It’s something that dogs love, is full of protein and fiber, and it’s a time-consuming treat. I’ve never had any dog which had digestive problems with peanut butter.
It’s also one of those items which have multiple uses. You can use it to disguise a pill, for example, and I once knew a lady who used to smear some on the refrigerator door to keep her dog busy while she clipped his nails. It freezes well, so it’s good for stuffing toys.
Be careful with “soup bones” or “marrow bones”–they’re infamous for cracking and breaking teeth. If your dog is a very persistant or voracious chewer, they might be best to avoid. Any weight bearing bones from large ungulates are going to be too dense for the dog’s teeth. In a really chew-happy dog, they’ll eventually wear his teeth down, if the teeth don’t break first.
My dog’s got a massive head and a bite powerful enough to catch and hold a 500 pound wild boar, he’ll crush a rack of pork ribs in a few casual chomps… but his favorite chew toy, and the one he’s had since he was a smooshy little puppy is… a stuffed hedgehog which has long since lost his grunt 
He also looooooves his nylabone.
Come to think of it, we’ve never really had much issue with finding things for him to chew on. I think a lot of it is that he gets so much chewing out on his food. Yay for raw diets!
Thanks Lissa good to know, should i ever be in a position to have a dog again.
My older dog is an Elkhound mix. Before we got the puppy, her favorite toy was a stuffed monkey which she “babied.” She would mouth it gently, but not really chew, prod it with her nose, and carry it around as she would a puppy. She had it for a couple of years, and it stayed in much the same condition as it was when it was new. Other stuffed toys she would disembowl, but this one she cherished. Unfortunately, the new puppy meant the end of the monkey. They used it to play tug-of-war one day, and Monkey lost his limbs. After that, the older dog wasn’t much interested in it.
On a somewhat related note, and anyone recommend a truly durable fuzzy toy? This guy, despite his innocent appearance, can rip apart even the toughest of fuzzy stuffed toys. He’ll carry around a new toy gently in his mouth for days, or even weeks, but when he goes to town, it’s all over in a matter of minutes – even with toys that rate eight or nine on a chew scale. He doesn’t like rubber or latex toys or plain ropes; it’s gotta’ be cloth and stuffed with something.
Thanks for all the responses.
I didn’t find any soup bones at my usual supermarket so I tried a 6" long smoked (?) pig femur from a pet store. She loves it but she gnawed it down to half the size in one evening. :eek: Maybe good for an occasional treat but not exactly long-lasting. (I’m pretty sure she didn’t swallow big pieces.)
I’ll check other stores for soup bones, though MixieArmadillo’s warning worries me. I don’t know if my dog is a particularly powerful chewer, but she is definitely an energetic and persistent chewer.
I gave her a peanut-butter filled and frozen Kong toy this morning. She didn’t seem too interested but hopefully it’ll start to smell more attractive as it melts. (I guess that’s the idea?)
And I’ve given up on stuffed toys. It only takes a few hours for my dog to tear it up and fill the room with stuffings. Even the canvas chew toys lasted less than a day.
This explains a lot (e.g. why my dog chewed the GPS receiver - it was a wrist mount receiver with a rather sweaty wrist band.) But doesn’t your dog tear up the blanket?
You might have to ask the butcher. Sometimes, they don’t put them out in the meat cases.
But if your dog ate the femur in one evening, I’d say that bones probably aren’t the way to go for her. She does sound like a vigorous chewer.
Did you put any treats in the Kong with the peanut butter?
Mine does. That’s why I always give her an old one which I don’t care if it gets destroyed.
I suppose so.
Yes, the same biscuits I usually put in the Kong, but this time smeared with peanut butter. And frozen overnight. I’ll check up on her during lunch (as I always do).
That’s the other thing with the White Shepherd crosses - every Christmas, Mom and Dad buy them new blankets. M&D sleep with the blankets up to Christmas, then give them to the dogs on Christmas day. Dogs chew the heck out of the blankets (I think they’re, um, fleece blankets but I’m not sure) but they usually do last about a year.
Of course, we’re down to pieces no bigger than the size of my palm by the end of the year.
(There are very few things funnier, btw, than seeing a 100 pound white shepherd dragging around a blanket by its corner just like a small child with a security blanket.)
If I give my little Lhasa Apso a dog biscuit and an ice cube, she ponders briefly and takes the ice cube.
How’d she do?
If she doesn’t like peanut butter (making her one of the only dogs I’ve ever seen who didn’t 
) they sell cans of Kong Filling which you can get at the pet store. I think they have both cheese flavors and meats, and IIRC, you can also feeze it.
Another suggestion I wanted to make: If you’re worried about your dog tearing up her blanket, you could get her a moving pad-- one of those quilted blankets that movers use to pad furniture. They’re generally a lot tougher. I’ve seen them at Lowes. Painters’ canvas might work, too, but I’m not sure if its hemmed.
Pretty well, thanks for the advice! Yesterday wasn’t a very fair test, as I foolishly left a trash can in the open and the dog got into it. :smack: Still, the Kong (filled with peanut butter and treats then frozen) was mostly but not completely full when I got home, and she was still working on it sporadically in the evening.
I’ll look into it, thanks.
I’m also starting to realize a regular schedule is more important than available toys. When I come home late or need to go out in the evening, that’s when she does the most damage. Sometimes I can’t help it though.
We have a most voracious pug who also knows how to tear up a fuzzy toy. So far, the best we’ve found are:
[ul]
[li]toys made by Booda. At the local Walgreens, we’ve found toys shaped like a hedgehog and a duckling, and both lasted quite a long time (relatively speaking).[/li][li]rope bones with very large knots, too big to fit in her mouth all at once.[/li][li]one toy we have that I wish we knew the maker of, because it has lasted for EVER. It’s a plush bone, about a foot long, tiger striped. I think we got it at Wal-Mart, but the tag is long gone. Seriously, the toy-destroyin’ pug has had this bone for over a year, and we play tug-of-war with it very vigorously.[/li][/ul]
One of the best chew toys that we ever gave my old dog were socks. Basically, for a period of months or a year my mother would hold on to all the socks that came through the laundry that she deemed were too old or worn to used again, or socks that were orphans. Then she’d patiently stuff them one inside the other, until she had a single thick sock. Then she would sew it, with the sewing machine, not just along the edges to hold the socks in place, but in a criss-cross pattern across the whole of the sock. Then we gave it to the dog. He couldn’t destroy it. But it was great for playing tug, and just chewing on.
This may work with some dogs, but can be dangerous for your footwear with others. Basically, the dog can get the idea that anything that smells like a sock is fair game, including your shoes. Dogs can’t tell “my” sock from “your” sock-- all socks are the same.
Now, if you’re using other peoples’ socks, that’s a different story, such as if your mom didn’t live with you, but saved orphaned socks for your dog’s chewing pleasure. That’s what my grandmother does.
elmwood, I’m sorry to report that just about no stuffed toy will outlast a determined pooch. My mom works in a pet supply store, and so I’ve tried just about every stuffed toy on the market. (My dogs are her test market.)
Some of them, like Bamboo “Battle Tested” brand toys, which are made of a heavy nylon cloth, last a bit longer than others, but I don’t think a toy has been made which stand up to a vigorous chewer. The toy I just mentioned lasted about a month before Polaris settled down one evening and attacked a seam. Within an hour or two, she had a hole ripped open, and was merrily spreading stuffing all over the carpet.
If your dog prefers a softer toy, I second the suggestion of rope toys. My dog has had a couple for years. One of them is in two pieces (she did a victory lap when she accomplished that feat), but now she just plays with both ends.
My boxer acts like I’m trying to poison him if I give him peanut butter.
I never knew dogs could be picky eaters. We tried four kinds of kibble before finding one that he would eat.
Never had a marrow bone be a problem. Given him hundreds. But he is really only interested in getting the marrow out, and once it is, the bone is useless to him.
Cream cheese in the kong works nicely as well.
For those of you who have dogs who like soft toys mostly for the chance to gut them, we’ve found that our dogs love egg babies. They will pull the eggs out and chew on them (they squeak!), but they leave the “carcass” intact for re-stuffing and future evisceration. We’ve given them two so far; four months later we still have both bodies and 5 of the 6 original eggs; I think we have the other egg somewhere but they like to hide them from each other and sometimes it takes a while for them to bring them all out again. Jake, the older golden, loves to do the gutting and then Loki plays soccer with some of the eggs while Jake carries around the others making them squeak. The eggs do get slimy from dog spit, but that’s okay.
About greenies…our dogs love them, but since our dogs are more in a “let’s see how fast we can chomp down that greenie” frame of mind, the greenies don’t last too long. Also, Jake will swallow large chunks and almost always have to vomit later. They’re pretty expensive for how long they last. However, Wendy the Wonderful Weiner Dog would chew on greenies for a long time, despite her love to destroy these, so I guess it really depends on the dog.
Do you mean it’s possible to train a dog to leave my socks and shoes alone? :smack: After two pairs of shoes destroyed (and never when I’m around, so I can’t discourage her), I’ve resorted to keeping all my shoes in a walk-in closet. And all my clothes. I suppose Bitter Apple would work, though I don’t know if that’ll stain my shoes.
Anyway I still haven’t gotten around to finding soup bones but the peanut-butter Kong and broth-flavored rope toys seem to be working well.
By the way, Kong toys are dishwasher-safe, right?
p.s. Gratuitous dog photos! This one is my favorite.
Rupert the Wonder Beagle prefer soft, plushy toys for his chewing needs; he’ll also chew on the rope toys if they’ve got a plush component (a monkey with rope arms, for example). Pretty much anything else we get him (greenies, rawhide, pig ears, etc.) ends up buried somewhere in the backyard.
Yes, Kongs are dishwasher-safe.
Zoe looks so happy…she sure is a smiley girl. Our girls got their first swimming pools last Sunday. They sure do love the water. The goldens love to bob for things in the water. Loki is especially determined to get whatever we throw in there; Jake gives up and runs off to play with Shane (the black dog).
