I wonder if there will ever come a time in the future when computers can do more than just show images and produce sound. Will computers ever advance towards omitting smells? For your sake I sure hope that things never get that advanced while Athena's alive because then you might not ever visit our blog.
Why's that? Because Athena has some STANKY fish breath.
In an attempt to provide Athena with all of the things necessary to live a healthy dog life (minus the fishy breath), we decided that it was about time we start brushing her teeth. We would also like to keep ourselves from hurling because Athena is excessively generous with her kisses and frequently takes it to the french kissing level.
Athena's love for all things that taste like food have allowed us to train her to love her toothbrush using peanut butter flavored toothpaste.
Here's how we taught Athena to love getting her teeth brushed:
- I started by simply putting a small glob of toothpaste on my finger and I let Athena lick it off.
- I put another small amount of toothpaste on my finger, but this time I put my finger inside of Athena's mouth and rubbed the toothpaste on her teeth.
- Next, I put some toothpaste on Athena's toothbrush and let her lick it off. I did this step several times before moving to the next.
- With toothpaste on the brush, I put it inside of her mouth and gently moved the brush around.
- I began brushing Athena's teeth gently in circular motions for only a few seconds.
Now that Athena has associated the toothbrush with really yummy peanut butter noms, she gladly lets me put the brush in her mouth to brush her teeth. It can sometimes be a bit difficult to get a good brushing action because Athena's tongue is moving back and forth a mile a minute, but I figure that even a little bit of brushing will go a long way in eliminating the fish breath!
Other fish breath odor eliminators that we use include:
- Fresh Breath Water Additive (we put a few squirts in Athena's water bowl each morning)
- Checkups Dental Bones (Athena gets a couple each week)
- Carrots (we give Athena small pieces of carrot during training sessions)
- Chicken flavored kibble (we just switched to this new flavor this week and have noticed that Athena's breath isn't so...fishy)
How do you keep your dog's breath smelling fresh...or shall I say fresh-er?
