Confession: I don’t brush my dogs’ teeth.
I don’t. I know. And that’s bad.
Apparently, about 80 percent of dogs suffer from periodontal disease by the age of 3. And not brushing teeth doesn’t help.
Luckily, there are dental chews that help.
My favorite is GumBone, a uniquely shaped dental chew that developed entirely in Hawaii.
We chatted with GumBone’s Dave Pang to see how this product came to be — and how much Indy loves it:
Special thanks Sean Nakamura (@seanakamura) for shooting this video
12 Comments
OK, loved the commentary about how everything people have dogs have now. Lap bands etc. So in this process I discovered why it is not a good idea to watch things like this when overly tired. In my head I saw a young pooch wandering through the pet store picking up condoms and a six pack for the weekend… pack of smokes… you know.. and then I started laughing to myself. I saw the whole dorm room full of dogs watching Two and a Half Dogs on the TV etc etc etc.
Note to file, don’t watch Cat Chat on less than four hours sleep.
LOL! Yeah, probably a good idea!
Hey Cat … love seeing your dogs … I miss having a dog around *sniff* …
… didn’t know about GumBone’s … only Greenie’s … and funny, I do remember green poop afterwards … who knew it wasn’t completely digestable …
… and lap bands??? … haha, seriously? … I don’t think pets are overweight because they eat too much … I think it’s more so because owners feed them too much and lack of exercise … the lap bands should go around the owners hands … and head!!! …
I know, lap bands. I think that’s the next Cat Chat!
Hello Cat, I give our dog and cat Greenie’s, I’ll try the GumBone’s when we run out of Greenie’s.
I feel my dogs Greenies, too. But check out this article: https://articles.cnn.com/2006-02-14/us/dangerous.dogtreat_1_joe-roetheli-greenies-dog-owners?_s=PM:US
Cat, sorry for the reprimand here, but you MUST brush your dogs’ teeth! Chews help, but are absolutely no replacement.
We brush our dogs’ teeth every other day. After a while, it became pretty painless. They are used to it, and know there is no reason to resist. Plus, we use the poultry flavored tooth paste which they LOVE.
We used to give them Greenies, but they both ate them SOOOO fast, we stopped. We now use a very hard one that takes them 30 minutes to eat.
Anyway, great post. And again, if I may reiterate, there is NO substitute for brushing teeth.
@MaxMaxMax – what’s the hard one that takes them 30 mins to eat? My dad bought a box from Costco but they weren’t too interested in those.
i go to my parents house twice a week to brush the dog’s teeth. they both hate it. they also eat greenies, but they eat them pretty quickly. i started with the poultry flavor but the past few months i’ve been using vanilla flavor and they seem to enjoy the toothpaste more. the brushing, not so much. 🙂
Z Ridge Natural Edible Dental Chew Bones by Zuke’s
https://www.amazon.com/Zukes-Z-Ridge-Medium-Breath-Dental/dp/B001MWRT2M/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1316723175&sr=1-1
There were 6 bones for $14 or so. We give them a bone apiece once a week.
Oh, I got them at Marina Pet Supply in Hawaii Kai (across from McD’s).
@maxmaxmax – thx! 🙂 do you buy the original flavor? have you tried the others? there’s a marina pet supply in kailua, so i’ll go check it out. i bought their vanilla toothpaste and toothbrushes from marina pet supply.
oh btw, i did buy the gum bone for my parents’ sausage dogs. they enjoyed them – but they eat them like greenies, about 2-3 mins. they were on an in-store special at longs.
Oh, side note – Dave Pang will be on KHON2 WakeUp2Day promoting Pet Walk and GumBone at 7:40 am. Too bad I’ll already be at work.