So, Arnie is now 15 weeks old, almost 16. I noticed today that he slept a lot and just wasn;t himself. He chewed a lot and I checked his gums. They looks pretty sore and swollen, so I think its fair to say he's started teething. What are some techniques to make it easier on us and him. So the nipping will increase (to be honest, his bite is pretty soft) and he will chew stuff. Things I am aware of is distracting him and giving him plenty of chew toys, making sure he has frozen kongs, ice cubes help make it less painful. What else can I do to make it easier?
Can't help unfortunately (13 years since I last had a Labrador teething), but thank you for asking the question, my boy Bear is 10 weeks, so I will be watching this thread with great interest.
Hi. Kongs and chew toys are the best thing, along with the odd ice cube. Might be worth reading this article from the main site; http://www.thelabradorsite.com/teeth-and-puppy-teething-ages-and-stages/
I second that - kongs helped mine a lot during the teething phase - frozen. Also frozen carrots. Knotted tea towel soaked in a tiny bit of low salt chicken stock and frozen was popular. And Orozyme rawhide (a forum recommendation) from Amazon supervised were very popular. Sadly the pizzles/bully sticks give mine a bad tummy so those were a no go. And any cardboard boxes, plastic milk bottles very popular (still are). Frozen rice bones - if you freeze them they last longer and I think might be more soothing. Ice cubes with some kibble frozen in them. As you can see I had a relentless chewer at the teething stage so tried many things to keep him occupied/happy!! It didn't last long - he now has a fine set of pearly whites at 6 months old and the shark teeth are behind us!!!! Sam and Mole
Pongo's ABSOLUTE favourite thing was lamb rib-bones, raw, from the local butcher, frozen. They were just the right size for him to have a really good chewchewchewchewchew with his new teeth, the cold really helped his sore gums and they tasted of heaven (he says!). One little rib-bone would last about 20 minutes before being consumed. We only gave him two (max) per day. They only cost pennies. These days a little bone like that would last about 2 minutes tops.
Thanks everyone. It seems I am doing right then. I think it has only just begun so I am bracing for a tough couple of weeks while he chews like a maniac.
dog ice cream!and ice! you can make your own low fat natural yogurt honey bannana etc in a plastic container and it seems to ease henrys teething for a while or you can buy billy and margot dog ice cream sounds barmy but it helps us henrys 14 week tomorrow