does anyone here clean their dogs teeth themselves?

my boy's teeth are all quite clean - apart from his canines.
they're starting to get discoloured, with a yellowy build up, which is becoming a darker green/black colour just around the top of the tooth

is it okay to try it yourself or is it best left?
and what tools are best to use if any one knows?

i've often tried, but with poor results. a squirming border collie soon makes you give up
usually i just use my thumb nail, which does bring some of the gunk off, but doesn;t really improve the situation.

he's had raw bones, cooked bones, dentastix, he's on a dry food, but his canines never seem to come clean with any of these

There is an excellent product called Maxiguard which is a gel that you just pull the jowl back and squeeze the nozzle to the back of the dogs mouth. It is more preventative than a hard plaque removal product but is highly effective for general teeth cleaning and even better if used when a dogs teeth haven't yet had a plaque build up or after a descale.

Our dog (toy poodle who very sadly died last year aged 16) suffered from plaque problems and it was nigh on impossible to clean his teeth with a brush. Maxiguard was really good. I just wish we had known about it much earlier.

Manual cleaning with a special toothbrush and dog toothpaste is the best thing for it. You can get an enzymatic toothpaste that doesn't necessarily require brushing if you can't manage it.
There's are loads of other products, like Plaque Off, which you can sprinkle on the food, oral rinses, Kong dental chews etc, just ask your vet.

The key to brushing teeth is to make it fun for your pet, get them used to the taste of the toothpaste and you touching their mouth, and reward them for complying. It's only once a day, no rinsing, just make sure you do both sides of the tooth.

Sounds like your dog might benefit from a scale and polish first, then going onto dental care

Also, please please never give your dog cooked bones, they can splinter and cause a load of problems. Personally I'm not really a fan of giving bones to dogs anyway.

the "cooked" bone is one of these big roasted things from pets at home, he was given it as a gift by a friend for christmas
lost interest in it mostly, but it helps him to de-stress as we're having our roof replaced at the minute with a lot of banging, if we sit with him he'll lay there and happily give it a little munch

i'll look into a paste, i've looked at them before, but with the reluctance he has to having his teeth brushed, i didn't think there was much point, i was under the impression that it had to be worked around like a human toothpaste.

i did try to get him used to having his teeth brushed as a youngster, but my mums partner at the time was a complete butthead and started an argument every time i was seen to be putting my hands in the dogs mouth, i gave in and said to just give him denta rasks, probably a bad choice looking back now

what is the price range for a scale & polish for a dog?
we've never had anything like that done before so i'm a bit clueless really

to be honest, i'd really rather not put him through anything that requires him to go under a GA at the vets unless it's absolutely necessary as he gets easily stressed out when we go
he's also not the friendliest of dogs towards vets either, following on from an injury a few years ago that they flushed and stapled shut without numbing him, i was literally there pinning him down to the table myself while the vet was putting the staples in, which was... pretty barbaric, but had to be done :/

thanks for the replies, i'll be doing some research into pastes this afternoon

i have problems cleaning my dogs teeth.

i've found a product called Logic Oral Hygiene Jell.

the reason why i like it is whilst you can brush it, and it does work better if you do. it also contains an enzyme that bonds to a protein in the saliva and breaks down the plaque.

my dog also likes it. he takes it like a treat.

I give my dog either a "dried pigs ear" or dentstix every day. She is four and the plaque is still building.

She also has the occasional raw chicken wing or smoked bone.

Oh, so a knuckle? Dentastixs aren't the best, they're quite calorific, so if you're giving them you should probably adjust the amount of food you're giving him.

Shame about that fuss being kicked up about you putting your fingers in his mouth. Not sure how much a scale and polish would cost you, prices obviously vary from area and practice, but we charge about £80-100 I think. I would have to be done under GA, simply because scalers use water to cool the tip, so he'd choke from the water if he was conscious. Although, your vets might be willing to do it using a hand scaler if it's only his canines.
How old is he? If he's not so good at the vets have you asked about something to calm him down? You can get herbal supplements (Zylkene) or pheromones (Adaptil) which might be worth asking about. Also, you could ask if you could stay with him while he has his premed for his GA (assuming he's calmer with you around). Why did he have to be pinned down for his staples?

it's the same as a knuckle, yes, but... the full bone with knuckles on, about the length of my lower arm, from finger tips to elbow. an outrageous size really, the ends seem quite crumbly but once he gets down to the longer part of the bone, i'm going to bin it as that might be a bit hard for him.

he turned five over the new year and his food has been cut down re-all treat type things as he started to gain weight post neuter, so no worries on that one
it's not the proper dentastix we give him though either, it's wilkinsons own brand ones

as for the staples, it was a visit to the emergency vet on boxing day a couple of years ago
he wouldn't keep is paw still for the vet after they flushed the wound he had on the inside of his "wrist"
he needed five staples in all, the vet managed to get one in with just holding his leg still, but after that, he just wanted off the table and out of there, so he had to be physically pinned down by two of us to keep him there so the fella could get the other four in.
there really is no wonder he fell out with the place after that to be honest :/

he's not completely wild at the vets unless we go into the back room to weigh him. it's the same room the cages are in where we left him for his neuter, so he'll jump up at me then as he wants to be out of there.
other than then the worst he does is bare his teeth to the vet examining him (we always take a muzzle in case he decides to snap, however)

i thought it would be in the region of £100 with it having to be done under GA
i'll have a word with the vets when i'm in next to find out how much they charge and if they'd recommend doing it
i've seen scaling tools to buy, but i'm wary of damaging his tooth enamel so i've held off buying them