Puppy Teething

Many new dog keepers get confused when their puppy:
1. Looses its appetite,
2. Gets disturbed or uncomfortable,
3. Starts nipping at people’s feet,
4. Starts chewing on any thing available, Or
5. Simply shows a bleeding teeth/gum due to teething and the owners are not clear about the puppy teething age and effects of teething on behaviour of puppy.

All dogs are born without teeth. Teething is a natural and necessary process for dogs, but it can be a painful one as well. Knowing when to expect your puppy to be teething and being prepared with the right solutions will make teething minimally difficult on both you and your pet.

Between the ages of 3 and 6 weeks a dog will get its milk or deciduous teeth. On emerging, these 28 teeth are sharp enough to help the animal transition to eating solid foods. Deciduous teeth last between four months and a year, during which time the dog’s permanent teeth gradually replace them, absorbing the roots of the milk teeth as they do. This replacement process is known as teething. When it’s completed, the dog will have 42 adult teeth. Although dogs experience the discomfort of teething most intensely between the ages of 2 and 7 months, minor discomfort may occur for as long as a year until the adult teeth have fully emerged. Dogs get their permanent incisors between the ages of 2 and 5 months. Their pre-molars will erupt at between 4 and 6 months, while their canine teeth and molars appear between 5 and 7 months.

Deciduous teeth also known as baby/milk/puppy teeth are:-
12 Incisors,
4 Canines and
12 Pre-Molars
That makes a total of 28 puppy/deciduous/baby teeth.

All baby teeth will fall out or should fall out.

Adult teeth consist of 42 teeth:-
12 Incisors,
4 Canines,
16 Pre-Molars and
10 Molars.

So the question at hand is that does full puppy dentition mean full adult dentition? Answer is that not always but it is a good indicator that if puppy dentition is full the adult dentition will be full. But this is NOT a must.

One set of pre-molars and all the molars are NOT present in the puppy dentition but are part of the adult dentition ONLY.

Puppies consistently lose teeth starting with the incisors around week 15-18 (3.5-4 months). How quickly they lose them can vary from puppy to puppy.

Adult teeth are usually starting to come in at 8-9 months of age. Most dogs have all adult incisors and canines IN by 5 months of age.

Pre-molars show a lot more variation on timing. Most start falling out, around the time the adult canines are coming IN, at about 5 months of age.

Adult pre-molars and molars are typically all IN at around 12-15 months of age but one should not start being concerned about them until 18 months of age if a tooth is not IN.

Age after which there is no hope for any more teeth coming IN can’t be specified. There is always a hope. It has been observed that teeth emerge late in life. Practically speaking by 18 months of age all possible teeth shall must be in place. By this time whatever teeth are not IN are not likely to come IN. And for breeding concerns anything that comes IN later does not “count” because being late in development indicates a problem.

Considerations:
1. A dog’s breed, gender and date of birth will all influence the teething process.

2. Large breeds teethe earlier than small ones.

3. Females teethe earlier than males.

4. Dogs whelped in the summer months teethe earlier than those born at other times.

5. Poorly nourished puppies will teethe later than well-nourished ones.

Effects:
Teething will make a dog’s gums very tender and itchy. When attempting to relieve their discomfort, puppies will chew whatever is available. Dogs of the Herding Group, like Australian shepherds, may also engage in instinctive nipping behaviour when bothered by teething. These effects of teething are driven only by discomfort, not bad behaviour.

Prevention/Solution:
There are several simple solutions to the chewing and nipping that result from teething.
1. Letting the animal chew either on ice cubes.

2. Letting the dog chew/play with a wash-cloth that has been dipped in water, twisted, and frozen will numb the inflamed gums. Prepare the wash-cloths in batches and give one to the puppy every two or three hours.

3. Hard rubber chew toys, in addition to their pain-relieving properties, have a pacifying effect on dogs.

4. For a tasty teething remedy, try boiling marrow bones in chicken or beef broth for about twenty minutes and letting the dog chew them. Make a game of it by inserting peanut butter into the bones. The animal will be entertained for hours trying to extract all of it.

5. Give your pet a gum massage. Sitting behind the dog, use one hand to support its chin while softly stroking the outside of the mouth. When your dog is relaxed, gently raise its upper lip and massage the upper and lower gums in a circular motion. The light pressure will ease the discomfort.

Warnings:
1. A dog may have some deciduous teeth that don’t fall out as its adult teeth erupt. Unless removed, the deciduous teeth will crowd the permanent ones, encouraging plaque accumulation and improper jaw alignment, or malocclusion.

2. Use caution when choosing chew toys to help your dog cope with the pain of teething.

3. Never give your pet a chew toy that will shred or break, because swallowed fragments could mean serious digestive problems.

4. Hard leather, raw hide, and hard rubber are the best materials for chew toys.

5. Avoid toys that look like other objects in your home. Your pet can’t distinguish between a toy shoe and a real one.

6. If you choose to give your puppy a bone, make sure it is of a type that doesn’t splinter easily.

7. Veterinarians generally discourage chicken bones and other small bones.