Health & Medical

I spent good money on a tug rope because the packet said "tough" and "indestructible," and the dog spent ten minutes proving the packet a liar. What I didn't notice was the sound — a small crack, like a stick snapping, mid-tug — and the drop of blood on the rope after. The "tough" toy had chipped his tooth, and I'd been the one pulling the other end.

Dog teeth are strong, but they're not hammer-proof, and the canine and carnassial teeth take the worst of a game of tug because that's where the grip is. A toy hard enough to resist a strong dog's bite is hard enough to fracture the enamel, and once the enamel cracks the pulp is exposed, the nerve hurts, and the tooth either dies or needs a root canal. The "indestructible" label is a warning, not a selling point, when it comes to teeth.

The signs are subtle at first. A dog who suddenly drops the tug, who favours one side of the mouth, who paws at his face or turns away from a chew he loved — that's a mouth in pain. Mine just stopped bringing the rope, which I read as boredom and not as the message it was. The breath went off a week later. Dead pulp smells, and by then the gum above the tooth had gone grey.

What I'd do differently

Feel the toy before the dog does. If it's harder than your thumbnail and doesn't give, it's too hard for his mouth, full stop. The bend-test is the one I use now: if I can't press a dent into it with my thumb, it doesn't go in his mouth. Rope, soft rubber, torn fabric — those give. Antlers, hooves, nylon bones, "tough" plastic — those don't, and they're the ones in the X-rays.

Tug isn't the enemy; the toy and the style are. A game with a soft rope, a pause so he can release, and no yanking against a locked jaw is fine. The crack came from both of us pulling against a stiff rope with his tooth as the pivot. Let him win, let him drop, keep the tension off the grip point, and the tooth survives the fun.

When a tooth does go, the clock is short. A cracked carnassial with exposed pulp needs extraction or a root canal from a dental vet, not a wait-and-see. Untreated, the root abscesses, the pain builds, and the infection can travel. Mine needed the tooth out under anaesthetic, with an X-ray to confirm the root was clear, and the change in him afterward — eating properly, playing again — was the proof I'd missed the early signs.

Since then I've thrown out the hard chews and the 'tough' ropes and replaced them with things my thumb can dent. The dog didn't care - a soft rope tug is still a tug, and a rubber toy he can flex is still the best game going. What changed was my habit of checking: I feel his big teeth when we're on the sofa, look for a chip or a discolouration, and watch which side he chews on. A dog who suddenly shifts to the other side of his mouth is telling you something hurts, and the tooth is where to look. The vet who pulled the broken one said most of these come in after a 'tough' toy or a stone from the garden, and that a thirty-second feel of the mouth each week would catch half of them early. The tooth is small and easy to forget until it isn't. I don't forget it now. The rope was a good game and a bad buy, and the only thing it taught my dog was that I'd pull harder than his enamel could take.

Recovery was easier than I feared. A dog with one less tooth eats fine - they don't chew like we do, they crush and swallow - and within days he was back on a soft rope, which we'd swapped for a bendable one. The clinic X-rayed the root to be sure nothing lingered, and the breath cleared as the dead pulp came out. The only lasting change is the habit: a thirty-second feel of his mouth each week, because the next crack won't announce itself either, and the tooth is mine to protect before it becomes his pain.

Check the mouth. Once a month I lift the lips, look at the big teeth, smell the breath, feel for a chip with a finger wrapped in gauze. It takes longer to describe than to do, and it catches the crack before the abscess. The expensive rope taught me that the toy I buy is only as safe as the tooth it meets, and the tooth is mine to protect.