What I tell people is that the chew toy has to be softer than the tooth. When things are harder than the tooth, the tooth loses. Things like cow hooves and deer antlers and even some of these harder Nylabones can fracture a tooth. And once that happens, we're looking at either root canal or extraction of the tooth because that's a very painful condition for the pet. There are many quality chewies out there. We carry some CET rawhide chews that have some stuff in to help keep the mouth healthy. They can work nicely, but you've got to be careful. I'm also a big fan of KONG toys. They're soft enough that they don't break the dog's teeth, but they're hard enough to be indestructible. I've seen some pets destroy some KONG toys, but they tend to generally hold up pretty well. I’m not a big fan of either Pigs’ ears or bully sticks and find them kind of gross. Pigs' ears are fatty. Bully sticks are bull penises, and that's not something I would want to give my dog.

By all means, you do. Again, brushing is the best. GREENIES are a supplement. The chews are a supplement. And they can help, but they're not taking the place of brushing.

What I tell people is you've got to make it fun. If you take your dog and put them in a headlock, and say, "Here, we're going to brush your teeth," you're not going to brush that dog's teeth, and that's probably going to be the only chance you ever get to brush that dog's teeth. So we have to work up to it, and we have to make it fun. So you take a little bit of this chicken or beef-flavored toothpaste, and you put it on your finger and let the dog lick it. And that's what you've done today, and you're finished. And tomorrow, you put a little bit on your finger, and you wipe it on their front teeth, and let them lick it. And you're done for the day. And the next day, you wipe a little more. And the next day, you wipe a little more. And when they are used to that, now we might add a little children's soft-bristle finger brush on your finger. And then we do the same thing. We work it around and around.

It's going to take weeks to get to this point. But I have many owners who have done that, and their pets truly like having their teeth brushed. They'll come up to the owner and kind of nudge them because they enjoy having their teeth brushed. And eventually, you can graduate up to a children's soft-bristle toothbrush. Or there are even pet brushes made with two sides, for small areas and large areas. Again, it's got to be fun, or it’s not going to happen.

It smells better to you, but it doesn't taste good to the dogs. They don't like that foamy, frothy stuff that happens with the toothpaste. You need to use pet toothpaste for the pet so that, when they swallow it, it will not bother them. And some of the human toothpastes have xylitol in them, which can be fatal to a pet in high enough quantities.

I get that asked frequently, and I always look the client in the eye and say, "How frequently do you brush your teeth?" Hopefully, it's two or three times a day. That would be ideal. The truth is that I would be ecstatic if you were brushing your pet's teeth two or three times a week. The more, the better. But if you could do it two to three times a week, that will make a big difference in keeping your dog's mouth healthy.