Photos of Grey's bite from the beginning

Grey's bite at 16 weeks old.




Grey's bite at 27 weeks old after baby teeth have been removed and the adult teeth have come through. The issue hadn't righted itself and required further treatment. The adult canines are puncturing the upper palette and he is clearly overshot.






After he'd worn the brace for a couple of months and had had an adult tooth out:





Latest photos after the brace has been taken off. He's now 11 months old. Not sure it's looking too great. The front teeth have come through in more of a jumble. His lower canines still seem to be impacting on the upper gum. His teeth are a bit discoloured in parts where the acrylic plate was.

Training diary / March 16th p.m.

Palm Bay playing field.
4 month old pup in the distance and a man with a kite.
Let him watch the pup for a while. Reinforced him to look at me. Released him and he ran off to the kite man then came back to me fast.
Worked the long line with 3 x check ins. Refused 1 x recall. Just about to do another and he came in. Played with the toy 5 x. No bouncing off me. Back to the car. He struggled a bit and tried to back out of his collar. Managed to calm things and get into car.

Training diary / March 16th a.m.

Botany Bay.
40 secs for the 1st voluntary check in. 3 x voluntary check ins.
Worked the long line. Played with the labradoodle pup. Came away nicely. Ran back and came away again.

At home:
recall
up into the car
played fetch with the toy.

Training diary / 15th March p.m.

Botany Bay field top.
3 x voluntary check ins.
3 x good check ins on the long line.
Played with his friend the same age GSD. Called him back and he managed that.

At home did recall from outside, 'in your bed' and name recognition.

Training diary / 15th March a.m.

Out to Botany Bay. Tried out a flexi lead in case that was safer around other dogs. Not sure about it really. He was good on it, but it can give your hand a bit of a jolt and I can see how it's an issue for other dogs and your dog if the handle is dropped. I'll keep it anyway, as it might come in useful for something.

Interrupted play with other dogs x 4.
Recall on the line x 2 good.
Threw the toy on the long line x 4.
Had to settle him down to calm down and look at me when distracted by a dog in the distance.
Responded to name 5 x.

Article: On common bite faults

Interesting Article in PDF format to download. States the case for neutering of genetic faults and consequently refunds from breeders.

Grey's teeth issue clarified

Here's the letter from Grey's veterinary dentist. He had to have both milk and adult teeth out and have a plate fitted. The procedure was costly and unpleasant for Grey. Hopefully through selective breeding programmes this would be erradicated for future pups.

17/12/08

Ref your dog ‘Grey’ – Slovakian Pointer born April 2008.

Dear Miss XXX,

I am writing with a report on the dental problems and associated treatments we are carrying out upon ‘Grey’.

I fist saw him on 22/8/08 as a referral from you usual veterinary surgeon, who had noticed an abnormality in Grey’s teeth. I found that his lower temporary canines were erupted ‘inwards’ and as a result the tips were contacting the roof of the mouth. Also, the front part of the upper jaw was tilted downwards, resulting in the upper incisors being tipped slightly backwards, into the mouth, rather than being vertical. The tips of the upper carnassial teeth (large premolars) were catching on the gum of the lower jaw when the mouth closed, causing some gum recession. One final point was that some of the temporary teeth had small areas of missing enamel, the result of either an hereditary problem or an illness as a small puppy.

At the time I extracted the lower temporary canines to prevent damage to the roof of the mouth, and in the hope that the permanent canines would erupt into a more normal position. The enamel defects, being in temporary teeth needed no treatment, and we opted to monitor progress of the gum recession and upper incisor positioning as the permanent teeth erupted.

I saw Grey again on 19/11/08, at which time his lower permanent canines had erupted in the same plane as the temporaries, and were making deep indentations in the roof of the mouth. Additionally one of the upper incisors had erupted out of alignment with the rest of the incisors, necessitating extraction. Several incisors and premolars were either very slow to erupt, or had not erupted at all. At the time this was not causing a problem, although it might in the future.

We fitted a type of brace in the mouth, under an anaesthetic, to cause outward pressure on the lower canines each time Grey shut his mouth. At present this brace is still in the mouth, and the lower canine teeth are slowly moving into a more normal position, and we hope that when the brace is removed, Grey will have a functional, pain free bite, whilst at the same time retaining all four canines.

I do feel that the multiplicity of dental abnormalities must have a mainly genetic component, since there are so many abnormalities in one mouth. One could speculate that a breed with small numbers will have a small gene pool, and abnormalities more likely than in a breed with larger numbers.

Yours sincerely