Assessment of oral malodor in dogs.

This paper describes a methodology for measuring and assessing changes in canine oral malodor with the intent that it can be used to evaluate products designed to make pets' breath more acceptable to their owners. Ten judges, able to discriminate and rank malodorous chemical compounds, were trained as a formal sensory panel by an expert in sensory evaluation techniques. The panel was assembled to determine changes in oral malodor resulting from dietary manipulation. A dry experimental food served as the test food, and a commercial dry dog food as the reference food. Dogs fed the experimental food developed significantly less oral malodor (p < 0.01) than when they were fed the control food.