Food For Thought: Encoruaging Baby Steps

[Jessica/YDWWYW/PetTalkMedia]

I wanted to share something with you guys.

I am aware that brushing your dog’s teeth is what is “right” if you wan to prolong, or potentially prevent, gum disease in your dog. One day I found myself talking to a group of people in my Dachshund Club about how “important” it is. After I left I felt like a hypocrite because I don’t actually brush Chester & Gretel’s teeth (but have accepted the cost of teeth cleaning when they need it, and am ok with the small risk involved with that, as well as doing other things to help their teeth).

I decided to come clean on my blog. It was scary for me because I knew I was taking a big risk in a community where doing “the best” thing for your dog is valued and many people DO brush their dog’s teeth. I admitted that I don’t brush my dog’s teeth and talked about things that can be done that are better than doing nothing at all – anethesia-free teeth cleaning, plaque removers, chews.

Something interesting started to happen. Traffic on my blog increased. A lot. My traffic increased by an average of 10% – 20% per day and all of that was due to TWO posts on alternatives to brushing your dog’s teeth (indicated by the search terms used). I received comments from people (most of whom I had never heard of before) thanking me for being honest and offering them an alternative without being judgmental about it. I have been blogging for almost 3 years and those two posts have moved to my top 10 most-viewed posts of all time (I published the first one a couple of months ago).

This shows me that there is a huge number of people out there who want to do SOMETHING for their dog’s teeth but aren’t ready to start brushing them. It is my thought that if I let people know they are not alone if they don’t brush their dog’s teeth, but that they should do SOMETHING, eventually some of those people may move onto actually brushing their dog’s teeth. If the only information they can find on the internet is that you must brush your dogs teeth, but they are not ready to do that, the default will be to do nothing.

By providing a soft place to land and encouraging baby steps, my hope is that some readers will eventually rise to do more. I think that sometimes there is value in blogging about things that maybe aren’t “the best thing to do” but is the thing that more people will actually do…even if it is not popular. If we are really trying to reach pet parents outside of the pet blogging community and change behaviors, perhaps we can share baby steps with them instead of setting the bar so high.

Thoughts?

[Ann]

I always had to encourage people to brush their dog’s teeth as a vet tech, and still do as a blogger. Even though I rarely do it myself. One doctor I worked with always admitted to her clients that she was horrible at brushing her dog’s teeth. When I read your post title, I thought “hey, I bet a lot of people are searching for that”. I think it’s pretty cool that your honesty is really helping people in similar situations out with this sort of dilemma. 

[Jessica/YDWWYW/PetTalkMedia]

@Lorie When I wrote my latest blog post on the issue I made he assumption that people KNEW brushing was the best. I thought I made it clear that I was not a vet and was merely giving those who aren’t ready to go that far an alternative. However, a couple of comments from my readers made it clear that some people interpreted it (although they probably only read the title) as me saying brushing wasn’t important. I updated the post to state “Note: Brushing your dog’s teeth is the best way to keep them healthy and clean. I am not saying you should do this instead. However, if you do not brush your dog’s teeth, this is one way you an start doing something to keep them healthy. If you do already brush your dog’s teeth, this might be a nice addition.”  just to be crystal clear. Lesson learned.

@Ann I have a wonderful, proactive vet but she admitted to me the other day that she doesn’t brush her dog’s teeth either.

[Carol]

Way to go on that, Jessica. As someone who has consistently brushed her dog’s teeth – my current dog and my previous Cocker – I am forever advocating for keeping a dog’s teeth clean. Your approach is fantastic and thanks for helping so many dogs out there through your message!

[BoingyDog]

This is great Jessica and I’m glad you shared. It’s so important to reach people where they’re at – though it’s not always easy for me to take the baby step route. But I absolutely agree that it’s the way to go. I ended up stretching out the Work the Walk dog walking challenge into 21 days of one simple exercise a day because I realized through comments on previous posts how little people are walking their dogs. Rather than coming from the place of assuming everyone walks their dogs every day for hours, it seemed like bite-sized tasks that allow people to take one step at a time would be better tolerated and give people a chance to begin something new. One post in the challenge got 7 times more readers than most posts on my blog; it was really surprising.

As far as teeth brushing, Kayo eats raw beef marrow bones regularly and at 3 years old, her doctor tells me every time we go in that her teeth are perfect. I know there will be a day when she can’t eat those and sometimes I regret that I didn’t build the habit of teeth brushing to get her accustomed to it but now I know we can count on your post for some healthy alternatives! ;0)

[Paws to Talk]

Jessica,

I love this post! I am not surprised that your posts gained more traffic because people like things that they can relate to. This caught my eye because it is very difficult for me to brush my dogs’ teeth too. I know it is the right thing to do but I struggle getting the dogs to open their mouths so I can even do a 5 second brush. 

Thanks for being honest and real.

-Margot

[Author]

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