I have a 1yo male that is getting a cap next week to fix a broken k9 he got trying to eat his way out of his kennel. How long should I wait to start back on his bite work and how would you go about doing it. Should I start back out with a rag or just use his tug/bite pillow.

Thanks,
David

David,

My then 3.5 yr old female GSD had a chipped molar, the dentist did a root canal and crowned it. The dentist suggested skipping bite-work for two weeks, which was what we did.

My GSD was on a bite sleeve then, so we just went back to the bite sleeve when we resumed training. She had since moved on to a suit.

It has been 1.5 years since the crown and we haven't had any problem. She just had a follow-up visit with the dentist last week and we were told everything was fine.

I'm WAYYYY late on this post- Hope the OP is still around!

Wait AT LEAST 2 weeks. You should tell the dentist very frankly that this is a dog doing bite work. He'll advise you on the time you need to wait to start it up again, but in reality, it's at least 2 weeks.

I'm a vet tech, just recently went through this with a 1yr old Dutch Shepherd, and I have a dog w/ a busted canine as well. Good for you for getting a cap on your boy! Expensive....

What did you end up doing for Koenig, Kelly?

...nothing...

I'm going to sit on it- wait and see. Turns out it's not nearly as uncommon as I though. Many bite work dogs are sporting busted canines, with no ill effects.

Pulling the tooth turns out to be fairly controversial. It can put excess pressure on the other 3 canines, causing them to fracture/break as well.

The success of Root Canals and caps w/o further problems are not much higher then the success rate of an extraction w/ no further issues in the remaining canines.

Hard call. The pulp is exposed, but it's minimal. He may have been an candidate for a vital pulpectomy, but it was not a sure thing since he's nearly 2. Chances of that tooth being mature are pretty good. So- for now, we're watching it. If he shows any sign on pain, or his grips/bites go bad, we'll probably pull it. I'll cross that road when I have to. Sigh. Damn Dog!

The other DS I know that we (my clinic) extracted a canine on is now retired from bite work. He's going to make a kick ass agility dog, but it's still a shame. He had some serious potential, but was showing wear on his other teeth already at only 1 yr old.

It was. $2100 later. His cap was put on yesterday and I was told I could restart bite work anytime and this works on alot of police k9. The only thing I'm worried is a weak grip after this. If he has one how sholud go about getting it back?

I betcha you don't even see a resulting weak grip.

Not a lot of experience here (OK, just one dog ): my granddog who had that crown when he was two was exactly the same after as before. It was a good thing all around (go Tufts), except for the wallet impact.

I'm surprised he said anytime... your pup is BOUND to be sore, for at least a week after that kind of procedure, but thats just IMO (well, and the opinion of the vet I work for)

Glad it went well!

You shouldn't see a weak grip, unless he's still sore.

My PSD has broken three teeth and had root canals for each. the teeth were just sealed over after the root canal. I don't know if that's a cap or not with just half a tooth there. But no grip issues at all.

The root canal was done a month ago and his cap was put on this past Thursday. I did not do any work with him until this past Friday and his grip is weak but I'm slowly starting to get it back. I've started back over with his puppy rag.