(continued)
A colleague who reads these articles (Glory be!) commented that I should mention that some dogs have a genetic predisposition to have more (or less) teeth in their mouths.
I thought that in some roundabout way I had alluded to this fact. Anyway, it should be noted that the number of teeth in the adult dog’s mouth is 42, but this varies sometimes because of the breed or because of a genetic aberration.
Breeds with those short (mashed in) faces tend to have fewer teeth – most likely because their jaws are shortened. Yet, Dobermans may have jaws in which the premolars are missing – and, as you know, they have very elongated jaws.
Once again, biology is not as exact as, say, mathematics. One can find, during the general examination of a canine’s mouth, that there are more teeth than there should be (overcrowding). This would result in the