I agree but it is an often cited benefit

May I ask why you do his teeth?

Do they still need doing for actual cleaning, or is it a handling and dental checking exercise, or something else?

I think that is a good idea

I clean his teeth because I'm super paranoid The two biggest health complaints in British dogs also seems to be the most avoidable - overweight and poor dental health. I do my best to avoid both in Cain. His teeth are in great condition and I don't clean to resolve existing problems, rather to stop any developing.

After he had a dental check at the vets that freaked him out, he refused to let anyone back in his mouth for ages. It took a lot of training for me to be able to handle his mouth again, that was when I started to clean his teeth. I do it for three main reasons

1) To be doubly sure his teeth are good to try and avoid the vet needing to treat his teeth and therefore stress him out again.
2) To cover all bases as I'm paranoid Although I honestly can say that his teeth don't look any different with the cleaning which may mean the bones are doing the job anyway, or maybe just that his teeth already good and can't get any whiter.
3) The very main reason is it's a good handling exercise and makes positive association with me handling his mouth. He might not like anyone else doing it, but he's comfortable with me

All excellent reasons, and even if he is only happy with you doing it at least you can then show the vet his teeth if needed, even if he isn't happy for the vet to do it him/herself.

When I had my horse it used to be apparent which horses in the yard had recently seen the local equine dentist as they would often be somewhat headshy after

I never used him for my horse, my vet and I used to do him together when necessary and he never got headshy.

You should see Izzy's teeth-she's 9 months younger than Parker and they're disgusting!

The previous owners have said they'll pay for her to have them scaled under anaesthetic in a few weeks.

She was fed on Pedigree chum as apparently she needed to put on weight. I was surprised when they said this as I looked at her and thought she was overweight. Even my Mum said she was fat and she usually says dogs are thin when they're not! She weighs 13.5kg and Parker weighs 16 and she's much smaller than Parker and female. We hope to get her down to about 12kg eventually which the vet said would be about right.

I took her for a vet check-up last week and the vet agreed with me that she was overweight and her teeth needed doing asap although apparently her previous vet said he wanted to leave it for a couple of years.

I explained to her previous owners that I always brushed Cherry and Parker's teeth regularly to keep them nice and she said Izzy didn't like this and she preferred to have them scaled under anaesthetic when necessary. Thought this was strange as I think this is an unnecessary operation and anaesthetic always carries some risk.

http://skeptvet.com/Blog/category/nutrition/

Tried it numerous times over the years, and it's never worked "as a whole", in the sense not all dogs would be happy too eat it and Flo being the only dog that ever was soon went off raw feeding. Just didn't work for me, they just weren't that interested and over the years these are majority of dogs which have been used for vermin control/retrieving game etc. When they were on RAW their condition dropped quite a bit, noticed hot spots etc and they were fed a good amount of high quality meat sourced from local butchers or caught by themselves! It just didn't work at all for us.
They get quite a bit of meat in their diet from what they catch or what's we/friends/family have shot, but it's always cooked. Occasionally a bit of green tripe raw for Flo but even then she's quite selective.

Good link
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...arf/#more-5315

Why I don't feed raw -

- I can't afford it. I know some have great, bargain suppliers which means it's cheaper than the more expensive kibble but I don't feed the expensive stuff anyway.
- I don't have the freezer space, or room for another freezer.
- I live with my mum who's immunosuppressed and so I would rather not deal with raw meat daily.

I'm also not convinced it's the only good way to feed, but I do see the positives and I would consider it if it wasn't for the above. Then again I am happy with my dog's current diet and I defy anyone to tell me he is not in fabulous condition on 'orrible processed food.

A couple of interesting links there , although not a quick read , particularly if you also read through the interesting following discussion of the latter one