the differences

Hi Sarah, i am fairly new to bullmastiffs my-self and also have a bitch with an undershot jaw, she was my first and the same thing happened with our vet. Please read my post under all bullmastiff breeders. I know that they are prefered to have a normal jaw alignment, but a slightly undershot jaw is allowed. The problem being in showing that any bullies with a perfect jaw alignment will always be placed above her and they should not be bred from as it is thought to be a hereditary problem, and speaking from someone with a bullie with this problem i would ask that you dont. I know this must be terribly dissapointing for your parents but i am being advised to my bitch down and she is only 9 months old, her teeth are unable to grow correctly and she has difficulty eating to. It is a heartbreaking situation to be and i am desperate to stop any one else going through what i am at the moment. If i was you i would contact an experince breeder though and ask them to advise you as it really does depend how badly overshot she is, also you are more than willing to email me for a further chat. Also you should be able to go back to your breeder for advice to, if you could email me mum and dads kc names i am currently researching with the help of other bullie breeders any known dogs and bitches with this problem. I really do wish you all the best and hope yours is only a minor problem.

Hi there,

It's only a slight movement and we've noticed it because we checked our dogs teeth regularly.  As previously mentioned it was a perfect bite but now it has changed, but, knowing that she is still growing I was curious as to whether it would correct itself or maybe get worse.  I suppose it could go either way?

I'm sorry to hear about your bitch.

Sarah
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The bullmastiff standard states that a Level bite is required, with undershot acceptable but not desired. The development of the bullmastiff head/jaw from birth to maturity goes through many changes. In my own experience what had been level bites at birth have changed to slightly undershot at maturity. But this is not set in stone and is only what i have experienced my self. All my bullies are slightly undershot and even my puppy who had the most perfect mouth at 8 weeks is now undershot at 7mths, though i have noticed it is changing again and she seems to be following her mum, who has the best bite out of all of my bullies. As for teeth my girls have the most perfect straight sets of teeth i have ever seen on a bullie, were as my poor Alfie has the smallest set of front teeth i have ever seen.
Hope this helps.
Karen.

Overshot is the top jaw sticking out past the bottom jaw, whereas a scissor bite the top teeth overlap the bottom tetth but the surfaces touching.  And Undershot (which it sounds like you are talking about) is where the bottom jaw protrudes in front of the top jaw.

In most pup the bottom jaw keeps groeing longest, so a small pup should have a deep scissor bite, or just a fraction overshot, then it will have a scissor bite wehn the jaws finish.  If the bite is tight or even pincer (meeting edge to edge) then the pup could well become Undershot.

The puppy mouth is only a guide, and unfortunately many a good puppy mouth gioes bad.  It is vital that the parents and other ancestors had good mouths, as mouth faults can be very hard to breed out.

Undershot is what I meant, I always get the two confused!  It's ever so slight but we have noticed it as we can see her bottom lip protruding like she's sulking.

Fingers crossed it won't develop into something worse.  I know the breeder of this pup was trying to breed out the fault in the jaw and when my parents went to pick their pup up, they were told to look at the pups jaw as proof that she had achieved her goal.

Quite surprisingly this was a misleading statement to say to my parents.  They are now worried about how the jaw will sit once she is an adult.  They'll just have to play the waiting game though, I'm afraid.

Well if it is slightly Undershot it shouldn't acuse her probelms unless the teeth are also misaligned further back (as in the case of poster above).  Lots of breeds have Undershot bites as part of their standar: Bulldogs, Boxers Pekes etc.  and others want a tight scirror, or Pincer bite with slightly undershot being OK (I think this is true of Boston Terriers).