How to Determine the Age of a Dog by Its Teeth

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about how to determine a dog's age by looking at the teeth. Now, all dogs have baby teeth that's start erupting usually about six weeks of age. Those baby teeth vary in time when they fall out but by six to seven months of age all these teeth should be adult teeth by then so if their baby teeth's still present, if they're not retained then they're less than six months of age. Between six months and a year to sometimes a year and a half these teeth are nice and white and completely clean. So, generally speaking if they're all adult teeth and all completely white we're talking about a one year old of age dog. Staining, yellow staining of a canine teeth in the molars typically starts to occur between two and three, one, well, one and half to three years of age and then tartar starts to typically build up between two and three years so when you have some staining, you're talking about one to two years of age, if you start having some mild tartar build up you're talking about three to five years of age. Moderate tartar on the molars in canine teeth there's probably more like five to seven to eight years of age and then severe tartar is usually ten or more. Now, it's not an exact science but you can get kind of close enough if there's a stray or something like that. Now, older dogs typically will have worn teeth especially these incisors here in this canine teeth can be worn down or there can be some missing but that's kind of a general rule of thumb."