Teeth cleaning

I have a chihuahua who is now 18 months old. He is a 'rescue' dog and i got him six months ago. At the time he was not house trained and would not walk on a lead. He now walks beautifully on a lead and is 90% house trained. He is a very good-natured and friendly little dog and never snaps. However, he went for his booster injection yesterday and the Vet said I should clean his teeth. I went about it as gently as possible, showing him the little brush and letting him taste the fish flavoured (sic) dog toothpaste but the result was a complete failure with high stress levels all round, much snapping and clawing and a very unhappy little dog. I tried wrapping him in a towel as i used to do to administer medication to my cat. I don't want to repeat the performance, apart from everything else I have arthritic hands, but want to know what is best to do.

How about those dentasticks? Would that not be a little less stressful, also easier on your hands?

u could try logic oral hygeine gel. it says that you can put it on the paw for them to lick off if you are not able to brush their teeth

My first dog refused to have a toothbrush in her mouth at first so what we did was that we would put the toothpaste on my finger and rub it gently around her teeth/gums/tongue just to get her used to having something small swirl around her teeth. After a week or two I wrapped a piece of cloth around my finger and did the same thing. A week later I tried the toothbrush and she was used to the procedure so it worked. It's tedious, but it worked for my dog. Good luck!!

Thank you everybody. I'll try and perservere with the finger/cloth idea, it sounds good.
I took him for a bath this morning and the groomer said it was only one tooth that was affected and to give him a seaweed extract which you mix with the wet food and which gets into the crevices. It's called Plaqueoff Animal and is a ProDen product. It costs £10.50.
The Logic Oral I have smeared onto a toy that he chews.
Thanks again. I have found Dogsey.com very helpful

The idea for the finger/cloth/toothbrush ordeal is to get used to something in her mouth .... and hopefully she knows by now not to bite your fingers so she should let you do it .... good luck!

It sound like you are making terrific progress with your boy so there is obviously a very good bond between you.

Not sure if the vet used a tooth brush or you can get small caps to go on your fingers with little bristles on that he may consider less scary than a big old toothbrush!

The dentasticks are also a very good idea.

Six months for a rescue is still relatively early days and, given the excellent progress you have made so far, I'm sure that you will have no problems in overcoming the teeth cleaning in time. Good luck!

Again, thanks to everybody for their helpful replies.

what about giving your dog a natural toothbrush such as a bone. I am not suggesting you should go the whole way and raw feed like I do (mine have lovely white teeth) as I understand lots of people are not 'turned on' by the idea. But a nice bone from the butchers on a regular basis will do the job perfectly without any stress on either side.

Dear Tawney Wolf,
I had wondered about bones. 'When I was a girl' all dogs had bones, but there weren't many chihuahuas around then. I'm happy about the bone idea, I guess a rib bone for a chihuahua? He doesn't do liver, I feed him kibble plus some Pedigree Puppy from time to time, also veg and a bit of fruit.