Rawhide, Kongs and dog toys

Kongs: I use a lot of frozen stuffed Kongs. I would caution, though, on the use of peanut butter for the stuffing. I believe it should be in moderation so when I stuff a Kong, I only use PB to 'glue' the contents together. IOW, I fill the Kong with kibble or broken up biscuits and then 'glue' it together with peanut butter or cream cheese. Yes, they get funky and need to be cleaned, but for the most part, I believe it's worth it. If, otoh, a dog can empty the contents in 10 minutes, it might not be worth it.

Rawhide: It's a personal choice like so many things. I don't use it at all. I've seen too many dogs choke on it right in front of the owner. I've had some of mine choke right in front of me. There's only so much supervision one can do. Unless I'm willing to be right there and do nothing but watch my dog (not reading or watching tv in the same room) I won't give a rawhide to any of my dogs. I use bully sticks, nylabones and knuckle bones....and of course, Kongs. I use to use soda bottles b/c dogs usually love them but all my dogs would either cut themselves on it (and I was supervising them) or they would ingest the pieces. So, I don't use them any more. If you have dogs that don't do that, then they are a great CHEAP toy.

Suggestions: There are dogs who are chewers and those that just love to 'trash' stuff. My BC is a trasher and the cheapest, safest toy for him is a box. Let 'em rip them up. I take a box and sometimes I'll put food in it and sometimes I won't. I'll tape it up good and just pitch it up in the air, kick it around a few times so that I get the dog 'in the game' and then let 'em rip it up. It's a mess to pick up but I find it worth it for dogs who prefer ripping up to chewing, which might surprise you that it's quite a few who prefer this. It might be one of the reasons why some people can't seem to find the right toy for their dog to chew. Try the box. Hint: Think of the kid who opens the present and instead of playing with the expensive toy, plays with the box instead!

Escrito por Cher McCoy em 14 de fevereiro de 2006 para a lista Petdogs-L do Yahoo Groups

I use [Kongs] as well, I stuff with whatever is to hand as well as their kibble, cream cheese, pate, chicken, liver and cheese. Then I put a long stick of something across the top by squeezing. It becomes a sort of challenge to make them take longer emptying them!

Escrito por Lynn em 14 de fevereiro de 2006 para a lista Petdogs-L do Yahoo Groups

If your dog can empty the kong that fast [10 minutes], it might help to move to the next smallest size. My mom gave me some kongs her giants were not playing with, and I gave them to my dogs thinking that much more stuffing would occupy them that much longer--no go. It took them longer to get stuff out of the smaller holes of the smaller kongs.

Dogs who like to tear instead of chew--interesting distinction I hadn't thought about before....and I have 2 of those kind of dogs. Shredding paper, stuffed toys, they like better than toys that are just for gnawing. In training classes, I had to use tugging as a treat for [my dog] because she wasn't motivated by food in a multi-dog setting, whereas tugging can never be passed up.

I thought it was breed related (her mom is a pit/akita mix, dad probably a rott) but then we brought home her half brother (dad unknown, looks more akita) and he is not a tugger at all. So, maybe just a personality thing. Or, as my daughter would say, a DOGality thing.

Escrito por mperry em 14 de fevereiro de 2006 para a lista Petdogs-L do Yahoo Groups

Boy, whoever it was who said "It depends on the dog" is so right. We have toys/chewies we can give some of ours and can't let the others near.

The whippets can have nearly anything because they don't bite off hunks or swallow. Believe it or not their very favorite "toy" is bubble wrap. An absolute nightmare for most dogs because they'd swallow it and get a blockage. Our whippets just pop the bubbles. I shudder to think what [our] german shepherd would do with it, but it would involve a vet trip for sure.

The whippets also can have rawhide. They just gnaw the edges. Another favorite is plushies, but they destroy them. So I get them from Goodwill for 50 cents. For some dogs you'd have to worry about them pulling the eyes off and swallowing them, but the whippets just destroy, they don't devour.

Some of the free toys they like are cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels, plastic soda bottles, yogurt cups (any container that had food in it). They are so reliable about not eating any of this that I could just about put the item back together again from the pieces I find. We haven't had any problem with them getting cut on the soda bottles.

[The german shepherd], on the other hand, eats everything he plays with if at all possible. He can't have stuffed toys because he not only tears them up but eats the stuffing. Can't have cardboard tubes for long because after he smushes them he starts eating them... He does fine with soda bottles though. We use a lot of non-dairy coffee creamer and buy the gigantic containers of it from Walmart -- those are his favorites.

[Our] late sheltie/collie (maybe?) could make an oatmeal box last for weeks. He adored them. I never see an oatmeal box without thinking of him and smiling. [The german shepherd] would simply smash it, then eat it.

The favorites around here are big knuckle bones and when the goody is gone, we smear a little peanut butter on them and they have a whole new life.

We did have an -- um -- interesting experience with [one of the whippets] a few years ago, which our vet likes to remind me of sometimes. A knuckle bone had been around for so long that it had been gnawed down to a ring-shaped bone, like a donut. I noticed [her] carrying it outside one day, didn't think much about it. An hour later when I called the dogs in, she was still carrying it. Unusual. I watched her for a minute and then realized it was stuck around her lower jaw! [We] worked on it for awhile, but it was behind her lower canine teeth and wouldn't budge. Off to the vet, who looked at it and said, "So what am *I* going to do about it?" (Our vet has a sense of humor). What we ended up doing was tranquillizing [the dog] and when her jaw relaxed, we were able to just remove the bone gently. Now I'm careful to throw away the bones when they start to develop a hole in the middle!

It really does depend on the dog. Hundreds of thousands of dogs have enjoyed Greenies with no problems whatsoever -- yet to look at the recent publicity, you'd think giving your dog Greenies was about as safe as letting him play in traffic. This is no different from anything else in life. There are risks. Hundreds of children are killed every year in accidents involving bicycles, swimming pools, ponies, and sleds, but that doesn't mean any mother who allows her kids to ride bikes, swim, take riding lessons, or go sledding is a bad mother. It is, however, understandable that a mother who lost a child in a fall from a pony might not ever allow her other children to ride.

You have to know your dog. Watch how he plays with things -- does he chew them up and eat them or just chew ON them? Does he gnaw so hard he is liable to break a tooth? And accept the fact that life holds some risks. We don't want to live in a world where life is so restricted that there are no risks. Do your best for your dogs and don't obsess over it.

Escrito por Sharyn Hutchens em 14 de fevereiro de 2006 para a lista Petdogs-L do Yahoo Groups