80% of dogs by the age of three have some level of periodontal disease so therefore it is important to know how to try to prevent or at least slow the progression of periodontal disease from developing in your dog. Even puppies such as Barney here need to have dental care or at least start having them get used to things that may help them in the future to try to help prevent periodontal disease. And the gold standard to do that is tooth brushing. So even like in a puppy like Barney, he's going to lose his baby teeth right around anywhere from four to six months of age. And so the deciduous teeth do not need as much care related to them. But it is still a good time to get Barney used to having somebody be in his mouth and not to think of your fingers as chew toys. So when you are thinking about brushing your dog's teeth it is always good to start slow and they do have some products that are that fit on your finger. They'er little rubber nub products that fit on your finger like a thimble that then try to help reduce the smear layer that is on the tooth surface. The smear layer or the biofilm is plaque and bacteria along with food particles that are on the tooth surface that then eventually begin to mineralize and form tartar on the tooth surface. After a professional dental cleaning, a plaque filmer layer is developing on the tooth surface within a few hours so, therefore it's important to begin brushing at the teeth as soon as possible following a dental cleaning. It's also important to note that that you should always have your veterinarian look at your dog's mouth before you would begin to start brushing the teeth to make sure that there does not look like that there are any obvious signs of there being any teeth that might be uncomfortable or areas that might be uncomfortable with in the oral cavity. So with starting with a puppy you can start by just trying to use your finger along the tooth to try to rub and get them used to having something within the oral cavity. Then you can graduate up to the rubber to the rubber brushes. And then you can think about considering a toothbrush. As far as toothbrushes are concerned there are products out there that are specifically formulated for dogs, but you can use your old toothbrush or use a toddlers toothbrush to be able to start brushing the teeth. Just something with bristles is what's most important. So a toothbrush like this is double headed so it has a bigger bristled head on the one side and a small bristle head. So you could start out with Barney to have the small one and then maybe as Barney gets bigger he can go to the bigger one. With him being a puppy he's curious and to allow him to chew on it and to allow him you know to realize that it's not something that's scary or or that could hurt him is going to be something that's going to be good. From that point if you do choose to use toothpaste, I get a lot of questions regarding toothpaste is toothpaste the most important thing is are there toothpaste that we should stay away from. The biggest thing to remember is is that as far as for toothpaste and toothbrushes go, the most important thing, is that it is safe for your dog? So therefore you should never ever use human toothpaste for your dog because the the human toothpaste on there has a compound in it or many of them have compounds in it that can actually be very destructive and fatal to to your dog and make them at the very least very very sick. So human toothpaste was designed for us to swish and spit it out and unfortunately I don't think Barney is going to be able to grasp that concept in the near future. So when it does come around to trying something such as a toothpaste you can use something like a manufactured toothpaste, which Barney wants that instead. Or you can use something that is flavored. This one is it has a poultry flavor to it so it is meant to be swallowed for that. So you can see that Barney's just kind of licking it off there. He likes it. If Barney wouldn't like it, something else that you could try would be baby food or canned food. So when you are trying to brush the teeth you want to try to make sure that you can kind of restrain and we'll see if this will work with Barney since he's going to be a newbie at this. But you want to try to see if if you can just hold their mouth shut and just brush the front of the teeth in a circular motion. Trying to angle about 45 degrees towards the gum line. You can see Barney's more interested on the chewing that's chewing that but that's okay too. The other thing that you can try and let's see if we can try some baby food. You got to work with me for this kiddo. Okay so there's some baby food on here now and trying to whatever he's like oh I really like that baby food. Allowing him to chew on it is going to help to get him used to being in there but one of the things is is that you don't have to pry the mouth open to brush the inside surface of the tooth. The tongue itself with the little papilla is a little the little ridges on the tongue that will actually brush the inside surface of the tooth. So trying to brush their teeth in a circular motion trying to get all the tooth surfaces that face the outside surface. Making it a treat and trying to make it as pleasurable to experience as possible for him is going to be important. This is Barney's first time at tooth brushing. Good boy Barney. And then again you can give them a little bit more of a treat. Just to make sure that it's a good experience for him. Remember when you are attempting to brush the teeth make sure that again you try to make it as pleasurable experience as possible. Try to find something that your dog loves to do. Whether it's the nightly walk whether it's mealtime whether it's a favorite toy or treat - that is going to be the time that you should brush the teeth before you allow them to experience their special thing. So for Barney, Barney is a little bit more food motivated so you know before giving him a treat that's going to be the time that is going to be best to brush his teeth. Because he really likes all that good all that good food and all that good baby food that's in there. So I hope I have given you a few tips today to try to help make tooth brushing and starting tooth brushing in a and a dog more pleasurable for you and more pleasurable for Barney. And if you have any other questions regarding what are safe dental products and toothpaste for dogs and cats you can visit the veterinary oral health Council at vohc.org. I hope that that you have taken something away and realized the tooth brushing isn't so bad and I thank you for your interest in your pet dental health. Over 70% of cats have some level of periodontal disease by the age of three periodontal disease is something that is very common in cats and can easily be prevented with proper home care.