If your puppy has started gnawing the skirting boards and you found a tiny tooth in the dog bed, you're right on schedule. Teething is loud, messy and mostly harmless.
But one part of it quietly goes wrong in a lot of small and doodle-cross puppies, and most owners never hear about it until the vet mentions it at the desexing appointment. Here's what a normal teething run looks like, what's safe to chew, and the signs worth a phone call.
The teething timeline
Puppies grow 28 baby teeth (deciduous teeth), then swap them for 42 adult teeth over roughly four months. Small breeds often run a few weeks behind the timings below, so treat these as a guide rather than a schedule.
| Age | What's happening | What you'll notice at home |
|---|---|---|
| 2-6 weeks | The 28 baby teeth come through | Still with the breeder |
| 12-16 weeks | Front teeth (incisors) drop out first | Tiny teeth on the floor, pink spots on toys |
| 4-5 months | Premolars and canines swap over | Peak chewing, drooling, sore-looking gums |
| 5-7 months | Molars erupt (there are no baby molars) | Heavy back-of-mouth gnawing |
| 7-8 months | Full set of 42 adult teeth | Chewing settles down, mouth looks tidy |
Most puppies swallow their baby teeth with dinner and you'll never see them. That's fine and doesn't need to be reported to anyone.
What's normal
- Chewing everything within reach, including you
- Small amounts of blood on toys or in the water bowl
- Extra drooling
- Going off hard kibble for a few days, or preferring it soaked
- Mildly red, puffy gums around a tooth that's on its way out
- Missing teeth you never found
What's not
- A swollen face, cheek or muzzle
- Refusing all food for more than a day
- Persistent pawing at the mouth or crying while eating
- A bad smell from the mouth (teething breath is a bit funky, but not foul)
- A broken tooth, particularly after chewing something hard
- Two teeth sitting in the same spot
That last one is the big one.
Retained baby teeth: the problem most owners miss
The rule of thumb is simple: two teeth of the same type should never occupy the same socket at the same time. If the adult tooth is halfway up and the baby tooth is still sitting beside it, that baby tooth is retained and it isn't going to fall out on its own.
The upper canines are by far the most common offenders. You'll see what looks like a double fang, one slightly behind the other.
This turns up constantly in the breeds we see most around the Hills District: Cavoodles, Groodles, Spoodles, Moodles, Maltese, Maltese Shih Tzu, Pomeranians, Chihuahuas and Yorkshire Terriers. Small mouths and crowded jaws are the common thread, and doodle crosses inherit a poodle jaw shape that makes it more likely.
Left alone, a retained tooth causes three problems. Food and hair pack into the gap between the two teeth, which starts tartar and gum disease months before it should. The adult tooth gets pushed out of position, so the bite doesn't close properly. In some cases the deflected lower canine digs into the roof of the mouth, which is genuinely painful.
What to do: look in your puppy's mouth once a week from about four months. Lift the lip on both sides and count the canines. If you see doubles at five to six months, ring your vet.
The usual fix is straightforward. Retained teeth get extracted while the puppy is already under anaesthetic for desexing, so you avoid paying for a second procedure and a second anaesthetic. Costs vary a lot between clinics, so ask for a quote in AUD when you book the desexing and mention the retained teeth at that point rather than on the day.
Worth knowing: this is a surgical extraction, and it's one of the reasons anaesthesia-free dental services can't help here. Scaling the visible surface of a tooth does nothing about a root that needs to come out, and it can't assess what's happening under the gum line.
Safe things for a soft puppy mouth
Puppy teeth and freshly erupted adult teeth fracture more easily than most people expect. Use the thumbnail test: if you can't dent it with your thumbnail, or you'd wince if someone tapped your knee with it, it's too hard.
Avoid: cooked bones of any kind, antlers, deer horn, hooves, hard sterilised bones, hard nylon bones, ice cubes and rocks. If you feed raw bones, talk to your vet first, because opinions differ and there's a real fracture and obstruction risk.
Better options: soft rubber teething toys, puppy-specific dental chews sized for your dog's age and weight, a rubber toy stuffed with wet food and chilled, or a damp face washer left in the fridge for twenty minutes. In a Sydney summer the chilled washer is a genuine winner.
Also worth patrolling the backyard. Gum nuts, bark, mulch and sticks all get chewed by bored puppies, and sticks in particular cause nasty mouth injuries.
Start brushing during teething, not after
Teething is the ideal window to build the habit, because you're aiming for tolerance rather than technique. Thirty seconds with a finger brush and pet toothpaste, after a walk when your puppy is tired, is plenty. Skip any spot that's actively sore and come back to it in a week.
Never use human toothpaste. Many contain xylitol, which is toxic to dogs and shows up on Australian labels as xylitol, birch sugar or additive number 967. Pet toothpaste is formulated to be swallowed.
If your puppy mouths hard during handling, that's a bite inhibition issue rather than a teething one, and it's one of the things our Pet School Puppy Preschool classes work on directly.
The short version
Chewing, drooling and blood spots on toys are all normal from about three to seven months. Check for double canines from four months, and get anything you find sorted at the desexing appointment. Keep the hard stuff out of reach, and use these few months to teach your puppy that having their mouth handled is no big deal. That habit is worth more than any product on the shelf.
August is Dental Month at Kellyville Pets. Bring your puppy in and our team will show you how to check the mouth properly and help you pick a chew that suits their age and size.
