Toy breed dogs’ teeth and dental care are not the same as the larger breeds. Toy breeds do not always loose their baby teeth so they must be pulled and they need to be pulled at the appropriate time . My experience has taught me that few vets are knowledgeable about canine dentistry (only 6 board certified in canine dentristy in the U.S.). Toy breeds seem to present a few more challenges.

Basically, toy breeds lower jaw grows faster than the upper jaw. This causes the bite to go undershot (the lower teeth protrude beyond the upper teeth – a reverse scissor bite or worse). A scissor bite is a “man-made” bite and the even bite is a natural bite. So according to one of the six board certified vets in canine dentistry, we have created our own problems with bites/teeth.

If a bite on a 12 week old puppy seems to be going off – (1) undershot; (2) overshot; or wry mouth*, the appropriate teeth need to be removed – either upper and lower jaw or the teeth in the jaw that are binding (i.e., if the bite is undershot, then remove the upper jaw teeth; if the bite is overshot, remove the lower jaw teeth; if the bite is wry, the canines should be removed because they are locking in place the way the teeth are coming in. Removing those baby teeth allow the adults to come down into place like they should. Because toy breed dogs seem to have those baby teeth anchored in so tight, they often mess up a bite severely. Baby teeth can make adult teeth come out making the teeth more forward (almost horizontal**) rather than straight up and down (vertical) and can cause the permanent adult teeth to appear inside the parameters of the teeth line (almost roof of the mouth).

Remove the appropriate teeth of a questionable bite at 10 to 12 weeks of age. Remove appropriate teeth anytime and as soon as you see a bite starting to go off and certainly all baby teeth should be out by 6 months of age. The canine teeth don’t normally come out till the dog is 9 months of age but if the bite looks like it is off, the proper jaw’s canines should be removed.

Also remember that if you do not remove baby teeth, it is not uncommon for the bite to go undershot since the lower jaw naturally grows faster than the upper jaw – sometimes it takes up to a year and sometimes a year and a half to correct on it’s own. If the dog is a valuable show dog, you run a risk of a messed up bite if you do nothing or your vet doesn’t know what to do or advises you to just watch the bite. It is safer to pull the teeth at the appropriate times. A vet using isoflorine is best and no other medication and one that can keep small kittens alive during surgery is what you need to find to do your dental work on toy breeds. If a vet says he/she is an expert on canine dentistry, ask to see board certification for having received education in this specific field and check to see if that expertise also includes experience with toy breeds.

I pass this information on as what I have learned the hard way and it has taken me years to learn it through trial and error (way too many errors) so that you will not have to learn the hard way as I have and you will save many wonderful puppies that would have been lost as stars in the show ring.

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*If the bite is a wry mouth, that is considered a “severe” problem and all the baby teeth on that side need to be pulled – even the back teeth. In slight under or over bites, remove only the front teeth and certainly remove the baby canines if they are binding any incorrect bite because they don’t normally come out on their own (if they come out at all) till 9 months of age. If the over or under bite is severe (quite a wide gap), then remove all the teeth in the appropriate jaw.

**If the bite is almost horizontal or “parrot bite,” you may have a depletion (leeching) of the calcium from the bones (particularly noticeable in the extremities and teeth) going on in your puppy. Feeding a balance (I stress BALANCE) of calcium/phosphorus and getting the baby teeth out (all of them because this is a severe condition) will correct that bite if the dog had a correct bite at 8 weeks (young puppy). I give OsteoForm from ages 3 - 4 months to 9 months or longer and it is especially necessary in puppies who have big growth spurts.

Why Supplement Toy Breed Puppies With Calcium/Phosphorus?

Sometime during the earlier years of raising Pomeranians, I learned about the sudden and rapid growth spurt some puppies go through. There bodies are growing so fast, their system robs calcium from their bones on which to grow. It is during this time (3 to 9 months of age) that some pretty strange things can happen in these rapid growth spurts. Some can’t hold their tails up flat on their backs, some can only hold their tails straight up to the sky, some ears droop, some break down in the pasterns and some splay their legs. They make the term “falling apart” true.

Since I have been working with a bloodline for the past 12 years that are slow growers and smaller at birth, I had forgotten something I’d learned years before. Now I have been working with other bloodlines that the pups are larger when born and rapid growers but top out at the average show pom size. Just recently I had two reminders that I need to use OsteoForm on my puppies. OsteoForm is a supplement that balances calcium/phosphorus – add this to their diet so their bodies don’t need to rob their bones (it typically shows up in extremities and teeth) to get the calcium they need for these growth spurts. And please note that any supplement used for this purpose needs to have a balance of calcium and phosphorus.

I recently had a show prospect puppy, but was growing him out a little before sending him to the handler. Thank goodness he was still with me or I’m certain he would have been another “fallen apart” puppy! I noticed his ears were drooping and he was down in his pasterns and splay footed! This puppy was none of these previously and now suddenly he was pathetic. I started supplementing OsteoForm to him and three weeks later, I was seeing the puppy he used to be. I told my friends about this incident and recommended OsteoForm for all growing puppies (knowing they were working with these bloodlines).

Then, as if that wasn’t enough of a reminder, a puppy I’d previously placed as a show prospect with a correct tailset was returned to me with the owner saying this puppy had her tail pointing straight up to the sky. I cared for the puppy for two months giving her my usual supplements including the OsteoForm. Within a month the puppy’s tail was flat on its back. Now I am convinced that some of these puppies that “fall apart” can be saved by giving them OsteoForm when they needed it. The owners of the puppy didn’t recognize her when I said she was ready to return home.

Incidentally, this same puppy was presented to me with a “parrot bite.” And this gets into another area of information I don’t think everyone is aware. And I suspect, as does my vet, that this “parrot bite” appearance may also have had something to do with the calcium depletion. If something really funky is going on at this straggly stage, it may very well be this calcium leeching. And those were pretty strange looking teeth – the only place I’d ever seen this bite was on a horse once. I had the puppy for 5 days (she was 5 months old and I believe the owners had noticed this for a month or more) when I was able to get my vet to pull all the baby teeth. Now the bite is as good a scissor bite as I’ve seen on poms. My vet has talked with one of six canine dental experts in this country (with board certified canine dentistry credentials). The key is to pull these baby teeth at 10 to 12 weeks of age or whenever after that the bite starts to go off. Pulling baby teeth at 6 months of age may not be soon enough.

This is the second (of two) success stories I’ve had since learning this about the teeth. My writing explains what teeth to pull for whatever bite problem the dog has. The canine dental expert also says we have created our bite problems because a scissor bite is a man-made bite, not a natural bite – an even bite is the way these dogs should be. A friend of mine recently told me her vet knew all about these theories/practices of pulling certain teeth to correct a bite and that it was covered in her vet course and she knew exactly what my friend was asking her to do. My personal experience has been that this is an exceptional vet because I’ve found most didn’t learn this in vet school even with some of the younger vets. Most say just “wait and see.” If you “wait and see,” you may be sorry if you have a messed up bite. In this case doing something is better than doing nothing.