How to Cure Your Dog's Bad Breath

Your best friend may love you but it's hard to even pet your dog when it has bad breath. Follow these instructions to fix the problem.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• baking soda
• gauze, q-tip, cotton ball, or small folded piece of bath tissue

1. Let a few drops of water drip onto a piece of gauze, bath tissue, a q-tip, or cotton ball.

2. Sprinkle an ample amount of baking soda all over the dampened cloth. (gauze works best)

3. Pet your dog and make sure he or she is relaxed. Gently scrub the teeth. Watch closely as the yellow tartar usually comes pretty close to the gum line and you don't want to irritate the gums. Come close to the gum line but don't rub the gums with baking soda they will bleed!

4. Give your pet some water. The baking soda tastes salty and they usually like to drink water afterwards.

Tips & Warnings

• You may want to request help if the dog is large or irritable.
• Be gentle!
• You may also want to give the dog chew toys that clean the teeth and help prevent bad breath. (Other breath products are on the market but this article assumes you want a quick, cheap solution)
• Warning! Feeding your dog human food is always a bad idea. Even if you are only feeding the dog meat, this is not good for them. Honestly, imagine how healthy you would be if someone fed you only proper food (fruits, vegetables, fish, etc.). By feeding your dog human food, you are causing health problems, bad breath, and yes... animals can get diabetes. Ignore those little eyes- they don't know what's good for them.
• If you own a cat, please keep a cover on the litter box or keep it in an area the dog cannot reach. Dogs are known for eating from litter boxes which causes bad breath.

Resources

• Visit here to find special treats that prevent bad breath.

[AliceWonderful]

on 11/9/2009 Assuming you clean the tartar away the bad breath should stay away for a long time. Tartar builds up over the weeks, months, and years. Cleaning tartar should improve the breath for at least a week maybe more. Greenies and pig ears are also recommended to keep the teeth clean and breath fresh.

[klfarrell]

on 12/2/2008 hello,
i am a dog lover, but lately my little yorkie mix has hd the worst breath...
I tried teh baking soda and it seemed to help,
my question to you is: how long will her breath remain tolerable and how often should i use this method?
thanks!