A wonderful doggie teeth cleaner

by Viki
(Bryceville, Florida)

It happened by accident -- turns out to be the best accident that has happened in a long time. Our Great Pyr puppy, Hannah, raided my bathtub area and took off with my loofah! Not the ones made of nylon "tuele" but the old fashioned - made from a gourd type. I had just gotten it and was waiting for a nice long bath to do some serious defoliating of my skin. Hannah had other ideas.

She had found the PERFECT do it your doggy self toothbrush, no doggy toothpaste required.

We now are planning to get some seeds and do some loofah growing! She has even shown her big sister, Patches, the thrills of doing the brushing and flossing rather then having the two leggers do it.

Granted, there is a mess factor to the whole thing...when they are finished with the session the floor looks like a shredded wheat factory. However the gleaming white teeth with no looks of disgust (you know the look -- the "I JUST got done with the cat box/licking THAT part" look) is all worth the clean up.

Now, the loofahs litter the floors where the bones used to. Each bone length gourd innards will last for about a week until they are too small and need to be replaced. This time of year it is a bit hard to find them as they are harvested in the fall but if you hurry you can order seeds from the internet and grow your own.

We use the largest size, natural (no dyes!) loofah's we can find because our dogs are "super sized" but if you have a small dog you can find smaller ones...just look for a loofah about the same size as a bone would be for your dog, or a bit bigger. No need to "introduce" the loofah in any special way -- the dogs seem to naturally know what to do with them...