29┆ Tiny Teeth, Big Trouble

In this episode, I take a practical look at puppy teething and explain why biting and chewing suddenly become such a big part of life between four and seven months of age.

I break down what is happening inside a puppy’s mouth as baby teeth are pushed out and adult teeth come through, and why this stage can temporarily change your puppy’s behaviour.

We consider:

• Why puppies bite and chew during the teething phase
• How puppy teeth develop and when they are replaced by adult teeth
• Simple ways to manage teething without creating training problems

If your puppy has suddenly turned into a chewing machine, this episode will help you understand what is normal and how to guide them through it calmly.

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W: bulldogownersclub.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today's episode is about puppy teething because my young bulldog bison is right in the middle of it. If you've ever wondered why a sweet puppy suddenly turns into a little chewing machine, there is usually a reason behind it. We will talk about what is actually happening when puppies lose their baby teeth, why biting and chewing suddenly ramps up and how to manage it sensibly without creating bigger behaviour problems. Welcome to the Bulldog Owners Podcast, where I host a passionate conversation about pedigree dogs. I'm Sarah, and here we cut through the myths and misinformation to talk honestly about life with Bulldogs. Okay, it's another walk and talk. And I thought that, well, first off, I'm walking King by himself, but I thought I would do a um I've kind of done a few puppy related episodes, so I might group them together at one point and be like the puppy problem podcast. But I thought we would talk about teething, puppy teething, because Bison, bless him, a baby bison, he is five months or just short of five months, and he's teething, teething like mad. And um obviously because I'm training dogs for the show ring, even if I have no major plans of showing them, they all still get treated the same way. So I still take them to Ringcraft, which is a training session where you teach your dog the basic principles of being a show dog, which is anything fancy, it's just being able to stand still, to be assessed, to walk at the correct gate, and to just generally look pretty amazing when you're showing a dog that always walks to your left. So when I walk my dogs, obviously, I always walk them to my left, unless there's two of them, then uh they have a bit more free-for all. But my default is always to the left of me. That's always good anyway, because um, given that they're slightly sound sensitive breed, I find around traffic, it's no different to um courtesy with women, is it not? Men are meant to walk on the outside and the women on the inside of a pavement walkway, wherever. And I find I stick with that role with the bulldogs because if you have any heavy, loud traffic, at least you're protecting them from that shock or stop being startled. But I always know that the vets always appreciate a show dog because they just stand still to be assessed, and likewise, even treating a dog that's um got show principles, they'll let you put eye drops in, they'll let you look at their mouth, they'll let you look in their ears, tail, all the all the things, trimming feet, all that kind of stuff. It's just a lot easier. So my pups always go to ring craft, as it's called in the UK, and which is just all just like in a little village hall where people get together, they can go to ring craft from 12 weeks old. Typically, once they've had their last vaccination, typically the trainers will always ask if the puppy's teething and if you're happy for them to look into their mouth, because they don't want to cause you training problems in the future. And if the dog is being uh sensitive to its teeth, let's not make the problem any worse. If people aren't planning to show, then I generally suggest that they do puppy classes rather than puppy parties or yeah, just random dog daycares where they just go random and go crazy because there's no training there. If they're mixing with a poorly or antisocial dog, then um your dog's A, going to possibly become reactive, and then that's a training problem you're gonna have to deal with. B not enjoy it full stop anyway, the experience, or C, start picking up the habits that the other naughty dogs have. So what you need to remember when you're socializing your dog, it's socializing it with the environment and people, not really, they don't need dogmates. The only dogmates they need is if they live in the same household as them, and um you need everyone to get on well. But I digress because we were talking about puppy teething, but and bisons going through it at the moment. Let's start at the beginning is that when puppies are born, they are blind, they are deaf, and they have no teeth. But puppies do grow, newborn puppies grow at a crazy rate. So typically eyes open around I'd say 12 to 19 days. Um, then ears will open, and then um then they're up and mobile, uh, and then their eyesight gets better, and then you can start weaning them because their teeth start to come through, which is typically around three weeks old, and that's when you start weaning, because then they can transition from milk onto proper food or more dog food. And then you come and get your puppy eight weeks old or thereabouts, and all seems good. I mean, their teeth might be small, but they're certainly strong, and they're like little needles that will um savagely attack anything. I say that in jest. So what you understand is there's five reasons why a puppy might bite. And the first one, which I was alluding to, is because they're playing, so it's just the way they're engaging with another dog or a person that they're playing with, which is all fine, totally normal. Another reason they might bite is because they're overstimulated, and this this is quite closely with my third reason, which is that they're overtired. So maybe the plane is escalated too much and um they start getting unnecessarily bitey bitey, and it's for you as the owner to stop that, calm the situation down to a normal level, and whether that be having a safe environment to put them in, so crated your crate train, which maybe probably should cover another day. If you crate train, you can put them in a crate to de-escalate the situation, or maybe just stop the play and redirect them, and then yeah, redirect their energy, whether that be a toy or food or whatever. And then you've got overtiredness, so where they again possibly play too much, or remember puppies are like babies all the time they're sleeping, they're growing. So don't underestimate how much they should be sleeping from eight weeks to six months. So maybe they're overtired, and um, you need to put them to bed. So again, crate training is really good for that for a bit of time out. So we said they can chew because playing too much, overstimulated or overtired. You've also got maybe from frustration, basically, task possibly that you're asking to do is too complex or too difficult, and so they're they're frustrated. Well, they can't get to a toy, they've lost a toy, or um, they want to play with someone they're not allowed to play with, then they can then bite through frustration. So, again, it's the same. Calm them down, give them some time out, redirect the uh energy, and you'll be fine. And then the final one is because they're teething, which I said, this is what bison's going through at the moment, and um it's quite funny because and they do let him get away with it. But all of my adult dolls currently all have soggy ears because he just sits and uh obviously it can't be too much, too harsh because I would have told him off, and no one's told him off yet. But he just sits and chews on their ears. It's like soothing, isn't it? It's like a little soother for uh for a baby, slightly different texture where maybe some of the other toys are a bit too harsh, a bit too hard, where chewing on somebody else's ear seems seems the right thing that he can get away with at the moment, which is fine. And so he lost. I've got a picture, maybe I'll show it somewhere. I was like, what have you got in your mouth? What are you chewing? And when I went to take it out of his mouth, it was one of his back teeth. So it's either a pre-molar or a molar, but yeah, one of the less pretty of the looking teeth. And then you've also got the canines, which are the big fan teeth, which obviously a lot of people on bulldogs, that's what they're known for, because the type of jaw that they've got is more evident, and they can sometimes like protrude outwards, and you can see them when they're just resting. And then you've also got the incisors, which are the little teeth between the the canines, the veins. And generally, as bulldogs get older, the gums tend to grow over these. There's a condition, there's a name for it, but it's not end of the world stuff, they don't really use those for eating anyway. Um, the main ones for bulldogs really are the pre-molars and the molars, the ones at the back chewing up stuff. But as we know, they tend not to chew stuff, they tend to eat stuff whole, which is um a little bit of a problem with the breed. Teething is typical, as I say, between four and seven months, I think, depending on the breed, depending on the dog. Bison's just short of five months, and we started to do that now. So, what's the best ways of dealing with a teething puppies? I find the canines are the last ones to come through. You'll see the little incisors go first, actually is like when I when the teething generally, I think it tends to be the little incisors at the front, then the canines, then the premolars and the molars. Just as uh so it sort of starts from the jaw and moves backwards. I mean, I don't know if that's a thing, but that's the pattern that I tend to see. What you need to remember with bulldogs. Back in the day, people used to say about the head splitting, which it doesn't, but bulldogs will grow from the feet upwards and from the bum forward, so the head is always the last parts of the bodies to grow. They are known as a head breed, so in the show ring. Some breeds are shown uh in sorry, perhaps so you can see their silhouette, and some breeds, not that many. I know the staff is shown front onwards, staffordshire bull terrier. No, the bulldog is, I don't know much else apart from that, but they are shown head on. French bulldog, interestingly, shown on profile, but they do tend to show a bit of a diagonal, so you get to see the best of both worlds. And again, we're showing some dogs are free stood and some of them are stacked. Because Staffordshire Bull Terrier is a terrier, they are shown like with a tight leash or lead, and um, they're not strung up, but they're like there's tension on the lead. With bulldogs, they are shown loose lead, so more relaxed, which is just uh like if you're just walking a dog down the road on a loose, you know, there's no tension in the lead. Interestingly enough, I was talking to a friend who's getting there. Oh, Tash, obviously, you know, if you listen to a podcast, she's getting a miniature bull terrier. And I said they're interesting because they are a terrier, yet they're shown on a loose lead. It's like the mixture of both worlds, but they're really strong and stubborn dogs, so it always makes you laugh because they should probably be shown like a terrier. But even when it comes to stacking, so like when when the judge is assessing your dog, some breeds, like the bulldog, you can literally place every foot where you want it to be, so they're the perfect shape that they need to be. In other breeds, they've had to train them really well to um for them to naturally stand in the correct pose and then sort of bait them with treats to try and get the positioning all right, which as you can imagine is quite difficult. Um, anyway, I've digressed. So yeah, bulldogs grow from the feet up, from the head forward, so the head is the last to grow. So even though the dog is teething six months or thereabouts a little bit earlier, the head by no means is the finished product. Um, and it doesn't split, but the skull does carry on growing and it will get wider, particularly between the ears. Um, and then yeah, the face just all matures and develops out. Yeah, hopefully you end up with a decent looking bulldog. But that all takes time and there's different growth patterns to different bloodlines, so there's no hard and fast roll. But generally, most males are done by 18 months, two years old. What you've got then is what you get. Um, so typically with a growth pattern, you'll see them grow tall and maybe look skinny because their proportions are off, because they're growing from the feet up, so they're a bit tall and a bit leggy. And then when they grow from the bum forward, they get a bit wider and they mature and develop, and it all looks balanced again. The sign of when you're keeping a show dog, if they don't do any of that, they never look out of proportion as a puppy. You've got yourself a good little dog, um, because they're not doing anything crazy. I digress again. Teeth. So obviously, when a puppy's teeth in, it's pushing the adult teeth, are pushing the baby teeth out of the way. Now, what I have heard of is that puppy teeth can get chipped um and fractured. And again, I've heard the vets suggested all we're gonna have to operate on the dog and remove these teeth. It's ridiculous. They're puppy teeth, they're going to get pushed out of the way when the dog actually teeth. If you don't want to put your dog under unnecessary surgery, the unnecessary vet pills, and creation insurance premiums for no reason, don't be doing this operation. Only if the teeth was to get infected, the dog's really poorly, then yes, or they're still there, it's still a problem once the adult teeth come through. So I tell you this because at the moment, bison's adult ones, he's canine, so they've come through, not all the way yet, but they're up. And the little baby teeth are sort of wedged and pressed to the side of them. So obviously, I'm gonna give him toys and encourage him to chew to get those baby ones out the way, which um I'm not concerned about, but he's got two sets of teeth at the moment, which just looks a little bit funny. So, yeah, obviously I've already said his gums are gonna be hurting, he's gonna be uncomfortable, his natural instinct is to chew. So if I catch him chewing something he shouldn't, and I shouldn't be telling him off, I just redirect him onto something he can chew. At the moment, everyone else is letting him chew his ears, but obviously I'll encourage him to chew a toy. You might buy toys you can put in the freezer that will help with soothing. Some people will give a carrot, which I'm not against. However, I just need to remember I wouldn't make that like a regular part of your routine because carrots have a high sugar content, which will feed yeast, and then you could end up with like ear infections or yeasty ears or yeasty skin, just because the sugar levels that your dog is consuming has gone high. So if you ever give vegetables to your dog, they should always be green, preferably, and not legumes, peas, or anything like that. So broccoli, cabbage, if you can risk it. Um I don't know, whatever the green veggies, try and stay away from peas, but that's more from a fertility perspective than anything. Obviously, giving different textures, that's what I was trying to get across. There's tons of natural treats out there as well nowadays. When you give treats, you should always be with the dogs to make sure that they don't do anything stupid. Baldwes aren't the brightest, they will try to eat things whole, but rabbit ears with uh are really good natural dewormer, and I have given these to Bulldog puppies like from sort of four weeks on, unless they're good with them. I'm not a fan of like these stag um stag bars or whatever they're called. They're too harsh. Yak snacks, or these like hard cheeses are really good. If that's too hard for a puppy, you can put them in a microwave, little fragments that come off and they um puff up, then look, they're like a big chu, like like almost like a really hard, puffy, cheesy what's it? So that might be a better texture that they enjoy eating more. But yeah, it's just thinking about what safe and different textures can you offer them whilst they're chewing that's enjoyable. Don't tell them off for chewing because it is natural for them to want to do it, but redirect the behaviour. Uh, I think that's it. Cohn, King is walked. I think we've covered all the reasons why puppy bite, and then we've just drilled down on the teething aspect just because that's what bison's going through at the moment, and yeah, some of the things that you can be doing. But obviously, I recommend that you regular look at them, look in their ears, look in their eyes, feel all down their body, touch their feet, check their pads, check in their mouth. Because then when if you do need to have them looked at or assessed or anything, they're comfortable with you doing it. So, yeah, that's it. We're done for this week. It's another week done, and um, yeah, I'll catch up with you next week on something equally interesting and bulldog related. Hi! Before you go, head over to bulldog ownersclub.com if you fancy a bit of support with your dog, help finding the puppy, or joining one of our fortnightly informal chatty community calls.