Help Combat Stinky Dog Breath with Orapup

As most of you know, I am on a quest to find the best alternatives to brushing your dog’s teeth. By “alternatives”, I don’t mean “as good as”. A doggy toothbrush is always the best method to help keep your dog’s teeth clean, and combat the breath stank, at home. By “alternative”, I mean “I don’t have the discipline to brush Chester and Gretel’s teeth but I don’t feel right about doing nothing so let’s see what might do part of the job and is something I can stick with.”

Bad breath is often caused by bacteria in the mouth. This bacteria can hide on the teeth, under the gums, and on the tongue. It makes sense that if you can get some of the bad bacteria out of your dog’s mouth, their breath will improve.

The Orapup Brush System

Enter Orapup. Hearing my plight for super-easy ways to knock Chester and Gretel’s nasty breath down a few notches, they sent us one to try.

Orapup is actually the doggy version of the world’s best tongue cleaner for people – Orabrush. Both are tongue brushes with bristles designed after a surgeon’s scrub brush – the ones they use to clean bacteria from their hands before they perform surgery. The bristles on the Orapup are made of ultra-soft material that is designed to clean into the crevices of the tongue and loosen bacteria. In between the bristles are four scrapers that collect the bacteria the brushes remove.

The makers Orapup didn’t just slap a dog on the package of the human version. They spent a lot of time designing a similar product your furry friend would like using. The brush is wide enough to fit the tongue size of most dogs and the handle is comfortable for you to hold while your dog licks it.

So how do you get your dog to lick the brush? The Orapup system comes with a bottle of tasty Lickies gel. Lickies contain all-natural enzymes to fight bad breath, reduce plaque and tartar build up, and promote healthy oral hygiene. The enzymes help build up the good bacteria on the tongue in order to protect against future bad breath attacks. The paste works without killing the mouth’s natural defenses against odor-causing bacteria. After you put about 1/2 tsp of the Lickies on the brush, your dog will get the idea that they have to lick the brush to get a taste of the goodness.

Watch this Chihuahua, Dachshund, and two other pups try out the brush. As you can see, they take to it right away.

What Did We Think of Orapup?

Chester and Gretel loved it! I found out right away that they can’t both lick the same brush at the same time. Neither one of them has any issues with food guarding but Gretel actually growled at Chester just a bit when he tried to move in on the brush she was licking. Luckily, we have two brushes so they can each have their own.

We were sent Lickies in both flavors – chicken and beef and bacon. They licked both with equal vigor.

I liked the Orapup system because it worked. I gave Chester and Gretel the brushes to lick for 10 minutes a few days in a row and then did a sniff test on their breath. I was a little taken aback that their breath didn’t smell “clean” and minty. I am not sure what I was thinking though because – DUH! – the Lickies flavors are meat based and designed to fix bad breath, not cover it up with some foo-foo smell.

The thing was though, their breath didn’t smell like much at all. Gretel’s breath is usually very strong with a bit of a metallic smell (note: metallic smelling dog breath can indicate medical issues, including bad teeth, but our vet does not think that’s the reason Gretel’s breath smells like that). The metallic smell was gone and her breath smelled like it belonged to a cute doggy, not some hideous monster 🙂

I liked the Orapup system because it’s super easy and simple to use. First, since Gretel and Chester don’t try to eat the brush, I can lay it on the ground for them to lick away at (under close supervision of course). I can put the brush on the living room floor and do dishes while they help clean up their breath. It seems that I might not have to remember to do it every day either. A lot of positive reviews I read said that the dog only used the brush 4 or 5 times a week.

It’s also not messy. The Lickies gel is a bit runny but I didn’t have any problem with it getting on the rug, even when the brush was briefly flipped over. It’s super easy to get the remaining Lickies off of the Orapup brushes by running them under hot water for a few seconds.

I did some research on the Orapup system and it turns out that it got a thumbs up review on DoesItReallyWork.org. According to them, “This is one tool you’ll want to add to your dog’s bad breath survival kit. You can use it daily if you want to make sure they don’t catch you off guard with a slobbery and stinky kiss. Or you can simply wait until it builds up to a climax before doing something about it. Either way you’re going to be doing something good for your dog’s oral health, and if they do manage to ambush you with kisses it won’t smell so bad afterward.”

You can order the Orapup system for your dog at a 40% discount here. Shipping is free in the US and every purchase comes with a 60-day money-back  guarantee if you are not satisfied.

You can also watch several other review videos here (scroll toward the bottom of the page to see them).

Have you tried the Orapup system? What did you and your dog think? Also let us know if you plan to order it then come back to give us your opinion (and show us a picture) on our Facebook page.