My faithful and protective dog Paco, who I found at the Port Angeles, WA pound, has been with me for 5 years, half of his life. He has been a joy and a challenge since day one, but has found a way to coexist with us and enhance our lives (for the most part).
As you may remember, we took a 3 month trip to Alberta this winter. In planning for the trip, I realized that yet again, we would be heading out cross country with Paco in the back seat. He was in good health and relatively decent smelling, but I thought, maybe I should get him some greenies, a dog biscuit that cleans their teeth and freshens their breath.
However, the helpful girl at the store mentioned that if you don’t continue feeding them after you start, the breath returns to its original odor. That didn’t sound great as I don’t like to be committed to buying something perpetually if it’s not a must-have. She suggested a powder that repopulates the mouth with good bacteria, which are supposed to quell the bad, odiferous bacteria. A 1/4 tsp daily was supposed to do the trick.
Unfortunately, I don’t know when I have a good thing going as Paco’s breath really wasn’t that bad for dog breath. Once he got a few weeks of powder doses, his breath became so overpowering that my daughter now refers to his mouth as his stink cannon.
Ah, the well-touted and popular myth of “beneficial bacteria” strikes again…just kidding, I know there is such a thing, it’s just feeling a bit like the idea of Bigfoot to someone who hasn’t had the living crap scared out of them by something freakish on the Dosewallips. Just feeling like a rube who blew a stupid amount of money on miniature good bugs I can’t see that actually made the situation worse. Tasty good bugs, according to Paco, since he would actually wait for the powder to be put on the food instead of trying to scarf down the kibble the second it hit his bowl.
Needless to say, the trip to Canada and back seemed to take longer than it actually did, all due to the overwhelming olfactory assault. I don’t even want to tell you what my kid calls Paco’s other end!
pepper unicorn 