Puppy Teething Timeline: What's Normal and What Helps

Puppy teething runs from about week 3 to month 7. The 28 baby teeth come in between weeks 3 and 8, start falling out around weeks 12 to 16, and the full set of 42 adult teeth is usually in place by 6 to 7 months of age. The roughest stretch, for your pup and for your shoelaces, is the swap in the middle, and the playbook is simple: the right chew at the right softness, kept cold when gums are sore.

The whole arc is normal, even the part where your table leg pays the price. Here is what each stage looks like, what actually helps at each one, and the short list of things worth a call to your vet.

The timeline at a glance

Every puppy runs on its own clock. Small breeds often run a touch later than big ones, and an individual pup can be a few weeks off either way, so read these as honest ranges rather than deadlines.

Two numbers worth keeping in your head: 28 baby teeth, 42 adult teeth. The extra 14 are mostly the molars, which only come in once, as adult teeth, at the very back of the mouth. Veterinary sources like VCA Animal Hospitals and the American Kennel Club publish the same ranges you see above, so if your vet quotes slightly different weeks, nobody is wrong. Dogs did not read the chart.

Weeks 3 to 8: baby teeth arrive

Deciduous teeth, the official name for baby teeth, start erupting at around 3 weeks of age, and the full set of 28 is usually in by 6 to 8 weeks. Almost all of this happens before you ever meet your dog. By the time most puppies come home at 8 weeks or later, the starter kit is installed and fully operational.

What you'll see

Needle points. Anyone who has played with an 8-week-old puppy knows those tiny teeth are dramatically sharper than the adult ones that replace them, and that sharpness has a job: it teaches bite pressure. When a puppy bites a littermate too hard, the game stops, and the lesson lands. Once your pup is home, you inherit that teaching role. Mouthing at this age is learning, not malice, so the move is calm and boring: redirect to a toy, praise the toy chewing, repeat about four hundred times.

If you are in the bring-home week right now, our first night with a new puppy guide covers the calm version of those first 48 hours, teething ring included.

Weeks 12 to 24: the swap

Somewhere around weeks 12 to 16, the incisors at the front start falling out and adult incisors push up to take their place. The canines and premolars follow over the next couple of months, and the adult molars arrive last, usually between months 5 and 7. In roughly one season of the year, your puppy trades 28 teeth for 42. It is a lot of construction in a small jobsite.

Why everything gets chewed

Loose baby teeth wiggle. Erupting adult teeth press up through the gums. Both make a puppy's mouth sore and itchy at the same time, and chewing applies counter-pressure that genuinely relieves it. Your puppy is not testing your authority or holding a grudge about crate time. They are self-medicating with whatever is closest, and if the closest thing is a sandal, the sandal gets it.

So the fix is supply, not scolding. Keep one legal chew within reach in every room your puppy uses, so the right choice is always the easy choice. When teeth land on something off-limits, trade for a chew instead of chasing, because chasing turns theft into the best game in the house. If the chew-versus-couch battle needs more structure, the redirect tools in our training and behavior department earn their keep this exact month.

During the swap you might find a tiny tooth on the floor or stuck in a toy. More often you will find nothing at all, because puppies usually swallow their baby teeth as they pop loose, and that is harmless. A few specks of blood on a chew is normal too. Steady or heavy bleeding is not, and that one goes on the vet list below.

Cold helps

Cold numbs sore gums and brings swelling down, the same reason an ice pack works on a sprained ankle. It is the cheapest teething relief there is, and puppies figure it out fast.

The easiest version is a freezable chew built for the job. Our BFS Chill Bite fills with water and goes in the freezer, holds its cold longer than plain rubber, and is not edible, which it says plainly because that matters. A chilled soft rubber chew straight from the fridge works on milder days. The classic DIY is a clean washcloth, dampened, knotted, and frozen, and it works well with one caveat: fabric plus a determined chewer means supervision, every time, so threads stay out of the puppy. You can find the freezer-friendly options sorted by intensity in our chew toys department.

What to offer at each stage

Every chew we sell carries a chewer-intensity label, gentle, average, or power, plus a weight-based sizing chart. For a teething puppy, the progression looks like this:

• 8 to 12 weeks: gentle only. A soft rubber teething ring, like our BFS Gentle Gnaw, gives baby teeth something legal with the right amount of give. Soft is the point. Those little teeth are sharp, but they are not strong.
• 3 to 6 months: gentle, plus cold. This is freezable-chew season. Keep a Chill Bite or two cycling through the freezer so there is always a cold one ready when the gums flare up, and keep the gentle ring in the rotation for everyday chewing.
• 6 months and up: graduate to average. Once the adult teeth are in, textured average-intensity chews help keep them busy and your furniture irrelevant. True power chewers usually reveal themselves a few months later, and there is a sturdier shelf waiting when they do.

One caution that vets repeat for good reason: skip very hard chews while adult teeth are coming in. A common rule of thumb from veterinary dental guidance is that if you cannot flex a chew or dent it with a thumbnail, it is too hard for a puppy, because freshly erupted adult teeth can crack on it. Power-chewer gear exists for power chewers with mature teeth, not for a 14-week-old with strong opinions.

Sizing matters as much as softness. A chew should be comfortably bigger than your puppy's gape so it cannot slip too far back, and if your pup sits between sizes on the chart, go up a size. Comfort beats snug every time, and too-small is the real safety risk. Then watch wear: when a chew is deeply gouged, cracked, or losing pieces, thank it for its service and replace it.

And the skip list, briefly: no rawhide (we do not sell it, and the choking and blockage concerns are why), nothing with small detachable parts, and nothing sized for a dog half your puppy's weight.

When to call your vet

Most puppies get through teething with zero extra vet visits. A handful of things are worth a look, and the good news is that every one of them is easy to spot:

• A double row of teeth. If an adult tooth has come in and the baby tooth is still standing next to it, that is called a retained or persistent deciduous tooth. Veterinary sources note it is most common in small breeds and flat-faced breeds like pugs, bulldogs, and Boston terriers. It is fixable, but it is your vet's call, not a wait-and-see.
• Heavy or ongoing bleeding. Specks on a toy are normal. More than that is not.
• A broken tooth. Adult teeth do not get replacements, so a fractured one needs professional eyes.
• Refusing food or chewing only on one side. Teething is uncomfortable, but it should not stop a puppy from eating.
• Still actively teething well past 7 months. Probably fine, worth mentioning at the next checkup.

We sell chew toys, not diagnoses. If something in your puppy's mouth looks off, a quick photo sent to your vet beats a week of wondering, and no decent vet has ever been annoyed by a teething question.

Stock the freezer before the swap hits

Teething is a season, and like most seasons, it goes easier when you are stocked before it arrives. If your pup is anywhere in the week 8 to month 7 window, browse our chew toys department, where everything is labeled by chewer intensity and sized by weight, so the gentle, puppy-stage picks take about ten seconds to find. Your shoes will thank you.