BlueKangaroo
12-14-2007, 04:21 PM
I grew up with dogs and have had so many puppies come through my life, but it's been about 10 years since I had a major hand in raising a puppy (and then it was almost all me, since he was my dog). Anyway, a lot of puppy things are, at this point, instinct for me and a few I'd forgotten until my mother or father reminded me when I called, but this one's a bit more confusing.
I'm now, basically, a full-time puppy nanny for awhile. It's fun, most of the time, but this baby is having a hard time with chewing things. My roommate bought her a puppy Kong and she had no real interest in that. She later came home with a puppy bacon-flavored Nylabone and a rope toy with some sort of bony objects on it. Apparently the puppy nylabones are softer than the normal ones (but are NOT the gummabones, which I think are pretty useless from past experience).
Well, the puppy loves the bacon-flavored Nylabone (and has no use for the other two in the three pack). So much so that she's already chewed off the knuckle on one side. She won't chew the other knuckle, so I've had to take away the bone for her own safety. She's been here almost a week, and hasn't had that bone the whole time. Four days, tops.
Since she's already decimated the puppy bone, and really wants to chew on table legs*, shoe strings, her crate, etc, I think she'd do better with an adult nylabone (sized to a toy or mid-sized dog), but I'm worried she'll chip or break a tooth. Or something else bad. I'm pretty sure when I was growing up the puppies chewed adult Nylabones, but they probably were pre-chewed by the adult dogs in the house. Would that make a difference? She's a Golden Retriever, if that has a bearing on the answer.
*She doesn't like Bitter Apple while it's wet, but doesn't care about it when it's dry. She'll eat anything, more so than most puppies I recall.
I'm now, basically, a full-time puppy nanny for awhile. It's fun, most of the time, but this baby is having a hard time with chewing things. My roommate bought her a puppy Kong and she had no real interest in that. She later came home with a puppy bacon-flavored Nylabone and a rope toy with some sort of bony objects on it. Apparently the puppy nylabones are softer than the normal ones (but are NOT the gummabones, which I think are pretty useless from past experience).
Well, the puppy loves the bacon-flavored Nylabone (and has no use for the other two in the three pack). So much so that she's already chewed off the knuckle on one side. She won't chew the other knuckle, so I've had to take away the bone for her own safety. She's been here almost a week, and hasn't had that bone the whole time. Four days, tops.
Since she's already decimated the puppy bone, and really wants to chew on table legs*, shoe strings, her crate, etc, I think she'd do better with an adult nylabone (sized to a toy or mid-sized dog), but I'm worried she'll chip or break a tooth. Or something else bad. I'm pretty sure when I was growing up the puppies chewed adult Nylabones, but they probably were pre-chewed by the adult dogs in the house. Would that make a difference? She's a Golden Retriever, if that has a bearing on the answer.
*She doesn't like Bitter Apple while it's wet, but doesn't care about it when it's dry. She'll eat anything, more so than most puppies I recall.