One of the most frequent problems on dog shows and bonitations is that the owner doesnīt know how to show his/her dog teeth. This actually simple, but very important act is many times a reason for disqualification of the dog. But to control the dogīs teeth is not important only at dog shows and bonitations, but also at veterinarian, when is neccessary to give some medics and the dog must be willing to let his mouth to be opened. So, how to do it ?
First, letīs make clear what is neccessary to know and in what is the referee interested most. Well, the refferee is interested mainly in completion of teeth and bite. It is neccessary to say, that the best way to show dogīs teeth is when the dog is sitting. It is possible to stand next to him or bestride him. If we are opening dogīs jaws and we put our fingers into his mouth, the best way is put the fingers onto gums, right behind canine teeth. This limites the chance, that if the dog closes the jaws, it wonīt bite into our fingers.
| The first thing is the control of bite. It is done following way. With one hand we grab the upper and with other hand the lower jaw. We press the jaws and with fingers we put aside the front part of lips, so the incisors pressed together are seen well. The refferee checks which kind of bite the dog has (according the standard, at CSW the only allowed bites are the scissors bite and pincers bite). The control of bite shows best the picture No.1. |
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| The second part of control is control of teeth markes as P1. These are small conical teeth right behind canines. Again, we grab the dog with one hand for the upper and with second hand for the lower jaw, and we put aside the side lips right behind canines. This time it is neccessary to open the jaws little bit, so that the teeth can be seen. Sometimes it is a problem, that the dogīs tongue hides the lower P1 tooth. Then we can open the jaws little bit more and put aside the tongue with our fingers. The control of P1 shows the picture No.2 (the P1 teeth are marked with blue arrows for your better orientation). |
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| The last part of the control is the control of hind molars and pre-molars. The best way is to open widely the dogīs jaws, and the refferee has a chance to see well all teeth. It is also possible to control the teeth that way, when we little bit open the dogīs jaws, put aside the lips on the back side, so the hind teeth are seen. The control with widely opened jaws shows the picture No.3. |
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Ok, you say to yourself, thatīs all nice, but how i can teach this my dog? Actually, it is simple, but as always, you have to start early, the best when your dog is a puppy. The most classic and succesfull way is to teach this your dog at his bowl of food. Here is the „receipe“.
- The full bowl of food lays in front of the dog, and the dog sits at your leg (at the same time the dog learns not to touch the food without command).
- The dog gets a command to show teeth (for example "Teeth!") and you do all the three kinds of control. Of course, it is neccessary to start slowly, first to let the dog to habituate the teeth control, then P1 and then the whole bite (in this order goes also the degree of annoyance for the dog.
- After the control, the dog gets command to start to eat. Of course, it is only good when we compliment the dog a lot, before giving him command to eat. The dog understands then the food like a compliment for the finished control.
Of course, it is neccessary to do the training regularly and often. If the dog refuses to show the teeth, we také the bowl with food away, and after some time we try the training again. The whole procedure you can see on following pictures.
We wish you a lot of patience and successes.
PS : Many thanks to Hoky for his immense patience during photographing. 
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