October 7th, 2010
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Checking your puppy’s mouth on a regular basis is a good habit to develop. In doing so, you’ll get your dog used to someone looking and feeling around his or her mouth. If anything looks out of line, make a vet appointment and let an expert determine if it’s worth worrying about or not.
Radio show host and pet expert Tracie Hotchner is the author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible. Click here to follow her on Twitter and be sure to check out her website. |
You’re absolutely right about checking a puppy’s mouth regularly. My husband went above and beyond that when our dog Bonz was a puppy.
If you say, “Bonz, show me your teefies” he’ll raise his lips high and show them to you. He’s momentarily unnerved a few vets this way. Maybe because he’s a Pit Bull, or maybe because he still has a lovely set of teeth at 10 1/2 years old.
Either way, he is a gentleman and easy to examine for any vet.
This also applies to any situation that you need your dog to be comfortable. This not only is important at the vets office but also at home. For example: Children tend put their arms around dogs heads. If I dog has not be exposed to this type of behavior, then they may snap because in the dog world this is an aggressive dominating behavior.