When do Golden Retrievers stop teething? At first, it is so cute when your Golden Retriever puppy takes your fingertip and chews on it with its tiny teeth. You shake it gently. The pup tries to hold on a little harder and even growls a bit. Your heart melts and puddles form at your feet.
Maybe not the puddles.
Later, the teeth get sharper and it starts to hurt. In fact, the tiny teeth now feel more like tiny needles. Not so cute anymore. But the pup still wants to test those teeth out. On you, your furniture, your shoes. Anything. You love it to bits but your patience is running out. When will it end?!
So, when do Golden Retrievers stop teething? Golden Retrievers stop teething at six to eight months. They will continue to chew, gnaw, and bite after that, but at that age, all their puppy teeth have been replaced with adult teeth. Technically, teething has stopped.
Many owners of Golden Retrievers feel that their pups are never going to stop teething. Long after they were supposed to have lost their milk teeth they still mouth everything in sight, just like they did when the teeth were coming out.
This is not teething anymore. Once the permanent teeth are all there, teething is technically over. The dog is doing something that comes naturally to Retrievers. To understand that, we must first have a look at the natural teething process in dogs and the duration of the different stages of teething.
Puppy Teeth
What do manatees, elephants, kangaroos, wallabies, and the silvery mole-rat have in common?
Except that they are all mammals?
Give up?
They are the only mammals whose teeth are constantly being replaced throughout their life. Their teeth grow, fall out or wear away and are always replaced by new teeth. You may think the Golden Retriever is also one, but it’s not so!
Mammals, like us and dogs, have two sets of teeth.
The first set is deciduous (milk teeth or puppy teeth) which is lost at young, but different, ages for different animals. The second set is permanent. If you or your dog loses a permanent tooth it will not grow back.
The permanent set of teeth replaces the milk teeth in a well-defined process that is the same for all dogs, with some but not much variation in timing.
The puppy teeth start to appear at about two to three weeks old. By the time they are six weeks old, all the milk teeth are present.
There are 28 teeth in total. As you would usually get a puppy at no younger than eight weeks, it should already have a full set of milk teeth.
Milk teeth are not strong, although they are quite sharp.
They are thinner than permanent teeth and the crown (the part that you can see sticking out above the gum) is shorter than it will be in the adult teeth.
Puppies should not be given too hard kibbles at this time to prevent damage to the root cavities where the permanent teeth are already starting to develop. Dry food helps to clean teeth but if the gums are sensitive, soak it in water for a while before giving it to the pup.
The puppy teeth will stay in the mouth for about another six weeks. At twelve weeks, they will start to fall out. Although you may not be able to see it, the permanent teeth emerge at this age.
Golden Retriever Teething Timeline
Below is a blow-by-blow, or should that be nip-by-nip, timeline of the process of puppy teething.
Birth to 2 Weeks
Unless you have the mother with you, you will miss this stage of the puppy’s life.
Golden Retrievers are born without teeth. All dogs are. Good thing too, because it is getting its food by suckling. The colostrum in its mother’s milk is of extreme importance to kickstart the pup’s immune system.
Weeks 2 to 4
Teeth begin to emerge. First are the incisors, in the middle at the front of both upper and lower jaws.
Week 3 to 5
The teeth next to the incisors are the canines (fangs). The canines appear at about age four weeks.
Weeks 4 to 6
The deciduous premolars erupt. They are further back in the mouth.
Weeks 5 to 8
The last molars appear by six to eight weeks of age.
Weeks 12 to 28
At three months the puppy incisors start to fall out and are replaced by adult teeth. This is the beginning of the final stage of teething. There are three pairs of permanent incisors and they are not replaced all at once. The last pair will be replaced at around twenty weeks (five months).
The adult canines become visible at sixteen to twenty-four weeks (four to six months). The adult premolars, four pairs, come out at about the same time.
Although there were no puppy molar teeth, the adult molars will also start erupting. The last pair of molars arrive around week twenty-eight (seven months). From 28 milk teeth in total, the pup should now be sporting 42 permanent teeth.
Adult Teeth
In the four months before they erupt, permanent teeth begin developing under the deciduous teeth, under the gums. As they grow bigger pressure increases on the roots of the baby teeth. This initiates the process of resorbing the puppy teeth roots. The teeth start to loosen.
In most cases, milk teeth simply fall out.
You may see the small teeth somewhere but do not be alarmed – just throw it away. Unfortunately, the tooth fairy does not give a penny for dog teeth!
If the deciduous teeth don’t fall out on schedule, it is called retained baby teeth. These can cause many problems later in life and should be extracted by a veterinarian to give permanent teeth room to grow.
The extraction of deciduous teeth is a delicate process that has to be done with care to prevent damage to the bud of the permanent tooth underneath. Do not try to do it yourself!
Once the roots are completely resorbed and have disappeared, the permanent teeth push out what is left of the crown of the baby teeth. The adult tooth surfaces above the gum and becomes visible.
Chewing
As teeth go through the phases of teething, your pup’s mouth may feel itchy, sensitive, or just plain uncomfortable. It is natural that he tries to ease this by chewing.
He will chew everything that he can reach so put away socks, shoes, towels, or anything else that you may occasionally leave on the floor.
Or kiss it goodbye.
Table and chair legs and cushions also suffer.
You can not prevent chewing but you can alleviate the discomfort from teething. One way is to give them a gum massage.
You must also teach your pup to chew something that is acceptable, like his toys, dental chews, or bully sticks, instead of your ankles or your furniture.
Mouthing After Teething
There are six kinds of Retriever breeds and they have one thing at least in common – they love to pick things up in their mouths! As a puppy, your Golden Retriever will explore his surroundings with his mouth.
Once teething is over, the Retriever instinct is not over. The puppy will continue to want to interact with his environment by using his mouth.
He was bred to be like this and it is up to you to teach him how to channel his mouthing instinct. Take note that we are talking about mouthing – not biting. If your dog bites, it is a different situation that needs a different approach.
All dogs mouth to a certain degree. It is natural and they will do it even when teething has stopped.
Related Questions
Yes. There are some excellent toys that are designed to be chewed and that are very safe for puppies. Some of them are designed to be put in the fridge first because the coolness is soothing to the gums. Toys must always be appropriate for the size and age of the pup.
Not usually. Unless the puppy sustains trauma to the mouth, the teething process would progress without problems. In addition to retained puppy teeth, other issues that could develop are bleeding gums, diarrhea and loss of appetite. These are not abnormal but check with your vet if it seems excessive or the puppy looks like it is in pain.
