My youngster broke her upper middle front tooth in half so the other half has fallen out so there is a gap from where the tooth was. I will get a certificate from the vet that says this is from an accident and not a birth defect. My question is, are judges satisfied with this peace of paper or do they ignore it and put the dog down in the show ring because of it? She has full dentition if that matters.

I have a girl that is missing a front tooth, not sure how this came to be. It was there until she was over two years old, then one day I looked and it was gone. I was shocked. I still show her, and hope that judges realize it was some sort of accident.

I have to admit that I was disappointed when I saw that she broke her tooth and a peace of it was gone. I sure hope that the judges will take note of the certificate from the vet. She has started her show career with such an awesome wins... (before she broke her tooth). I am curios to find out how she'll do in Feb which will be the first show after she broke her tooth. We'll see

No feedback on what judge's think, but I dread the winter time and ice. My dogs are always on a mission to eat chunks of snow and ice every day. They chew on it so much that they have bleeding of the gums. They even break their front teeth or grind them to nubbs. I hate to lock them indoors, but I have no way to stop them from being on their mission to chew on ice and snow chunks.

My dogs have full dentition. Having said that, at an AB show a couple of weeks ago, one of the judges put my dog at the bottom of the ribbons and informed the handler that he did not care for dogs with missing teeth. Funny, because my dog has all his teeth and this same judge placed him first in a much larger class earlier in the year and never once made a comment about missing teeth .. go figure.

Here in the states, the judges don't really give you much time in the examination process of the show to talk about why teeth may be missing, unless they happen to be chatty and actually ask. Most will just assume one thing or another and if they assume wrong, you end up at the end like the previous person mentioned. Having a vet certificate might be nice for breeding to prove the dog has all its teeth, but here in the states no one is going to give you time to pull out a vet certification that the teeth were lost in an accident. Maybe showing is different in your country. Hope the broken tooth heals...we had that happen in one of our hunting bitches.

Here in Iceland we have to give the judges secretary and his assistants the certificate paper from the vet before we enter the ring, so the judge can look at it before we get into the ring.

Thanks for explaining that. That certainly would be a nice thing to incorporate here in the states. I have a friend with a pretty yellow bitch that got bit in the jaw by a mean older dog. She has healed but a few incisors and canine had to be removed, but the mouth and bite are fine otherwise. She had stitches and everything. If we were allowed to preface our showing with a vet statement, this nice dog could be shown.

Check with AKC - I was told I could not show a dog that had a molar repaired due to a slab fracture; was told a letter from the dentist would not hold weight. This was a while back, so best to check on what the current rulings might be. It is heartbreaking, and doesn't seem really fair, but I was told it was altering the mouth of the dog.

I was told a dog's tooth could not be capped but a root canal is allowable.

I'd think that a missing incisor is totally different than a molar or premolar. Dogs lose incisors all the time in the course of work and play. I had one crash an agility bar a few years ago, and take it out and had no problem w/ the judges at IABCA shows (at least one of them was an AKC judge that I showed her to and she was probably the most friendly of the 3 I showed to that weekend). Many dogs have taken incisors out on kennel fencing too. Molars/ premolars are tougher since missing ones are so common in some lines anymore and are specifically mentioned in the standard as a fault. Incisors are not. I'd be surprised if the OP had a problem w/ a missing incisor as long as it doesn't affect the bite.

Hildur....I think you'll be fine. My Joel cracked and broke off 3/4 of his canine as a pup(never needed medical attention ever) and he finished his Championship at 14 months. So long as the bite/occlusion is proper on a dog, I think judges definitely take into consideration when it's a canine/incisor issue as we don't just not have those in dog's like missing premolars at times.

Thanks you guy's for your answers. I was little worried that her bite would change because of that missing tooth and due to the fact that she was 7,5 months when she lost the tooth. But she still has normal/correct bite, so hopefully I won't have to worry too much about that! She is such a sweet hart, getting into the ugly stage at this point at 8 months old!