Thanks everyone! Sorry, I'll try at some point to respond more but between looking after the Baby Bat and The Dancer having a show in a week I've had very little time to even type much on my phone.
Thanks everyone! Sorry, I'll try at some point to respond more but between looking after the Baby Bat and The Dancer having a show in a week I've had very little time to even type much on my phone.
West Paw Designs that you can shove treats into.
Holds up better than the Kongs IMHO
So a bit of an update after close to 2 months with the Baby Bat. So far, there's only a few things that we've found to be largely indestructible. At the top of this list are two Ruff Dawg 'chew toys'- one an XL ball and the other an XL cube (link to cube here: https://feederspetsupply.com/ruff-dawg-indestructible-dawg-cube-tough-dog-chew-toy-assorted/). She's spent lots of time gnawing on these and they show almost no signs of damage beyond a few surface scratches. They're a medium-hardness rubber and bounce well, and she loves chasing after them in the yard. The cube in particular is a lot of fun, since it will take unexpected bounces. A warning though if you get one: the cube has a lot more heft and mass to it than you might think and it can be dangerous- we've learned to only use the ball inside since it's got less inertia to it and only use the cube outside (where it's still a miracle it hasn't gone through one of the garage windows yet- it's taken a wild bounce into one once already but thankfully hit such that it just bounced off and didn't go through).
Antlers are indeed pretty indestructible. Dog teeth are not. They're hard, but brittle. Think of china.
Nylabones break teeth like crazy. A few years ago, one of my clients bought one in the pet store, and unwrapped it for the dog to chew on the way home. The dog broke a tooth before she could start the car. One of the dentistry specialists said that if everyone bought Nylabones he could pay the tuition for his three kids in college.
I see a lot of broken teeth, and extracting a broken upper fourth premolar (the most commonly broken tooth) means sectioning the three individual roots for removal one at a time. It's seriously difficult (it's like pulling teeth!), and it's not cheap.
Kong toys, or something with some give to it are what I recommend. Any form of animal bone is a no.
I'll quote Frazer Hale, the first board certified veterinary dentistry specialist in Ontario, with his three part test for dog chews. If it fails any of these, don't give it to the dog:
1. If you wouldn't chew it with your own teeth.
2. If you wouldn't want to drop it on the soft wood of a pine tabletop.
3. If you wouldn't want someone to whack you in the knee with it.
Dr Hale's website.
We used to give our first dog coconuts. Inexpensive, wood-like, and a soft creamy center.
Johnboyjjb said:We used to give our first dog coconuts. Inexpensive, wood-like, and a soft creamy center.
I hope you drained them first- even without that I'd think that would be quite a mess.
The other thing we've really been happy with is the Coffee Wood sticks (closer to logs, but not quite...) we've gotten for her- she is weirdly obsessed with chewing and eating wood, and the Coffee Wood is nice because it is good to chew on but doesn't splinter and breaks down easily. It makes a bit of a mess, but she really likes it and its better than letting her drag in sticks from the yard.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
My wife has been a dog person far longer than I, so i defer to her. She was anti nylabones due to being too hard and teeth breaking. She was given a pack of them so we tried them out, the dogs loved them. Months later i noticed my 2 year old dogs front tiny teeth have the tips broken off.
Listen to Doc and his Dr. reference, Berk those nylabones right into the trashcan before they wreck your dogs teeth.
TheTallOne17 said:If they like chewing balls racquet or their strong cousin lacrosse balls work great. Cheaper and more durable than the chuckit variety
My pittie destroys things, but loves lacross balls. I find them free at the local field (in the weeds) and he cannot destroy them.
These also last a few years under HEAVY chewing. Like, daily, concentrated effort. Even after he broke it into a few pieces, he kept chewing on the pieces. I highly recommend JW squeak bones.
Since this discussion has been revived, I'll add that tennis balls are SUPER abrasive. I don't know anything about lacrosse balls, I've never seen one.
I've seen dogs that chew tennis balls with their the crowns of their teeth totally worn off, right down to the gums. Their mouths look like someone worked their teeth over with a belt sander.
I know Floatingdoc said antlers can be bad but our dogs love them. My neighbor hunts so I usually get them for free or trade some eggs for them. Prices at the pet stores are nuts.
My other neighbor breeds Golden Retrievers and they swear by these Benebone fish things.
They seem to be near indestructible. They have two that are both about halfway gone from about a year's worth of chewing from two Golden puppies.
I used to think animal bones were fine. We gave the dogs beef knuckles and they lasted forever. I got some deer bones from my neighbor and Ruxton, our Bernese managed to crack and swallow a big chunk that caused him a lot of pain and a trip to the vet. No surgery needed but he was not a happy dog for a couple days.
No more bones.
Years ago my wife and I had a black lab named Trouble. One of her favorite toys was a 5 gallon bucket lid.
Yak cheese is expensive. But E36 M3 does the dog love it.
Fueled by Caffeine said:Yak cheese is expensive. But E36 M3 does the dog love it.
It's also completely digestible. We go thru a ton at the store.
Our 50 lb Lab can destroy just about anything in short order. We've found a couple of lacrosse balls that she loves and hasn't done much to them besides take some tiny chunks out of them. We go through a black Kong treat bone about once a month. Nylabones last a couple of months with her. Same with the red Kong treat balls.
Our Goldendoodle Bodhi is an extreme chewer. As a puppy he was fine with all of his plush squeaky toys, blankets and other toys. He played, chewed and carried them all over the place and never destroyed them. Then when he began "teething", he became very obsessed with whatever he could get his mouth on and tore them apart in short order. We graduated to KONG red toys which we though would last based on friends experience. Nope, not even a week and eventually not even a day! He is so cute and fluffy you would never think he's that destructive. I then learned about KONG EXTREME, the black offerings which are specifically designed for heavy chewers. Those will last a few days if we really watch him, but not always. What we found works the best is from Goughnuts , the heavy-duty black with the blue and yellow markings. He has the large stick, ring and tug toy, both several months old and still in good shape. He has small bits off of the stick, but for the toy being 5 months old, I'll take it. In comparison, at Christmas, my brother bought him a KONG EXTREME bone and it didn't last through dinner, all of 15 minutes. For us it's GOUGHNUTS until he calms down.
*** Not cheap, but damn near indestructible in our house. I'd rather buy one of these and know it works than several of the others just to find he's eaten and invested the pieces/parts he chews off.***
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:Antlers are indeed pretty indestructible. Dog teeth are not. They're hard, but brittle. Think of china.
Nylabones break teeth like crazy. A few years ago, one of my clients bought one in the pet store, and unwrapped it for the dog to chew on the way home. The dog broke a tooth before she could start the car. One of the dentistry specialists said that if everyone bought Nylabones he could pay the tuition for his three kids in college.
I see a lot of broken teeth, and extracting a broken upper fourth premolar (the most commonly broken tooth) means sectioning the three individual roots for removal one at a time. It's seriously difficult (it's like pulling teeth!), and it's not cheap.
Kong toys, or something with some give to it are what I recommend. Any form of animal bone is a no.
I'll quote Frazer Hale, the first board certified veterinary dentistry specialist in Ontario, with his three part test for dog chews. If it fails any of these, don't give it to the dog:
1. If you wouldn't chew it with your own teeth.
2. If you wouldn't want to drop it on the soft wood of a pine tabletop.
3. If you wouldn't want someone to whack you in the knee with it.
Dr Hale's website.
I thought I had already posted in this thread, but it appears I have not. Since it's been resurrected, I'll second Doc's recommendations and offer that yes, really hard chews will break teeth. Our boxer mix had the habit of doing some pretty hard gnawing on various chew toys that she had in her collection. She's generally a gentle chewer. We have plushes that she's tossed around and chewed the ears off of that have lasted for years, but every so often, she'd grab a Nylabone or similar and really give it a chew. One day last year, we heard a pretty loud crack that differed a bit from the usual chewing sounds, and sure enough, we found a bit of the tip of one of her molars in her bed. A trip to the vet revealed that damage to the tooth was extensive--she had split it nearly to the gum line in addition to breaking off the point. An extraction was done, at a not insignificant cost.
No more Nylabones for us.
You'll need to log in to post.
