If you are looking to start a regular brushing routine with your dog, or have tried before and failed (like I did) - we are here to help.

After testing all types of brushes, and finding ourselves frustrated with each we decided to take our design expertise and make our own. What’s great about the Barkus Toothbrush compared to the other hundreds we’ve tried were the bristles and the size. 

Unless you are very lucky to have a pup like Deandra’s pomsky that loves to get her teeth brushed, you are going to have to be patient and consistent.

Some tips I have for getting to this stage are:

1. Find a toothpaste that your dog likes to lick

Make it fun! Introduce them to toothpaste as if it were a treat, let them lick from your finger, and give lots of positive feedback when they do!
We prefer the Virbac C.E.T Enzymatic Toothpaste (Vanilla-Mint) because it has enzymes that work even after brushing. 

Another consideration is to do this as regularly as you can, ideally nightly, as it will have time to work overnight when your pups aren’t drinking or eating anything!

2. Find a toothbrush that works for you

Finger brushes come in a one size fits most, and our fingers were too small making them too loose. This caused them to spin, moving the bristles away from our dogs teeth.

Regular bristle toothbrushes felt too harsh even the softest bristles we could find. Our little dog Marcus, would resist more with them because the bristles were just too irritating.

We may be biased but we love the soft silicone bristles in the Barkus Toothbrush. We brought together the convenience of the handle on regular brush, and re-imagined the silicone bristles of the finger brush to be 360 degrees and engineered bi-directional “paddle” bristles that give resistance from opposite angles. This worked best for us as it really is more like tiny soft massaging nibs without it being abrasive.

3. Start slow

Introducing a toothbrush at first can be tough, avoid the urge to stick it in their mouths right away! Once your doggo is used to the toothpaste, put a bit of toothpaste on the toothbrush and let them lick it off. After a day or two, start GENTLY brushing, slowly rubbing the brush in and around their mouth. The Barkus Toothbrush is ideally designed to be extra soft, giving you piece of mind that you wont hurt your dog.

4. Consistency

I can’t stress enough how important it is to make this a routine, the slow introduction to the experience should get you and your dogs accustomed to a routine and you’ll be able to brush longer.

On top of this all, the waste. There's one thing about creating an easy experience and there's another considering the impact that experience has. It's wasteful to throw away brushes especially at the rate we use them. Just like our spray bottles, we needed to consider what the impacts are of the tools we use. This is not a revolutionary concept, but it just hasn't been done in the pet space. Creating tools that last with minimal impacts to the environment.

We'll endeavour to improve as we learn more efficient purposeful ways.

Happy brushing, friends!