Doggie dental work

On Monday the dogs are going to Westrock Animal Hospital for teeth cleaning.

The procedure is not the same as was done 47 years ago to Army sentry dogs. The reasons for change most likely are: this is not 1966; and, Charlie and Victor are civilian dogs, not Army dogs.

In 1966, every so often, an Army veterinarian and an assistant drove in an M151 (jeep) from Taegu to Camp Howze and checked Sentry Dog Platoon’s eight mixed-German Shepherds. The procedure was simple for teeth cleaning. Each dog handler muzzled his dog and when told to do so, picked up his dog and put the dog on a table set up in the bright sunshine. The handler put his dog on right or left side and, with assistance from the platoon sergeant, held down his dog while the veterinarian, using a scalpel, scraped tartar from the dog’s teeth. The procedure was done for both sides of the dog’s mouth.

The Army 1966 procedure was not pleasant. The dogs did not like being forced into an unusual position and then held down. The dogs were trained to bite, hard and often. The dogs tried to bite the thing scraping their teeth, and the man holding the thing. This sometimes resulted in scalpel contacting the dog’s gum, but never so much as to cause large bleeding. Just a little bleeding, which did not improve a dog’s temper.

When the procedure was done, the dog was let up and it jumped from the table, quite on its own. The handler patted his dog and told it what a good dog it was, and then both ran around for a while for exercise and because a dog likes to run with its principal human.

In the 2013 procedure, dogs are anesthetized. That’s all I know.

Charlie and Victor also are overweight – Victor weighs 92 pounds and Charlie weighs 65 pounds. I wasn’t concerned about Victor’s weight, since his father weighed around 120. Charlie and Victor get a little more exercise than I do, but not a whole lot. A big part of their weight gain was caused by my choice of dog food. Both dogs really liked (I won’t mention the name of the fattening food, but it begins with a “K.”) People at the vet’s office said (K) has more fat than other dog food.

Now I know.