# tooth brushing



## mynard (Jun 28, 2017)

I have my golden's teeth brushed by vet once a year. I try and brush them myself every so often but with not much luck. Any suggestions on how to successfully brush their teeth? How often do you recommend they have their teeth brushed professionally and how often done by owner?


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## Neeko13 (Jul 10, 2010)

i brush Neeko s @ 4 times a month, right before I take him to his therapy job..I always give him a hard bone after the brushing, the brushing lasts @ 2 minutes..he focus s on the treat, and sits right down... works Everytime..he s not the happiest, but he sits still...


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## OscarsDad (Dec 20, 2017)

This has been an ongoing issue for me. I purchased some toothpaste that tastes like beef which Oscar seems to enjoy. I can only really get at the outside surfaces. Very difficult to get him to stay still for the inside of his teeth. His teeth look pretty good I think, in part, due to the butcher bones he gets.


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## BriGuy (Aug 31, 2010)

Hazel might be weird, but she comes running whenever I brush my teeth so I can do hers right after. I think you just have to start off slow, and don't make a big deal about it. You can start by having your dog just lick the toothpaste, before trying to brush. 

I use a human "radius" toothbrush on her, and it works very well. I have the same style for myself, just in a different color.


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

Piper wasn't so interested in having her teeth brushed until we started doing it several times a week. I try to do it every day, but its more like every day. At first, I would just rub some of the toothpaste in her mouth to get her used to/start liking the paste, then focused on just brushing one area, and expanded from there. Now its a fun nighttime ritual for us! She tolerates it, because she gets to lick the brush at the end!

As an aside, its more common to get plaque/tartar buildup on the outer sides of the teeth than the insides, so I mostly focus much of my time getting those areas.


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## Goldens&Friesians (May 31, 2014)

I brush my dog's teeth every day. Well, that's the goal anyway, it probably ends up happening an average of 4 times a week. Some weeks I do really well and brush every night; other weeks, it just doesn't happen some days. I start brushing right away as a puppy, like within the first couple of days of bringing them home. As far as how often to have professional cleaning-that depends on the dog and on you. My girl who lived to be 15 1/2 never once had to have a professional cleaning-the vet always said her teeth looked great! My sister had a lab/gsd mix who lived to be 14 and she also never needed a professional cleaning. Both of them tolerated me using a scraper on their teeth once or twice a year to get the tarter off though. My current girl is 7 and has never had a professional cleaning-she also lets me scrape off tarter. In order for brushing teeth to really do any good, it must be done at least a couple times per week. I am a groomer and I often have clients ask me to brush their teeth, but I explain to them that unless they continue brushing at home, me brushing the teeth every 4-8 weeks isn't going to do any good. I think in addition to how often you brush, sometimes it just comes down to the individual dog. My current girl needs scraping more often than my bridge girl ever did. As far as teaching them to accept the tooth brushing, I really don't have any good advice because mine learned from the time they were little and we made it like a game so that it was fun and they got excited about it. I think its kinda just something they have to gradually learn how to accept, just start slow and don't worry too much about how well brushed you get the teeth. Just go for having them tolerate it for a couple seconds and increase the time gradually til you can brush the whole mouth. I always let my dogs lick some toothpaste off the toothbrush to start with. Then once they learn to accept brushing, I always let them lick a bit of toothpaste off the brush when we're done. It gives them something fun to look forward to with toothbrushing.


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