DOGGIE DENTAL HYGIENE: PEDIGREE DENTASTIX

Hi lovelies! If you've followed my blog or social media accounts for any length of time, you'll know I'm a huge dog lover and my Chihuahua, Belle, is my absolute world! So, when the lovely people at Pedigree got in touch as asked if they could send Belle some Dentastix to try, I was super excited! These aren't just tasty treats for our favourite little fluffy babies to enjoy though, they actually help with a very important part of caring for our pets.

Dental hygiene is something we take very seriously ourselves but can often be overlooked when it comes to our dogs, however, without properly caring for their teeth and gums, dogs can can develop dental diseases. This is obviously bad enough on it's own as they'll suffer from soreness, rotting teeth and gums and bad breath, but the bacteria from these diseases can also enter the dogs bloodstream and damage their liver, heart or kidneys, which is super scary! Of course, brushing your dogs teeth is a very effective way of keeping them plaque free, however using Pedigree Dentastix daily has been proven to reduce tartar build up by up to 80%! As you can tell from these pictures, Belle absolutely loves them as she just treats it like any other treat! I notice as well that when she eats these, she really does use her whole mouth, this is down to the X-shape, meaning it gets right into her teeth and gums and helps to scrape off any nasties that are building up! I like that these take her a lot longer to eat than most other treats too, meaning she's unintentionally taking a good amount of time to really clean those pearly whites!

When it comes to cleaning your dogs teeth otherwise, it's best to start early, when Belle was a tiny puppy, we bought her some doggie toothpaste (never use regular toothpaste, it's poisonous to dogs!), and a toothbrush. We were told by the vets to use toothbrushes made for dogs or a very soft children's toothbrush. Letting the dog lick the toothpaste off your finger at first to get used to the taste (though usually they're meat flavoured and they love them anyway!), then slowly introduce them to the toothbrush. Gradually touching their mouths a little more day by day also helps them get used to your fingers being around their mouthes, meaning they won't feel the need to bite down when you try to put a toothbrush in there! Persistence and being gentle is key when it comes to this, perhaps giving your dog a little brush time, followed by lots of praise (and maybe a dentastix treat!) when they've done good will soon teach your dog that brush time is fun time!

Do you have any dental hygiene tips for dogs? Does your dog love dentastix as much as Belle? Let me know!