The purpose of puppy teething

Puppy’s teeth are particularly sharp the reason and purpose for this is to help them chew during their early stage of jaw development.

It is between six to eight weeks that your puppy starts to develop its full set of permanent teeth.

During this early teething your puppy will be in great discomfort as the permanent teeth begin pushing the milk teeth out. This is where they may need to gnaw and chew at many objects to relieve the discomfort.

Unfortunately if we do not give our pup’s the appropriate teething toys then many other unexpected items are going to be targeted by them. They are literally absorbing the roots of the milk teeth numbering 28 and replacing them with larger stronger teeth numbering 42.

So at this point it is wise to handle your dog’s mouth checking for any problems as this process can occasionally have complications. Retained milk teeth will have to be extracted by your vet as soon as possible or the permanent tooth may not develop correctly.

We as humans take a lot for granted and forget that our pups are in a lot of discomfort during this time. We need to be vigilant and patient with them to make sure this stage in their development is completed without any major complications.

Once they have their full set of adult teeth we need to make sure they have what we call a proper or normal bite.

This can be checked by your vet and can be as simple as making sure when the mouth is closed the lower canine teeth are in front of the upper canines. In many breeds this happens without any problems but unfortunately some breeds do not have a normal bite due to jaw alignment and positioning.

This abnormal bite can cause mouth damage and can also restrict the dog’s ability to eat or chew correctly. Issues like undershot or overshot jaw should be discussed with your vet, as with the advances in veterinary dentistry it can be corrected.

Overall many dogs cope with teething well and do not display any behavioural issues or physical problems. However with everything there will always be the exceptions so as dog owners it is our responsibility much like parents to make sure our dogs are happy and healthy.