You remember at the end of last year, back in Newcastle, I had some yucky brown tartar stuck on my back teeth that was just too difficult to get off from simply chewing bones & stuff…so I had to go in and get a “dental scaling” done at the vets (and also some suspicious lumps removed at the same time while I was sleeping).
Afterwards, my teeth were all lovely and white & clean and the vet told my humans that it would be good if they could brush my teeth regularly – to keep my teeth that way for as long as possible.
Well, Hsin-Yi had socialised me to a toothbrush from a young pup – even though I didn’t need my teeth brushed then, she likes to always prepare for the future – just in case one day I need to cope with something, if I am already socialised to it then it wouldn’t be so scary & stressy (she says it’s like teaching a human pup to swim so that they always have that skill if they ever fall in the water, even if they don’t plan on going to swimming pools or beaches much) – it’s the same reason she always gives the kitties in our house regular baths – so that they are used to it – so if they ever need a bath (eg. got something poisonous on their fur), they would be easy to handle and wouldn’t feel so stressy.
the usual pet toothbrushes...
Anyway, so I had already learnt to accept a normal pet toothbrush and also a “finger brush” – but my humans were usually quite lazy and hardly ever brushed my teeth. They said it was such a hassle and not very easy to do, coz I would keep “clamping down” on their fingers or the brush and it was hard to reach the back teeth…
…but then after the vet’s advice, my humans decided that they had to try again and be better about brushing my teeth.
Then Hsin-Yi had a brilliant idea: why not teach me to accept a Buzzy Toothbrush? A lot of humans use Buzzy Toothbrushes to clean their teeth (they call them “electric toothbrushes“) – and they say it cleans the teeth better & faster. Hsin-Yi thought it would be the same for doggie teeth and it would also make it easier for them to reach the inside, back parts of my mouth and it doesn’t matter if I clamp down a bit, because the ‘head’ part of the toothbrush would still be rotating and brushing and doing it work…all it would need is for her to ‘desensititise me’ to it and teach me to associate it with nice things, so I would not be scared of it.
So Hsin-Yi found a cheap Buzzy Toothbrush from the supermarket with an extra-large head and then the fun began! 
Now my humans try to do this every couple of days, after dinner. On the other days, I usually get my Nylabone after dinner…so far, my teeth are still gleaming and hopefully, this way, my teeth will stay nice & clean for a very long time! 
* Sorry – we’ve fallen behind with our Google Reader and visiting blogs again! 
Please bear with us – we’ll try to come round & catch up with everybody as soon as we can!
MMMMMM….that is interesting. We generally do not like buzzy things, but we do watch when muzzer uses hers sometimes. We may try that, because we “chomp down” too! Good idea
gussie n teka
That is great!
Little Freighter found the sound of the toothbrush interesting. He made the cutest faces.
Then he came and watched part of the video with me. 
WOW that is most impressive Honey. You are such a good girl to let your hoomans clean your teeth and Paul was so funny with his “Colgate” comment.
AARF Kasha the Dainty Dane
You are SOOO tolerant, Honey! I hate anything buzzy — nail grinders, hair dryers, anything like that, so I know I’d leave the room (or the house — or town) if my human tried a battery-toothbrush! I don’t even want to be around the cat when she is purring. But my human says she’s hanging on to the video to refer her Puppy Students at her training school to. Great for showing gradual acclimatizing, she says.
Well, Badger, my human really wants to use a nail grinder on me instead of clipping (my nails are so hard, she gets blisters every time!) but she hasn’t had time yet to desensitise me to the grinder…I’m much more sensitive about my paws and don’t really like nail clipping even normally, although I’m very good and lie still and tolerate it (with lots of long-suffering sighs!
) -- so it’s on her To-Do list with me! Maybe I’ll post a video about that later in the year! 
Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane
ahhhh the nail grinder. what mommy learned abut it is there is quite a bit of heat generated from it and thats uncomfortable. so dancer the poodles’ mommy suggested these huge ultra strong nail files and holding one toenail at a time and filing them down. this is working much better, i get a nicer finish on my nails, and im not freaking out over the discomfort of the grinder. highly recommended.
nobody is sticking an electric toothbrush in my mouth with chicken or anything else on it.
i will however entertain the idea of laying quietly for a full body massage.
love,
bubba
Great team work!
Thays a great idea with the toothbrush! I love how your kitty sister makes sure your ok! Good girl honey for letting your humans brush your teeth!
Simply amazing! Honey you are the greatest.
Drools and licks,
Minnie and Mack
Honey, you are such a good girl!
What a great idea Honey!!! My humans have started to brush my teeth (well, attempt to anyways). They even got some yummy poultry-flavored toothpaste but I also just like to chomp down and then eat the toothpaste. It’s so goood! I will have to try the electric toothbrush, even though I lost all my front top teeth yesterday!
Woof woof!
Luna
Wow Honey! You are very tolerant of things! Ellie says that your humans did a great job at desensitizing you to things when you were a small pup! Look how confident you are! This just shows how a little bit of effort every day can go a long way with us doggies. Way to go!
~Treasure the Dachshund
Great job Honey.
I thinks you does a pawsome job with tooth brushin! Yep! AND with the Buzzy toothbrush too!
I gets my teeths brushed everyday too. But I don’t thinks I would like the Buzzy brush much, nope, too noisy fur me! Mel uses a baby teethbrush fur me cause my mouth is so tiny. Mel says it would be super easy with a mouth your size Honey! BOL
woos, Tessa
Goodness what a brave girl you are Honey. You need to tell Hsin Yi to stop giving Nicki ideas to use on us. Sasha swears she would run screaming from the trailer… imagine a silver tube with a dog hole in it like the cartoons. Drake might be able to be bribed……maybe….. if the toothpaste tastes good enough.
Honey you are such a good girl! I never would have thought to use an electric toothbrush on Darwin. We just use a regular one. But an electric one would be so much quicker and effective!
Hi Honey, what a great girl you are. You will have the best smile in blogville. We loved watching your video. Take care sweetie pie. Hugs to you all. No worries, and love, Stella and Rory
Wow! That’s brilliant. I have the ‘clamp down’ problem with Jade, it’s a struggle to brush his teeth lol.
What kind of toothpaste do you use for Honey? I love that bit at the end of the video “Colgate” “It’s not colegate it’s probably chicken gate,” haha!
It’s pet toothpaste we bought from the pet store/vets -- I’m sure if you ask your local petstore/vet, they’ll have something similar. The one we have is Chicken Flavour -- but it also comes in Bacon or Cheese Flavour. Our brand is called DentiPet but it’s an Australian product so I don’t know if you can get it in the US…I’m sure you’d have something similar though!
Hsin-Yi
Hehe Canada not the U.S -- but thanks I’ll definitely look into it! Jade would LOVE the bacon flavor for sure!
Just one more quick question -- did you ever get the reply I sent you to the nice e-mail you sent me a while back asking about Jade? If you did and just didn’t have time to write back that’s totally cool -- I just want to make sure you actually received it so that you didn’t think that you wrote me that nice e-mail and I didn’t respond
Courtney
I’m so sorry, Courtney -- yes, I did get your lovely email and the gorgeous photos of Jade! (he wasn’t anything like how I imagined, actually!
) -- I’ve just been so busy and I didn’t want to write you a rushed reply, so I’ve been waiting until I have more time to respond to you properly.
Hsin-Yi
I love the “tummy rub” command, I am going to try teaching that to Nous
Yeah, it’s a great command! One of the most useful things I’ve taught Honey! I use it all the time -- the vets LOVE it because she will lie down on the clinic floor & let them examine her anywhere -- but I also use it whenever I need her to stay still in one place while I do stuff -- like clip nails or clean her ears or do her teeth or check her over for ticks/lumps, etc.
(She gets up in between and swaps over to the other side) Of course, we also have a lot of instances where we give this command just for a real “tummy rub” -- this way, she won’t just associate it with unpleasant things -- ha! ha!
You teach it the same way you would teach a RollOver but just stop halfway -- mark/reward as soon as the dog is lying flat. Most people call it “Play Dead” or “Bang!” (while pointing their fingers at the dog) but I call it “Tummy Rub” because that is what we initially did whenever she got into this position (Honey LOVES having her tummy rubbed) -- when she was a puppy, we used to have exciting play sessions where I would romp around with her -- and then suddenly I would stop and ask her to Down and then say “Tummy Rub!” -- this way, I taught her to ‘settle’ and calm down in the middle of excitement -- and used the tummy rub as a reward. I believe it’s really important for a puppy to learn to settle & calm down, even when they’re really excited -- this helps them later in life & teaches self-control. So by setting up this ritual and repeating it every day, I got Honey used to “settling down” whenever she was told.
Anyway, do let us know how you get on with Nous!!
Hsin-Yi
Honey, you’re such a good girl to put up with that
Though I have to admit, it’s a great idea. I wonder if Grendel would go for it….
Heh, I love Hsin-Yi’s honesty about initially STARTING to brush your teeth when you were younger, but then being too lazy to keep up with it
Same here — did it with Grendel a few times and then haven’t been good at all at following up. So far, so good, though — just had two different vets within a week tell us what nice teeth he has. His breath, on the other hand…… I ought to use this post as a reminder to start brushing again, so maybe we can avoid having to go in for a full dental!
Hugs & Slobbers from Melanie & Grendel
Oh, you should definitely try with Grendel! It does make the whole toothbrushing process SO much easier & quicker -- it’s just the initial time you need to invest in ‘desensitising’ him. But he is so well-socialised, I’m sure he could cope fine. It would be a fun new challenge for you & him! Do let us know how you get on!!
To be honest, Honey’s teeth was fine all her life until she was about 8yrs old, due to her Raw Diet and regularly chewing raw knuckle bones…but since moving to Australia, our living arrangements (& the hot weather!) have made it much harder to let her chew her bones (Honey needs to bury them for a few days before she’ll consider them “ripe” enough to chew!!
) -- and so we have slacked off in that department -- and it’s amazing how quickly her teeth got bad.
So if Grendel is chewing raw bones regularly, that’s probably enough -- although, of course, if you can brush as well, that would be best. Definitely with a giant breed, if you can avoid having to put them under anaesthetic (esp as they get older), the better!
I think we got the kick up the backside after her dental procedure because her teeth were pristine and so of course, you’re more motivated to try & keep them that way!! 
Hsin-Yi
Actually, Grendel does NOT get raw bones…. We gave him one as a treat once and decided that we really didn’t like the scary, growling monster he became when it was time to take it away
I’m exaggerating just slightly, but it came down to one of those “pick your battles” things — since they aren’t a part of his regular diet, and since he gets plenty of other treats, we just crossed raw bones off the list!
One of his favorite things to chew are pine cones and we half wonder if they don’t act like some sort of natural “floss”…..
Definitely going to work brushing back into the routine, though. We want to avoid having him having to go under full, intubated anesthesia as much as we can. It’s scary enough knowing he’s going to have to get the light “knock-out” drugs for his upcoming orthopedic exam….
That is a very smart idea, I never knew dogs would like an electric toothbrush, hehe
Wow Girls, you certainly are always a step ahead!!!
Well done, we will surely follow your lead and try here also
Ciao Nicoletta & Lucille
What a clever and good dog you are! Can’t wait to show my human pups. Even Mr 10 doesn’t enjoy brushing his teeth so you might inspire him …
WOW, Honey you are so patient. I could never sit still long enough for mum to even check me over! she has to do that when I am half asleep, then I let her do whatever, even clip my toenails!!
I have the strange feeling that Jack and I are in for some more training of the Honey and Hsin-Yi kind this afternoon!! LOL
Thanx for the great video.
Licks and woofs
Abby and Jack
I’ve started brushing my dogs teeth again. I actually have been using Petzlife Oral Care Gel and LOVE it so far. It actually is removing the tarter! It also recommends using a normal doggy toothpaste along with it at least once a week but I haven’t done that yet. I’ll have to look into a spin brush for the dogs as right now I just use a normal brush.
I have a feeling my chi’s would both run in the opposite direction if I ever pulled out an electric toothbrush and tried to use it near them. bol
an electric toothbrush is an excellent idea! I hope it keeps your teeth perfect for a long time, Honey.
The only animal with teeth issues in our house is Mittens, and the fuss she makes when I even try to put flea stuff on the back of her neck! I don’t think I could ever brush a kittie’s teeth.
Have you tried using a scaler tool? I tried on my girl and it worked fantastic. She was very good -- MUCH better than teeth brushing. I did it 6 months ago and so far so good. I’m hoping to only have to employ it twice a year max but I’m SO relieved she never needs to be put under for this job.
How interesting, Lisa -- I’d never heard of a scaler tool before!
Sounds like a good idea…although at the moment, Honey’s teeth are so clean that there would be nothing to scale -- ha! ha!
Hsin-Yi
Yes -- also known as tartar scraper, tooth descaler, etc. They’re on Amazon for $6-9 USD. Same thing used at dentist for us and at the vet. Have to be careful not to go crazy with it -- just getting off brown/tartar, but the big deal is avoiding anesthesia and in a cooperative dog like yours -- I’d try it in the future if anything builds up. I’m starting to think the best thing that keeps them clean are raw turkey/duck necks. In particular. I’ve used that darned tool on my own teeth here and there between cleanings also LOL. I also have an extra one around the house for various things like scraping paint out of a groove on furniture.
Great work, Honey and Hsin-Yi.
Paul and Honey could do a commercial for Colgate
Take care,
Mina
That seems to be lot of easier than with the regular toothbrush. Maybe we should think that too when the puppy is coming
-Lilli-
Well done Honey! I don’t even like the buzzie nail trimmer — so don’t think I would like a buzzie tooth brush! It was an interesting video to watch. Especially how you take things a step at a time. Mommy tried using the buzzie nail trimmer a step at a time — but she never used treats to reward me during the process. Maybe the treats would help. Maybe Mommy will try again sometime, butt not now.
I’m amazed! We’ve tried to do everything we should for Penny, but toothbrushing was not even on our radar, so maybe we’ve left it too late. I must check her teeth, or at least get our vet to check them next time we are there.
You’re such a good girl Honey !
Thanks for showing us the video, I’m going to try !! That’s a great idea.
I know the tummy rub command too, very helpful
Love,
Lincoln
That’s a really neat idea, using a buzzy toothbrush! I hate anything that makes odd noises though -- blow dryers, the boss’s drill, etc. So I think you’re really brave Honey! Jasmine’s been talking about brushing my teeth with a normal toothbrush some day, but so far I just get dental chews!
- Sparkie
What an awesome idea!
And thanks fur sharing the video
-Brandon
That is incredible -- well, it would be with any doggie but you. Most impressive! And just look at how Hsin-Yi’s foresight is paying dividends for you now, Honey. You could do doggie toothpaste commercials.
Did Muesli eat any of the toothpaste? Can’t imagine being able to brush a cat’s teeth, but if anyone could do it, it would be Hsin-Yi.
Jed & Abby
That is impressive! I need to get Africa more used to brushing. This is inspirational.
http://www.trainingboerboels.blogspot.com
I just found a VERY INTERESTING area of the website that I haven’t seen before!
If you go to Home, and read all the way down there is a slideshow where people have signed in with pictures of either themselves or their dogs and a line or two of comment. There are over 400 pictures to look at!
It makes me motivated to put my two dogs picture, and maybe a picture of Atilla, who I used to care for.
Of course, I am partial to all the Danes. Even though I do not own one, Atilla is HALF Dane, so I guess that counts. It was interesting to see where all the comments come from. I found quite a few from Michigan.
hi Dorothy – yes, we are very honoured to have so many visitors to our site and many people leave us lovely pictures of their dogs to say hello!
It always amazes us to see how many people from all over the world know of us or somehow found us and have taken the time to leave us a little message. I love looking at the photos too! 
Hsin-Yi
The electric toothbrush is a great idea! We have 2 greyhounds and I brush their teeth every night when they’re in their beds. I just use a regular toothbrush and I figure that if I just get a good once-over, or even if I can only get just PART of the mouth if they’re not used to it or being uncooperative that night, and do it pretty much EVERY night, that’s good enough. I spend less than a minute on each dog. They do chew on the toothbrush, that’s okay. The toothpaste we have is peanut flavor, smells like Thai peanut sauce — yum! Princeton thinks it’s his reward for getting on his bed at night. Lily still thinks it’s a little weird (she’s more timid and we’ve had her for less time).
There’s a veterinary dentist who does no-anaesthesia cleanings and comes around to our area a few times a year. He just takes his time, lets the dogs take breaks if they need to, and takes up to 2 hours with the dog the first time — but usually much less, because he’s so experienced that he knows how to relax them as he holds them. That’s great, especially for greyhounds, since they’re sensitive to anaesthetic, and as long as you can keep their teeth in decent shape so they only need cleanings and nothing pulled, they can do it this way every time.
You can check the dentist guy out here: http://www.k9dentalservice.com/ His clinic is not local to us — we live in Seattle — but he travels around, and our greyhound rescue group hosts him about every 4 months. It’s only $150 each time, and he also donates part of his proceeds on those days to the group, so it’s a win-win!
I should add — we haven’t actually used the vet dentist guy yet, since we’ve only had our hounds a few months, but we plan to when he comes back this way in May, and probably about once a year after that.
hi Angi – thanks for your lovely comments and all the useful info! Your veterinary dentist who doesn’t use anaesthetics sounds wonderful – it’s a shame that we are in Australia and so too far away – if we lived in the US, I would definitely check him out! (Although hopefully, Honey won’t need another cleaning until the end of her life!
) But hopefully that info will be really useful for any of our other readers who do live in the US.
Thanks again!
Hsin-Yi
Oh! Also, Princeton knows the “belly rub” command as “lay down flat” — his foster mom taught him that before he came to us (which was toward the end of November, just after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday). I’m changing the command to “flat” to make it shorter, and working on it with Lily too now, since it’s such a useful one. I’ve also taught him “belly UP”, which means the “cockroach” position greyhounds are famous for, on his back with his feet all up in the air — that’s HIS favorite position for a belly rub! He will sometimes even reach out with his paw and pull my hand closer to rub his belly.
Bah! You’ve gone and given my mommy a crazy idea to use an electric toothbrush on Nala and me! I can’t wait to see how that goes! ahhaha
Woofs & hugs, <3
~Bailey (Yep, I'm a girl!)
Honey you are so good at having your teeth cleaned! What a great idea to use an electric toothbrush, that is something we are going to have to do.
Love and Slobbers,
Zeppelin and Kirsten
Mmmmm yummy flavoured tooth paste!! We have yet to have out teeth brushed, but Laura is always fiddling with out teeth :p
I, Jasper really love toothbrushes as well, *Hee! Hee!* they make me get my crazy face on and I really want to poke them with my nose
Licks and lots of slobber,
Lexi and Jasper the Danes
Honey is so awesome!! You’ve done such a fantastic job with her, so it’s really no wonder she took to it so easily. I’m glad you found something that makes it easier for everyone!