I was provided with Vet IQ brand products. All opinions are my own.
While most anyone with a dog would prefer to have their dogs breath never smell, it’s particularly problematic for lapdogs. Big, independent dogs are less likely to get close enough to human faces to have their breath be a problem. However, for lapdogs like my pugs who prefer to be up against me all of the time, if their breath smells, I notice right away. Thankfully, there are several ways to treat (or completely avoid) smelly dog breath.
Avoid giving your dog smelly or stinky treats. In our experience, most dry dog food is pretty mild in scent. Treats on the other hand, can sometimes be incredibly stinky. Most moderately stinky dog treats that we’ve tried only make my dogs breath smell bad for a few minutes but some treats are really strongly scented and cause long term stinky breath so we have avoided those types of treats.
Keep your dog away from the litter box. We don’t have cats so it’s not something that we have to worry about but I know that some dogs will eat out of the litter box unless they aren’t able to access it. If you have to, find a place for the litter box that your cat(s) can access but your dog can’t.
Take care of your dogs teeth. Some dental problems can cause odors that result in bad dog breath. Keeping up with your dogs teeth and visiting the vet if you suspect any dental problems can help avoid those odors.
Use a breath freshening treat or chew like Minties Bones from Vet IQ. They are chews that help reduce plaque and tarter build up while also cleaning your dogs teeth and freshening their breath. They come in different sizes based on your dogs weight. They have a gentle toothpaste-like smell when fresh but it’s not overpowering. After my dogs have had a Minties chew, I can just barely pick up on the minty scent but it definitely gets rid of any bad odors that were there previously. I was excited that my dogs took to consuming Minties because they have no interest in Nylon based chew toys, and won’t even chew on raw bones unless there is meat or marrow on them so I was worried that these wouldn’t feel natural or meaty enough for them but they excitedly chewed away on them from the first time I gave them one. They last maybe 5-10 minutes for my dogs (who are older and not aggressive chewers) so they get a little bit of chewing time as well. I was worried that they might try to consume them too quickly but they only seem to get small pieces off at a time.
Minties chews are available on Amazon for $23 for a 27 count box and can also be found at Walmart and Sam’s Club.
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Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.
This post currently has 6 responses.
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My dog likes to wake me up by getting right up in my grill! But sometimes her breath is terrible! I hope to try these treats with her!
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Ha ha – bad dog breath is the worst (ok maybe I can think of worse things than that). What a great product to have! Thanks for sharing.
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We do most of these, but we can always tell when our Odin has been a bad little puppy cause his breath stinks. lol. Then we are like “oh shoot, what did he get into?” lol. He loves his dental treats.
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We do not have a dog right now, but I remember that horrible doggy breath! I like the idea of a minty fresh mouth instead!
stinky dog treats can make bad breath for dogs. my husband’s family used to have a lemon tree in their yard, and their dog ate the lemons – and had really good lemon breath. LOL