Brushing your dogs teeth

' But dogs are animals, and in the wild animals don't brush their teeth either, it's rediculous!'

That's true! Humans are animals too, and I we used to not brush our teeth either, we also didn't live to the age of 80, so teeth problems wouldn't be as much as an issue as they are now.
And our diet changed quite a bit, leading to us having to brush out teeth, or otherwise they will rott out of our mouth before we reach the age of 30, living off extremely tooth decaying foods these days.

But for dogs, let's compare them to wolves living in the wild.

not my pic!

Wolfs eat prey animals, they either catch and kill them themselves or devoure corpses. To get to the juicy nice bits these wolfs have to first tear through a layer of skin, smash some bones in their way and rip out the intestines and muscles with their own bare strenght. When the juicy bits are eaten, they will chew on the bones, horns, hooves and tendence of these animals, these prey animals do not contain sugards who are the main cause of tooth decay, and the tearing and chewing on hard parts of these animals prevents plaque from forming around the back molers of these wolfs. Living outside, these wolfs occassionally chew on sticks, roots or other things they come across, again keeping their teeth somewhat clean.

Pug teeth

Most dogs living in our houses do not have to slaughter and rip open their own food, they get a nice bowl with some dry or wet dog food. On occassions they might enjoy a little treat or even a cookie with added sugars, stach and salts. They simply chew them up and swallow the whole load, leaving many food parts still stuck on their teeth. Some lucky dogs get a dental stick or bone provided, which can actually scrape the forming plague of their teeth, keeping them somewhat clean. Also, the skulls and teeth have changed a lot from that of their ancestor, so especially bully breeds can have teeth that are pointing in different directions or are positioned very close to each other, this can also cause plaque to pile up between these teeth, and keep dirt hidden, and make it very difficult to clean, even when the dog chews bones and eats raw meat.

When I worked at the vet I took a seperate dental course, so I would be able to do dental work on dogs and cats.

This was a common site when doing dental work...

The horrors I've seen! I came across many dogs with molars completely covered in a grey hard mass (tartar), formed by years of plague. The smell would be horrible, and some teeth were so far gone we would have to take them out permanently. Some owners would tell us that they were so suprised, they always gave the dog dental sticks, never a human cookie and mainly dry food... apparently, over time, this is still not enough.

So what is the harm in brushing your dogs teeth?! It only takes a few seconds, you will save a lot of money that you would otherwise have to spend on expensive dental work for your pet, and their breath will not be that bad, and imagine if they happiliy lick you in the face with an infection infested mouth... eeewww!

I must admit, I haven't brushed Ambers teeth that much. I got some tooth paste for dogs (from Virbac) (do not give your dog human toothpaste, they will swallow it and the fluoride can make them sick!!) and this stuff tastes like chicken (nasty!), but she loves it.
I normally get a bit of gauze, put this over my index finger, rub some of the toothpaste on it and rub this onto the outside bit of her back molars (the ones that I know out of experience can get super nasty).
Amber is a pretty calm dog who doens't mind me messing around in her mouth at all, I do always give her loads of praise and a bunch of treats after. If you do have a dog who mind find it a bit scary or rude, take it in little steps, first get them accusstomed with you toughing their lips, sliding your finger underneath their lips and so on, whilst always giving treats or praise for every step forward.