Tooth brushing should be a regular part of your dog’s healthy regimen. Not only will it improve doggy breath, it will help keep your dog healthy. If you brush your dog’s teeth at least 3 times a week, the American Animal Hospital Association says it could add up to 5 years to your dog’s life!

There really is no excuse for ignoring your dog’s dental care, but many dog owners do. The American Veterinary Dental Society found that 80 percent of dogs have periodontal disease before the age of 3… and that condition carries a lot of serious health risks.

Without brushing, plaque builds up on your dog’s teeth. It breaks off and is absorbed into the bloodstream. That can lead to blocked arteries, which causes heart disease and kidney problems.

Just few years ago, the idea of brushing your dog’s teeth was nearly unheard of. While it is gaining popularity, the majority of pet owners still do not brush their dogs’ teeth on a regular basis.

Excuses Excuses

1. “I only give her dry dog food so I don’t need to brush her teeth“: Unfortunately most dry dog foods have high starch content. Sugar and starches combine with the bacteria in the mouth and produce acids. These acids can eat away at the enamel on the tooth in addition to causing plaque build-up.

2. “My dog doesn’t like it”: When I was a kid, I didn’t like brushing my teeth, but it wasn’t a choice. It is part of a healthy lifestyle. If you let your dog make all the decisions in your house, it would be a disaster!

3. “I don’t need to”: I give them bones and chew toys: This is an equivalent approach to only chewing gum for your personal dental hygiene. You won’t find a dentist that recommends that approach! It is a nice addition but can’t do the job alone.

4. “I just put an additive in the water”: This is an equivalent approach to only using a mouth rinse for your own personal hygiene, except not even as good because your dog isn’t gargling and rinsing. Again, a nice addition but not sufficient by itself.

What you should do NOW!

1. Brush at least 3 times per week to get maximum benefit with a toothbrush specially designed for canines.

2. Use toothpaste formulated for dogs! Don’t use human toothpaste unless you have taught your dog to spit! Look on the back of your own toothpaste and you will most likely find a statement that it should not be ingested. This is because it contains soap. Soap creates foam, which gives people the perception that the product is cleaning but is not indicative of the cleaning power of a product (it is for marketing purposes: perception is reality). Toothpaste designed specifically for pets does not contain soap; it won’t foam up; and it can be swallowed safely.

3. Replace the toothbrush when the bristles become frayed or every 3 months, as the brush will start to harbor microorganisms.

4. Believe it or not dog toothpastes are not minty fresh. Instead they are flavored with a more palatable taste dog’s like. If you want your doggy kisses to be minty fresh, then use a canine breath freshener.

5. Follow teeth brushing with praise and an award so he/she looks forward to it next time.

The American Animal Hospital Association says, “proper dental care may add as much as five years to your pet’s life!” It only takes about one minute. Isn’t increasing your dog’s life expectancy worth a few minutes per week?

How to Help Your Dog Get His Puppy Breath Back

Everyone loves puppy breath! But give that same dog a few months to get his adult breath and well, not so much.

Bad breath is a common complaint amongst many dog owners and studies have shown that 98% of dogs that have bad breath are usually suffering from periodontal disease, which is a result of plaque buildup.

However, there are a few things that you can do to help restore your dog’s breath back to its original puppy-freshness:

1. Brush Your Dog’s Teeth

Most veterinarians advise dog owners to brush their dog’s teeth every day to at least once a week. Before you embark on such a regime, you will first need to get your dog used to having your finger inside his mouth. You can do this by:

• dipping your finger in beef bouillon and allowing your dog to lick it off by placing your finger in his mouth.

• Next you can introduce your dog to a toothbrush and make small circles around your dog’s teeth.

• Eventually you will be able to graduate to using toothpaste on the toothbrush.

Ensure that you only use toothpaste made for pets, as human toothpaste can be harmful if swallowed by your dog.

Brush your dog’s teeth slowly and gently, making sure to reach the back teeth where tartar and plaque are usually more prevalent. But stop after 30 seconds or so as your dog may begin to fuss. You don’t want him to associate fussing with you stopping the toothbrush.

2. Watch What He Eats

Your dog’s diet can help keep his teeth nice and clean. Dogs who eat dry kibble usually have less plaque buildup than those dogs who eat primarily canned wet food. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still brush your dog’s teeth. The abrasiveness of kibble is nothing compared to a good toothbrush and some liver-flavored toothpaste. Yum!

3. Throw Him A Bone

Giving your dog a bone can sometimes be a good thing…as long as it’s a chewing bone that is. Dogs have an inherit need to chew on things as this helps keep their jaw muscles strong, and their teeth sharp and tartar free. Provide your dog with a good quality chew toy such as a Nylabone.

4. Does Your Dog Slobber?

Your dog’s slobber can play an important part in determining how often you need to brush your dog’s teeth. This is because some dogs will produce more acidic saliva while other dogs will actually produce saliva that is more alkaline. Within your dog’s saliva there will also be varying amounts of salts and ions, which accumulate on their teeth forming tartar.

5. Freshen His Breath

Sometimes all your dog needs is a minty breath freshener, such as Dog Smog Remedy . Not only does it contain Spearmint and Peppermint oils, it also contains natural Fennel and Parsley extracts as well. Other key ingredients are Sage extract to help prevent gum disease and Marshmallow extract to help promote healthy gums.

Simply spray 3 to 6 squirts of Dog Smog Remedy, depending on the size of your dog, onto your dog’s tongue and let the natural herbs work their magic on your dog’s breath.

Pretty soon your dog will have puppy-fresh breath!

Dogs are renowned for having really bad smelling flatulence, and sometimes their breath isn’t a whole lot better. In spite of that, they never seem embarrassed, and still make lots of friends at the dog park.

We may laugh but if your dog has either of these problems, it’s not that funny. They’re a lot less pleasant to cuddle up to. Even worse, if your dog is flatulent, you may be blamed for the smell!

Causes

By far the most common cause of bad breath in dogs is dental disease. Plaque accumulates on the teeth; this is a soft sticky build up of bacteria which can be found predominantly on those big upper molars at the back of the mouth. This leads to inflammation of the gum, calculus formation, and loose teeth. Not only is this painful, but it smells.

Some foods can also cause bad breath. A well known example in people is garlic - if you’ve eaten it as part of your meal, you’ll often have no friends for a little while.

Let’s look at the other end. All dogs produce gas in their gastro-intestinal tract, as part of the normal digestion of food. Most of the gas that passes from the intestines doesn’t smell at all. Any bad smell is caused by hydrogen sulfide, better known as rotten egg gas.

Some dogs swallow large amounts of air while eating, especially if they gulp their food. This has to go somewhere, and while dogs will burp, a lot of it often comes out the other end. This isn’t usually offensive, but can be quite loud.

The foul smelling flatulence is usually due to poor digestion of certain nutrients, such as protein or fiber. When partially digested food reaches the large intestine, it ferments and releases excess gas. Some dogs also like to eat rotten food or other unsavory items, and this too adds an unpleasant odor to their wind.

Cures

If your dog is excessively smelly at either end, it’s important that he’s checked by your vet. There are some less common medical causes of flatulence , such as intestinal cancer or inflammatory bowel disease that need medical treatment. Similarly, dental plaque needs to be removed - it doesn’t just cause bad breath, but can lead to more serious conditions such as heart valve damage, and kidney disease. This is usually done under general anesthetic - most dogs won’t voluntarily lie back and open wide.

Although you’re not likely to stop his flatulence altogether, you can reduce the smell.

1. Feed your dog several smaller meals a day, rather than one large meal. This will help to increase the digestion of nutrients, and reduce the amount of partially digested food reaching the large intestine. Less fermentation means less gas production.

2. Encourage your dog to eat slowly by putting an appropriate sized clean rock in his dinner bowl. He’ll have to dig around the rock for his kibble, and he won’t be able to quickly gulp his food. This will reduce the amount of air he swallows.

3. Change his diet to a highly digestible, low residue prescription diet. Your vet can recommend a suitable food for your dog. This too results in less nutrients reaching the large intestine, and reduced fermentation and gas production.

4. Digestive enzymes can help. These can increase the breakdown of nutrients in the diet and help improve digestion and absorption. The result is again less fermentation.

Dog Smog Remedy attacks your dog’s bad smell from both ends. It can be sprayed in your dog’s mouth, just like a breath freshener,and the peppermint and fennel will stop bad breath in its tracks. It also contains digestive enzymes which help break down food, and reduce the amount of noxious gas your dog produces.

Try these steps to wipe out your dog’s smell, and you’ll be cuddling on the couch again in no time. Better still, your friends and family won’t avoid you any more.

Let’s face it. Dogs don’t always smell good. Whether the smell is from their front end, their back end, or just their whole body, the result is the same. Sometimes they’re not all that pleasant to be around.

Here are five quick steps you can take to eliminate that funky dog smell, and avoid being knocked out when your dog wants to sit close to you.

1. Dental disease is a common cause of bad odor around your dog’s head. Have a look inside his mouth, and check for reddening of the gum line, and any build up of calculus on his teeth, particularly those at the back of his mouth. A study has shown that 85% of dogs over 3 years of age have some degree of gum disease, so even if his teeth and gums don’t look so bad, they may still the source of the stench.

Have your vet check your dog’s teeth, as he may need a professional clean and polish. Otherwise, consider changing his diet to see if it improves his breath, and give him a regular spray of Dog Smog Remedy . Its peppermint and fennel botanical extracts will freshen his breath in no time. And then be sure to make brushing your dog’s teeth at least a weekly activity to avoid tooth decay.

2. If your dog has that strong doggy smell and is itchy, he may have skin infection and inflammation. This can be secondary to allergies, hormonal disorders or nutritional deficiencies. The end result is the same - an overgrowth of bacteria and fungi on the skin.

Treatment is straightforward - your vet will help you diagnose and correct the underlying problem and will prescribe antibiotics to kill the secondary infection. In the meantime, you can minimize the smell by washing him in Comfy Dog Shampoo . It will gently cleanse his skin and coat, and its colloidal oatmeal will ease the inflammation and relieve his itching. For days that you don’t wash your dog by Fido is smelly funky, use a dry shampoo like Dry Dog Instant Clean . It’s ingredients capture and eliminate foul smells so you can breathe!

3. Now to a less pleasant topic. Dogs have two little anal glands at each side of their anus, and they contain a foul smelling fluid. Every time your dog ummm poops, a little of this fluid is expressed to leave a little of your dog’s scent behind. Similarly, when two dogs meet and sniff under each others tail, they’re smelling each others unique perfume. Don’t you wish they’d just shake hands?

In most cases, dogs don’t have too many problems with these glands. However, they can become blocked and infected, and in extreme cases, they may abscess. As you can imagine, this doesn’t smell very good at all. If this happens, your dog may need veterinary treatment to resolve the problem, but you can avoid it happening again. Feeding your dog a high fiber diet can make his feces bulkier, which will put pressure on the glands, and keep them drained. To learn more about this problem, click here.

4. We’re all familiar with the unpleasant odor of dog flatulence. There are many causes, but most cases of foul smelling flatulence are associated with poor digestion of food. Changing your dog’s diet to a highly digestible, low residue food can help. Whatever diet you choose to feed him, it’s a good idea to add digestive enzymes to his food to improve digestibility. Again, Dog Smog Remedy will come to the rescue. It is simply sprayed in the mouth, and contains digestive enzymes to help break down his food and reduce the bad odor at the other end.

5. Dogs love rolling in smelly things. In fact, the smellier the better. It can be hard to stop him doing this, particularly if you like to take your dog for a walk and let him run free. All you can do to get rid of the smell is to give him a bath. The problem is, if you’re going to bath your dog frequently, you do need to be careful in your choice of shampoo. Many shampoos will dry his coat, and this can lead to scratching.

If you’re going to bath your dog often, then Bubbles’n Beads is the product to use. It’s a gentle, all natural shampoo but more importantly, it contains micro beads full of conditioning vitamins, which break open at skin level and deliver their conditioners right to the root of the hair. The result is a soft luxurious healthy coat, no matter how often you bath him.

If after all this, you still find your dog a bit too fragrant a quick spray of his cost with Fur Breeze will have him smelling delightful in no time!

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by Carlotta Cooper

Stinky Dogs!

Have you ever been happily petting your dog, thinking how lucky you are to have such a wonderful best friend, looking deeply into his soulful eyes — when all of a sudden he lets out a burp that makes the house shake? You probably pull your face back fast enough to get whiplash. The odor certainly makes you start wondering what’s in the food you feed your dog.

Or, there’s the classic situation when you’re sitting with your dog and you start noticing a strong noxious odor in the room. You look at your dog but he continues to wag his tail and look quite happy. You know that toxic smell came from him but he’s not saying a word.

Sometimes it seems like dogs delight in finding the smelliest things they can to roll in and play with when they’re outdoors. Dogs actually do like to roll in garbage and dead animal carcasses. Dogs have a very different idea of what smells good than we do. They can actually like playing with stinky things. In the wild, wolves will even roll in such things in order to disguise their own scent. It helps them get closer to their prey.

Eeewww!

For most encounters with garbage and smelly dead things a good bath will take care of the problem. You can use a shampoo and conditioner like Bubbles n’ Beads which has a clean laundry scent to replace the eau de varmint smell your dog has chosen. If your dog has smelly skin because of a bacterial infection then Bubbles n’ Beads can help with that odor, too. It contains antimicrobial tea tree and lavender oils.

If your dog has a close encounter with a skunk one good de-skunking remedy is to bathe your dog in the following solution:

1 quart (or liter) of 3 percent Hydrogen Peroxide

1/4 cup Baking Soda

A small amount of dish detergent, such as Dawn

Bathe your dog as soon as you find him after he meets the skunk. The skunk’s spray will most likely be hurting his eyes. You may have to bathe more than once but the first bath will noticeably reduce the odor.

Going Grunge

Most people like to give their dog a bath at least once a month (to learn how often to wash your dog click here .) That’s fine for most dogs and most breeds. It’s often enough to keep a dog clean and yet it doesn’t strip all of the natural oils from your dog’s coat. If you need to stretch the time between baths you may notice that your dog starts to smell a little rank. To be frank, you may want to walk down wind of him. If that’s the case and your dog is getting a little grungy, then something like Dry Dog Instant Clean can keep you and your dog in the same room together. Dry Dog Instant Clean is a dry shampoo that you can use instead of a bath. Or, you can use a canine cologne like Fur Breeze which also removes doggy odor.

His Breath Could Stop A Train

If your dog has chronic bad breath (not just an occasional burp), you should check his teeth. Many dogs develop gum disease by the age of three. Frequent brushing with a pet toothbrush and toothpaste will help prevent dental problems for your dog and keep his breath pleasant. Make sure that you don’t use human toothpaste. It can contain artificial sweeteners which are toxic to dogs. Check your pet sore for doggy toothpaste. It comes in flavors such as beef and peanut butter and most dogs love them. Dog Smog Remedy is also a great help for bad doggy breath. It’s an all-natural breath freshener that contains peppermint and fennel. You can spray it in your dog’s mouth or add a few drops to his food or water. A breath freshener like Dog Smog Remedy really helps when your dog has eaten something disgusting and temporarily has bad breath.

Noxious Fumes

Dog Smog Remedy is also a digestive aid so it can help with problems from your dog’s, um, other end. If your dog has problems with flatulence (or gaseous eruptions) Dog Smog Remedy can help neutralize the digestive enzymes in your dog’s stomach that are causing the excess gas. Of course, if your dog has a continuing problem with gas then you should re-evaluate his food and overall diet. Something he’s eating may not be agreeing with him. Some foods, especially those high in plant content, including corn and soybeans, can be harder for a dog to digest properly.

You should not give your dog over-the-counter medications for flatulence or stomach problems, such as Pepto-Bismol, without the advice of your veterinarian. Human medications can contain ingredients that are harmful to dogs.

No More Bad Smells

Dogs seem to be smelly in a lot of different ways, but I guess the same could be said of people. Heaven knows we have plenty of ways to fight bad odors for humans! As far as I know there aren’t any doggy deodorants but there are other ways to help your dog smell good. You can make his breath smell better, make his skin and coat smell good, and help him fight noxious emissions. Anything that makes your dog smell good will make it more fun to spend time with him so these are all good things to know.