[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by airplane

I have to separate them when giving raw bones otherwise a fight will happen. So one will be either in their crate, my deck or my backyard or just some place where they're in my vision, and then I'll give the bone to my other dog. If I'm giving the harder type of bone, it has to be in the backyard cause they'll be chewing on it for a long time. In regard to cleanliness, I just wipe their mouths and throw the end piece in the garbage and that's it. I don't let them have a bone on the floor or the couch or anywhere like that. The softer bones I hold for them in the air in front of my lap or wherever, and they just chew it. The soft bones don't take too long to wear down. And with the harder bones they're always in the backyard so its fine.






I've never given antler chews before. Boar rib bones I use a lot. They're what I call soft raw bones. Hard enough but has some give and wears away as they chew on it. What I really like about boar rib bones is that the end piece that they're chewing on, as I hold it I can kinda point it on different sides of their mouth so they chew on all sides of their mouth. Otherwise I do notice that they tend to favour one side of their mouth to chew on. Also, as the end piece of the bone wears away as they chew it, it becomes almost like a bunch of bristles on the end of it. Little tiny shreds of the bone kinda stick out a little bit as a rough surface. I hope that makes sense. But, yeah, boar rib bones is what I like for smaller sized dogs such as yorkies. My kiddos love it! And I'm sure Scottie and Casie would too.







I partly agree with this statement. I think genetics is huge. I recall one time my dentist was telling me about a lady who had teeth that were so soft and susceptible to breaking and wearing away (and had been that way her whole life), and as me and him discussed it, we both figured that it wasn't so much environmental but that it was probably due to genetics, or that genetics played a huge role in that. She was genetically destined to have really soft teeth that broke and wore away easily.


I think to say brushing and raw bones does nothing for their teeth due to bad genetics, I don't know if I agree with that. Lots of factors can contribute to teeth becoming dirty - how cramped in the mouth the teeth are, the positioning of the teeth, the quality of the teeth themselves, etc. etc. - but brushing and raw bones should help somewhat. In some cases it may always be an uphill battle, but to just say that genetically my dog has bad teeth so I'm not going to make an effort to help keep them clean, that seems silly to me. We're just talking about brushing the teeth to keep them clean. I've never heard before that teeth can be completely resistant to the benefits of brushing. I'd bet that even with the worst teeth that are really genetically susceptible to getting dirty and full of plaque, that brushing and raw bones would help a little bit and delay and reduce the number of dental cleanings the dog needs in its lifetime compared to if you did nothing at all. I could be wrong but that's what I'd bet.

No I didn't say if they have bad genetics to just not do anything. But in order for brushing to be effective you have to do it daily otherwise the plaque turns to tarter and cannot be brushed off.