What do you let your dog chew on?

[General Lee]

My dog gets beef marrow bones. Tough as nails and the marrow is highly nutritious.

 

[General Lee]

We have a new Belgian Malinois (don't get one by the way they are nuts LOL), she LOVES Jolly Balls and Jolly Eggs. They do last a long time too.

I have a 5 year old malinois. Working dog. Depending on their bloodline, they don't make good pets. What I mean by that is they HAVE to have something to do or they get destructive. They don't do well in an inactive household.

 

[TomSeller]

. Rawhide is gone within an hour. .

Compressed rawhide last a while for my dogs, regular rawhide is gone too quick.

 

[riptides]

Since moving the dog inside the house, she now thinks she is a person and all chewing activity has stopped.

She doesn't even answer the door all the time anymore.

 

[Tomtint]

We have always had a Doberman and a Weimariner. The Dobe would destroy anything and everything.. didn't matter what it was. The Weimariner had 1 toy and he never chewed it, just carried it everywhere and the Dobe never went near it. Now we have a 1 year old Weimariner that is a toy chewing machine.

 

[jimmyj]

Hey, Jimmy, what is your authority for these statements that you should not allow dogs to have hard chewing toys? They sell all kinds of them at the pet stores.

Hi check. I have been in the pet industry for almost 40 years in different areas and currently own a pet store. And yes, we do sell the hard chews regularly. In fact, I recommend them for some dogs but definitely not all dogs and certainly not for very aggressive chewers. When we sell things at our store, we always advise customers of the possible risk and say that it's about each dog and how aggressive they are when they chew. Some dogs are fine with them, some are not. Heck we even sell frozen chicken backs for people who feed raw diets, bones and all.

There are lots of statements in veterinary publications that swear against hard chews, here are some examples:

From the American Veterinary Dental College " Dogs are carnivores they chew on bones in the wild. However, AVDC does not recommend cow hooves, dried natural bones or hard nylon products because they are too hard and do not mimic the effect of a dog tearing meat off a carcass. These hard products are associated with broken teeth or damaged gums."

And from PetMd.com
4 Treats That Can Harm Your Dog's Teeth | petMD

All of the vet clinics in my area swear against all hard chews for all dogs, nobody should use any of them they say. But one of the problems with the veterinary advice is that even though there are plenty of examples of dogs having broken teeth from stuff like this, they taint their position by recommending you buy other products from them instead of the pet store. So a lot of people are put off feeling it is a sales pitch.

 

[Paddy]

Last X-mass we pulled out the sewing machine and made a bunch simple canvas toys, even added squeakers. We don't even use stuffing. Dogs really don't care how much you spend, all they want is "new toy for me??, wag wag. The most durable are the toys made of seat belt material. You could cut a pull strap into 12" pc's, knotted

 

[rekees4300]

My Lab loves these! Available at Amazon

View attachment 502812

 

[sriddle1]

The "tough" fire hose toy didn't last 10 minutes.

Smiley Boy, an 8 year old Bull Terrier or Target Dog is an aggressive chewer. In Tom Seller's post he said: "running out of slippers that were not chewed on" so I believe we're talking about toys. Because Smiley is a Terrier his instincts are to violently shake/twist/pull anything once grasped in his Jaw so as a pup we learned quickly no toys inside the house because of the slobber spread on the walls and ceilings. Like hosspuller, we tried the Fire Hose Toy, No-Go and destroyed, used his small front teeth to tear a hole thru the fabric. After reading many reviews on Amazon went with the large sized "KONG Safestick Dog Toy", received the gangly florescent green color stick, just weird looking !!!!! The first play session Smiley did the old twist and the balls on the ends about knocked him out so I cut those off and shortened the length so he didn't whip himself in the head (which he seemed to liked)...very odd. Next & Current Toy, the large size "COLLAR Puller Ring for Dogs" which we've had good luck with although they only last about 4 to 5 months, they're made of a tough semi-soft material so easy on the teeth and can handle the typical tug fest or dragging Smilty across the lawn. The maker warns it's not a chew toy so don't leave the dog unaccompanied with it. With regards to Squeaker Toys, no matter the brand haven't found anything he can't disable the squeak within 15 minutes, normally crushes it with his powerful jaw.

 

[Avondale]

My new Choc lab puppy prefers an inter-active chew toy, which we refer to as Max, (our Middle dog, also a Choc lab). Funny to note that Max also did this to our oldest dog when he was a pup.