KONG Dental Stick

Hi, I want to recommend the "Dental Kong" as a necessary part of your total dental care program for your pooch. The Dental Kong is designed to hold a sliver of a treat in the central hole and some treat paste in the grooves. I have poodles, who, unlike Labs, will not usually chew a toy for the sake of chewing-- they need a payoff of a treat. The Dental Kong (with a treat) encourages chewing and thus will squeegie the teeth. It does not clean under the gum line and so will not take the place of brushing with a soft bristle brush (I recommend the human Colgate Wave toothbrush, soft bristle). The main benefit, however, of a Kong is the exercise and strenthening of the dental ligaments. The Kong has the right amount of give to exercise the dental ligaments without fracturing the teeth like the Nylabone. One of the best pastes to smear on the grooves of the Dental Kong is a mixture of Greek plain 2% yogurt mixed with "Wysong Denta Treat" cheese enzyme (one of my dogs is allergic to milk protein and so I smear the grooves with lamb baby food instead).

Our 10 month old dog, that has never chewed up anything in the house, proceeded to demolish this thing in 5 minutes just by playing with it.

A veterinarian recommended the Kong Dental Stick to me when I told her that my dog would not allow her teeth to be brushed. I put edible dog toothpaste in the ridges of the Dental Stick, and the dog gets her teeth (and mostly tongue) inside the ridges while she eats the toothpaste. This is the closest I've gotten to brushing her teeth.

I like the Kong brand because it advertises tough products that dogs can't chew through. My dog destroyed this easily within the first five minutes.