A Kiss on the Lips (Dog Tooth & Eye Care in general)

Member Name: cbpotts

Product:	Dog Tooth & Eye Care in general
Date:	25/10/01 (341 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cleans pet teeth and makes their breath fresher than it was before.

Disadvantages: Not for humans.

It was passionate. It had a lot of tongue. It was firm and hard. It made me very wet. Which was unfortunate, because it was my puppy that kissed me and she had just taken a drink of water and she passed half the bowl on to me with that kiss.

I know better, you see. Both my husband and I are working hard at teaching Bailey not to jump up on people, but it's hard to curb her energetic enthusiasm and unashamed love for her humans. On the day that I was fully frenched by my puppy I had just let her off her leash and while she was taking a drink I bent down to pick up a new beef bone I had given her.

I guess on second thought, there's a good chance that Bailey wasn't so much expressing excitement at seeing me or at having me closer to her level, but she was acting to protect her property. Though I can hardly understand why she'd want to protect something as ghastly as the beef bone. This entire story begins back when Bailey was stricken with a bad case of the squirts. Since I've gone into it once already, I'll pass this time, and simply say that we were told that we could never feed her pigs ears (her favorite treat) again because they affected her sensitive stomach. Since that time we've been seeking high and low for the perfect substitute. The only criteria we had was that the object, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, kept her attention for a long time and kept her quiet.

The quiet part is important because our cat keeps her attention for hours on end but it's definitely not a quiet thing. Bailey has yet to learn that when the cat makes that certain high squeaking sound, all is not right with the world and the cat is not happy. Thankfully, the Scamp (the cat) has yet to let Bailey know that he has a full set of claws and some pretty healthy, sharp teeth.

Last week I found a great new product, specially smoked beef ribs for dogs. They looked nasty to me in the store but I figured Bailey woul
d like they had little pieces of dried food still on them. Whoever manufactures these things must make them in dog heaven. Bailey’s entire backside was wagging as I tried to unwrap the package. All of a sudden an awful, horrible stench hit me. I gagged and looked around to see where Bailey had made a mess but the floor was clean. She has gas every once in a while, but it never smells as bad as this stench did. As I looked around to find the source of this unbearable odor, I realized that it was coming from the small cut I had made in the plastic holding the bones. The stench was coming from them and I hadn’t even opened the bag all the way yet. Holding my breath, I finished unwrapping the bag of stink, Bailey bouncing as high as the counter in anticipation beside me. And, she didn't let me down.

She took the bone, trotted towards the living room and disappeared. And it was quiet. Fifteen minutes later it was still quiet. That wonderful, stinking, beef laden bone kept Bailey occupied for close to two hours. It was an answer to prayer. We had lost our babysitter when pig ears were denied and now a replacement had been found.

Unfortunately, as with many things in life we learned that for something good, there's always something bad. It turned out that the positive of having found a new babysitter for Bailey was balanced with an extremely annoying negative; horrendous dog breath. The putrid smell that I had experienced when opening the bag of bones multiplied in Bailey's mouth to an awful stench reminiscent of...well, actually, I can't think of anything that I've smelled that's that bad.

So, once again, off to the store it was. Since Bailey still had her baby teeth, there was no reason to begin looking at toothbrushes and such, but we needed to find something that would neutralize the odors she was emitting every time she breathed. Then we saw it; the red box with a large white bone across the to
p. It had a picture of a toothbrush and a dog. We were intrigued so we looked further. A banner on the box said, "Cleans Teeth; Freshens Breath." Just what the doctor ordered. We filled our cart with Milk-Bone brand dog biscuits and headed for home.

Milk-Bones are available in many varieties, but the ones that claim teeth cleaning and breath freshening are the original variety, which are available in small, medium, large and extra large breed sizes. The medium size, which is what we purchased for Bailey is for dogs 20-50 pounds. Milk-Bones claim to contain 12 essential vitamins and minerals, which include Vitamins E, A, B12, and D. They also contain wheat flour, wheat bran, beef meal and beef bone meal, wheat germ, milk, beef fat, salt, poultry digest, dried cheese, and garlic powder, plus a host of other things.

Personally, I am under the impression that anything that has garlic powder will have many benefits but one of them most definitely isn't breath freshening. However, even if Bailey’s breath ended up smelling like an Italian pizza parlor, it was much better than the sewage smell that was emanating from her currently. We gave the Milk-Bone to Bailey (making her earn it of course, as any conscientious owner would do) and the results were very positive. The bad breath was reduced to almost normal dog breath and we were happy.

However, wanting to give you the fullest opinion on this product, I've taken it one step further. Indeed, I sit here at the computer with the open box of Teeth Cleaning; Breath Freshening Milk-Bones in front of me, and a bone in hand. Were you aware that Nabisco makes Milk-Bones? They make a host of yummy crackers and snacks here in the United States. Could a dog biscuit that has ingredients as appetizing as flour, milk, salt, cheese and garlic be much different?

From personal experience, I can now tell you, yes. Milk-Bones are rather nasty tasting. They have a dense
texture and are rather salty. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble getting even the little bit of bone I tried out from between my teeth. Even though Mel Gibson was able to develop a habit for them in his third Lethal Weapon movie, I think I will stick to chips and Wheat Thins and such and leave the Milk-Bones for Bailey.

There you have it. For dogs, I give Milk-Bones five stars for their teeth cleaning and breath freshening capabilities. For humans, one star.

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