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overshot jaw??

Harry & Heidi's mom

Well-known member
Hi,

I have finally found a lovely chunky tri male pup, and he is healthy in every way but 1...

He has an overshot jaw, what problems can/does it cause??

any advice??
 
hi
It really depends on how overshot his mouth is as to whether it will affect him eating properly.Sometimes an overshot jaw can be occompanied by a twisted jaw too. As long as he can eat it really won't affect him at all.
All the best
Barbara Reese
UK
 
Hi,

He is 9 weeks old and is eating regular meals without problems, and it doesn't look too bad, infact you can't tell unless you look in his mouth.

Whats the chance of it correcting itself??
 
Tell me what an overshot jaw is. Shelby's bottom jaw comes in front of her top jaw. Is that overshot?
 
Yes I believe undershot is when the lower jaw protudes beyond the upper jaw and overshot is when the upper jaw protrudes over the lower jaw. It is my understanding that the overshot can be more of a problem but of course depends on the severity or degree to which it occurs. Hopefully there are some breeders out there with more knowledge on this that can explain.
 
Mary, you are right in your descriptions.

looking-for-a-friend - if you are not planning to show your pup, and he is obviously managing to eat and enjoy life, then I can't see that the jaw will be a problem. Sometimes they can correct, depending on the severity - right up to 3 years of age. I would expect some reduction in his price though.

If the pup is chunky, it doesn't sound like he's having problems eating - hopefully the breeder will let you watch him eat, so that you can check for yourself. You may need to try different bowls to see which he finds easiest - I would guess that a bowl with a flat base would be easier, maybe one with rubber around the bottom to hold it still.

You will need to keep a careful check on him that his adult teeth come through correctly - get him used to you looking in his mouth from an early age {this is good advice for everyone though!}

Good luck, and we look forward to seeing some photos!!
 
This is definitely what Shelby has. Kind of looks like a little bulldog mouth when you open her mouth. Obviously has not affected her ability to eat!!!
 
We had a newf who had a serious overshot jaw. The bottom teeth went up into the roof of his mouth and they had to be ground down so they didn't cause any more damage. He had a hard time picking things up off the ground because his nose got in the way before his bottom teeth...

If he's already overshot, there's always the chance it could get worse. or it could get better! You never know. But this is probably not the worst problem a puppy could have.
 
Hmmm, a good breeder should give a price reduction on something like this as it definitely means the dog can't be shown. When my parents got thir pyrenees puppy over 40 years ago, the breeder called to apologise and say Lani turned out to have a slightly undershot jaw that would not likely correct. They offered another choice of puppy in the next litter or another not yet chosen in the current litter, or half off the price of Lani who then also had to be sold under a spay contract. My parents already had their hearts set on Lani and never planned to show and had intended to spay anyway, so none of this was an issue. She lived to a ripe age for a pyr, around 12 or 13, and was adored by us all.

So on the one hand, unless a truly serious problem for the puppy, there should be no issue for you at all. And yes, by all accounts they do *sometimes* correct, and as well, a perfect scissors bite in a puppy sometimes gets undershot or overshot as the dog grows. The breeders discuss these issues from time to time over on one of the breeder email lists that I subscribe to.
 
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