Monday, June 8, 2009

LET'S TALK TEETH

I forgot to tell you...

Last week when they took out my boy parts, they also took out a tooth. Guess it should've fallen out on its own but didn't (apparently this happens sometimes). Anyway, the vet said my other teeth looked good and gave my human a long lecture about keeping them that way. That's when the brushing started up again.

You can probably tell from my pictures that I'm a pretty cooperative pug. I've worn running shoes, bunny ears, fake mohawks, and a mexican hat for nothing more than a few Cheerios. Baths, nail trims, eye drops - no problem. But tooth brushing? Even with the "poultry flavor" toothpaste? No way. I'm just really self-conscious about my crooked teeth. They look like something out of Jaws, it's embarrassing! My human says all pugs have screwy teeth because we have just as many teeth as other dogs (42!) but not as much space to fit them into. Without a snout, our teeth have no choice but to be all crowded together - and that makes it easy for bacteria to growcause problems.

Whatever. I still hate people messing around in my mouth.

So I put up a fight from day one and eventually my human gave up on the dental care. Until the vet lecture. Then the brushing started again. So I ate the special doggy brush, thinking that would make it stop. And it did. Until we took a trip to the pet store over the weekend and headed straight for the dental care section. There, we found all sorts of tooth torture products. Liquids. Tablets. Wipes. Sponges. More brushes. Even special gloves with a nubbly fingertip that looked suspiciously like the brush I destroyed.

Of course I said "Heck no!" to all of them. B
ut my human held her ground and since she's in charge of food around here, we came to an agreement: no more brushes and a tastier toothpaste. Now she uses gauze with peanut butter paste and I'm OK with that. Don't love it, but it's not so bad. I even get a few Cheerios when it's over.

If you've never tried to clean your dog's teeth (or have tried and failed) here are some tips and a really good video to get you started. Good luck!

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