#1 . Make sure your dog is healthy. The number 1 cause of bad breath in dogs is periodontal disease – just like in us Humans. Treat and prevent periodontal disease to eliminate bad breath and prolong your dog’s life.
If your dog is young and healthy, and still has bad breath, here are some tips to consider:
1. Feed them fresh food
One of the best ways to help your dog’s breath is to feed them fresh food.
2. Prevent them from eating garbage
Don’t let them eat disgusting garbage, dead animals, other animal’s poop, or even their own.
3. Give them crunchy foods
Dogs love to chew. Chewing is healthy exercise and makes dogs’ incredible saliva flow profusely. Saliva helps maintain healthy bacteria in their mouths.
3. Try a dental chew toy
When a dog chews a safe toy like a heavy rope, soft plaque on the teeth is removed depending on how aggressively they chew. Anterior teeth benefit the most so you may still see a lot of stain on the back teeth. Buddy Breath will help overall including the difficult to reach back teeth.
4. Give them a natural or rawhide bone.
We discuss natural bones elsewhere when talking about food.
Rawhide bones are rolled up rawhide, usually from bovine sources. Some are partially “hydrolized” to make them easier to chew and digest.
Consider them as food and pick a good quality product. Many imports are questionable.
5. Brush their teeth
Brushing a dog’s teeth is a challenge for most people and dogs but it helps clean the mouth and reduce odor. Applying Buddy Breath daily is a proven way to keep the plaque off and it’s easier than brushing. You finger, even with a glove on, is less intimidating than a toothbrush that looks like a giant stick to your pet.
6. Water Additives?
There are many water additives on the market that claim to help bad breath. The ones that work are probably poisonous!
Your dog should not eat anything that is not food. Don’t give your dogs toxic substances like chlorine dioxide and chlorhexidine despite claims of safety. Here is what the CDC says about chlorine dioxide: HERE
The best thing you can do for your pet’s water is wash the bowl thoroughly and often. Then keep it full of filtered or reverse osmosis water, just like the water you should be drinking.
In our experience, dog’s do not like Perrier.
7. Feed them raw carrots
If your dog will chew on a raw carrot, it may help clean out a little stinky plaque on the teeth. It’s food, but not one that appeals to most carnivors.
8. Offer them other vegetables.
Vegetables are not dogs’ favorite food although some will eat them. They contain phytonutrients that provide nutrition and are included in commercial dog foods.
Consult the American Kennel Club’s website for a list of foods to keep away from your dog(s).
9. Give them parsley?
There is no scientific evidence that parsley, mint, or cinnamon help freshen a dog’s breath. Let the dog decide. If you put mint in her water and she wont drink it, give her some clean filtered tasteless water.
11. Offer them yogurt
Yogurt is an interesting idea. It contains lactobacillus and other organisms common to Humans. Dogs have other organisms in their mouths that form plaques in layers. The lactobacillus and bifidobacteria in yogurt may upset the cozy relationship that exists in the dog’s stinky mouth.
12. Give them a probiotic supplement?
Probiotics are are food substances that mammals don’t digest well but their gut bacteria thrive on them. Probiotic foods should be part of the dog’s regular diet – included in the formula and listed as fiber. They will help with overall health but are not a primary way to treat bad breath.
13. Don’t overfeed
Too much food, and particularly the dog equivalent of the terrible American diet will make a dog sub-clinically sick. He cannot tell you he is sick but if he is overweight and diabetic, you can assume he is sick. And his breath may smell terrible.
14. Avoid sugary foods
Sugar is not a fit food for dogs or Humans. It messes up their gut bacteria as well as the bacteria in their mouths.
You already know that chocolate and the artificial sweetener xylitol are dangerous to dogs.
15. Add more insoluble fiber to their diet
Insoluble fiber seems to help your dog’s breath. It may be the extra effort needed to chew fibrous foods or it may be the healthful effect insoluble fiber has on the gut bacteria.
16. Add more water to their diet
Water is a great way to help your dog’s breath. Be sure their water bowl is clean and the water is fresh.
