Ease Your Puppy’s Gums During Teething

Does your puppy resemble a cranky teething toddler? Poor puppy. It’s so painful losing teeth. Try these home puppy teething remedies to ease aching gums during the teething process.

Puppy Teeth

Deciduous teeth, commonly referred to as primary teeth, begin erupting around three weeks of age. Puppies begin losing these sharp little things around four months of age. Usually, the incisors (top and bottom front teeth) loosen and fall first. Then, between four to five months, premolars fall out followed by canines around six to seven months old.

The kicker, aside from primary teeth falling out, is erupting adult teeth. Ouch! Usually, puppies are in much pain during this time and display common puppy teething signs, especially when their large back molars (top and bottom) and canines begin to surface.

Oh, I can spot painful teething puppies from a mile away even during puppy class! Their normally happy selves are spitting out training treats, being cranky and fussy (fiddling around a lot), and are just not focused during class. I feel for these babies. I remember when my wisdom teeth erupted — yaooza!

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How to Survive Puppy Teething

Puppy Teething Symptoms

Teething, depending on your dog’s breed, usually starts and ends between four to seven months. You’ll likely notice:

• Skipping, or eating a portion of meals, every once in a while.
• Restlessness.
• Decrease in chewing toys (some puppies begin chewing like termites, it depends).
• Lack of focus.
• Sudden increase in reactivity, such as barking or suddenly being scared of objects. Could it be a fear period, maybe?
• Inflamed gums (hot to touch and red along primary tooth line).
• Metallic aroma (blood present, which is totally normal).
• Teeth are missing.
• Your puppy swallowing his baby teeth, which is perfectly normal. And you may find a premolar or canine stuck in your carpet. 🙂

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Teething Remedies

When I see puppies hurting, I want to fix them. It breaks my heart! Try a few of these home remedies. They work well and will reduce inflammation. If your puppy misses more than one meal, becomes lethargic or seems off, contact your veterinarian immediately.

How to Ease Pain and Inflammation

• Offer canned food, or soften food by soaking it in warm water for 30 minutes, for easier chewing.

• Offer a frozen Chilly Bone toy several times a day. These canvas-based toys can be soaked in water or low sodium broth and put in the freezer. As we all know, ice packs relieve pain and reduce inflammation. When you notice restlessness, it’s probably a good time to offer a frozen Chilly Bone.

Give Your Puppy a Break

• Understand your puppy is not feeling well and probably needs additional quiet time. You may notice he’s sleeping a bit more too.

• Take breaks during dog training sessions. Puppies are often distracted due to pain.

• If your puppy becomes reactive toward other dogs or strangers, click and treat when he looks at the scary thing. By pairing something yummy with a scary thing, things look less scary. Usually, once the teething process is complete, this reactivity will decrease.

• Refrain from any mouth work, such as mouth handling, teeth brushing, dumbbell work or tug toys.

What Does Not Work

Let’s chat about what not to give or use too. Never give your puppy ice, as it can cause slab fractures of the teeth. I learned this the hard way! Also, it’s not safe to use teething products made for human babies. Many contain additives that are harmful to dogs.

You may notice a few retained baby teeth. This is not a big deal. Your vet can remove them during spay or neuter surgery. Retaining puppy teeth is pretty common with small breed dogs. They have the same amount of teeth as big dogs, but much less space.

Take a deep breath and support your puppy through the teething process. It only happens once; thank goodness!

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