All the things I wish I knew before I got my first ever puppy!
Between the ages of 3 and 6 months (there or thereabouts), your pup is going to start to lose his needle sharp baby teeth and get his full set of adult teeth. It may be a hooray at first at the thought of those little needles disappearing, but the process is about as fun as it is to get bitten by them!
An adult set of teeth for a dog consists of 42 teeth- 10 more than humans have. If you’re wondering why dogs are whinging, if you think children lose their baby teeth and grow adult teeth over around 6 years…dogs lose and regrow theirs over around 3 months!
Its very rare to actually see the teeth when they fall out as most the time your dog will probably swallow them. As puppies they have 28 teeth, out of those 28 we have recovered 2 of Coopers- and that’s only because they came out in a game of tug of war!
It’s normally pretty evident when your puppy is starting to teeth though because in general- they become little nightmares! There are also some other side effects that you may not be aware of which are good to know about!
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One thing you will need for sure is plenty of things for your pup to chew on... check out the article below on the best chews to choose!
SYMPTOMS OF PUPPY TEETHING
1. THEY WANT TO CHEW ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING
The most obvious one of all, and I really feel bad for you if your dog is already a chewer because oh wow are things going to get worse! Cooper isn’t a massively destructive chewer, but when he’s been teething you will not see him without something in his mouth. For the last month we have had various chews scattered all over the place in an attempt to save the kitchen from been munched up!
2. INCREASED MOUTHING
We had finally got to the point where Cooper wasn’t mouthing us as much…cue teething. It was like we were back to square 1. It would come and go every time he was about to loose a tooth. Thankfully the further through the process you are, the less teeth there are to mouth you with!
3. RED INFLAMED GUMS
As much as their teeth are going through, their gums are going through the same. Cooper’s mouth and gums were super sensitive going through teething. It was especially noticeable when we were fishing things out of his mouth that he’d picked up- he used to just let us do it, as soon as a new tooth was coming through, it was like a wrestling match trying to get him to let us touch his mouth.
4. MISSING TEETH
Unless your dog has had some kind of trauma, if a tooth is missing, chances are a new one is coming through behind!
5. DECREASED APPETITE
I don’t know about you but I remember losing my baby teeth and the pain of eating certain foods on the spot of the missing tooth. Dogs are the same, and especially if they need to crunch through kibble, they may be a bit off, or at least slower eating it.
6. LOWER THAN USUAL MOOD
Puppies are furry babies at the end of the day, they have no idea what is happening to them, all they know is that their mouth hurts like hell and they feel a bit rubbish. The chances are they probably are going to be a bit more subdued and also a bit more reluctant to be stroked, especially around the head and mouth.
7. BLEEDING GUMS
Like humans, as one tooth falls out and another one appears, it often leads to bleeding gums…especially if your pup is chewing non stop as well!
8. BLOOD ON TOYS
Bleeding gums + lots of chewing = A bloody mess. Don’t be alarmed if their favourite toys are turning into little red spotted Dalmatians.
9. WHINING
Like with the lower than usual mood, puppies don’t understand what’s happening to them, all they know is they’re in a lot of pain, and unlike children, they can’t just say ‘my tooth hurts!’
10. DODGY TUMMY
So this one I was not aware of until we had a week of Cooper vomiting on and off. For us it was when he was losing his 4 canines (the big sharp fangs at the front). Having spoken to a few other people with slightly older dogs, they all said that their dog went through the same, but they had diarrhoea instead! So really either end could be an issue!
Cooper wasn’t vomiting constantly, it was pretty sporadic with not a lot of warning, the vet recommended with put him on a Pro biotic which worked wonders! I found out after paying the vets inflated prices that you can buy it on Amazon, I’ve put the link in below!
