It can take 3 months or more for a full coat to grow back in. A premium diet is key to a good coat – I recommend you go grain-free too. Most dogs don’t digest grains well, and grains can impact their immune system enough that they will develop allergies (usually allergies don’t appear until the dog is 2 years old or more, but why not take measures now to help keep your dog in tip-top condition?).
Go to a good pet store (not a grocery store or big box store) and ask to be shown to the grain-free dog food. Then start reading the labels – You want a food that lists real meat as the first 2 or 3 ingredients. Real meat is easy to spot – it will say elk, bison, turkey, pork, lamb, salmon meal (meal is the entire animal ground up and dried), whitefish meal, etc. Avoid beef and chicken – many dogs are reactive to those two proteins.
Do NOT buy any food that contains ‘by products’ – this is an indication that you will pay a premium price for a poor quality product.
Read the ingredients of treats too and use ones that are grain-free.
Your vet should have dog toothpaste for sale, over the counter. Give that a try?
The problem with using homemade treatments is that your dog will swallow it – so you want to avoid the type of things that humans would use in place of toothpaste such as baking soda.
The commercial canine toothpaste has enzymes that help delay the growth of plaque, and this is something you can’t replicate in a home made products. Canine toothpaste is not very expense, and a tube of it lasts a long time, well worth the modest cost.