Face it DOGS LOVE TO CHEW, not to mention that it is really good for their teeth. Out of my five dogs, three have never had their teeth cleaned, and they 12, and two 8 year olds, and they have never needed their teeth cleaned, and yet their teeth look great. The fourth has had his teeth cleaned once, and the last dog more because she has had some ongoing dental procedures, so I do a cleaning when they put her out for the other stuff. I owe the good teeth to good breeding and good chews. Please remember though it is important to choose the right chew for the right reason, and always supervise your dogs when chewing. The best chew for one dog is not the best for another.
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NOTE: The information presented here reflects many years of my personal experience, and testing. I have not however tested everything on every type and size of dog. Make your choices of chews wisely after much consideration. I will provide you with what I know, but am not responsible for your final choices and outcome from that. You owe it to your dog to research your choices beside what I offer you here, all along considering how your dog(s) chew.
Chews serve five areas, some primal, some conventional:
- Brings Mental Balance-through the primal act of chewing and gnawing on bones.
- Keeps Teeth Clean-through the natural action of chewing, and can replace some or all of the customary teeth cleanings, where your dog has to be under, and is quite costly now.
- Keep Mentally Occupied-providing your dog with new chews can keep him or her occupied when you need some quiet. Especially puppies.
- Expend Excessive Energy-for those high drive dogs, and young dogs. As a reward after working for you, a chew cannot be beat.
- Nutritional-Choose 100% digestible, and natural chews, and all that fun they have will also be good for them.
Brings Mental Balance. Dogs need to chew. It is part of their eating behavior. To deny dogs all chewing is to deny them their natural instinct. When you can tap into the innate desires and drives of a dog, you keep them mentally balanced and happy. I imitate them hunting and then eating, by taking my dogs on a hike, or doing search and rescue scent work, then they are rewarded with a nice chew.
Cleans Teeth. Not only has it gotten extremely expensive to have your dogs teeth cleaned, but they have to put them under to do it. Some dogs do not do very well at all with anesthesia and can be aggressive for a week or two afterwards until all the drugs are out of the system. I have a dog now that had an "infiltration" on the leg where the catheter was placed in the leg, and she now has a permanent foot injury due to ligament damage in her foot. This stuff does happen. In some cases dogs can die under anesthesia. I prefer to not have to put them under for teeth cleaning unless really necessary. The cost of chews is much better money spent then dental cleaning every couple of years.
Keep Mentally Occupied. If you have a young, anxious, high drive dog, or just need a moment to clean without the dog(s) underfoot, the bully sticks are for you. They are great on rainy days.
Expend Excessive Energy. When your dog starts that spastic running around the house, there is a bully stick to your rescue.
Nutritional If a dog has to chew and consume something I would want it to be nutritional. Rawhide bones are NOT nutritional and can cause a lot of problems, so stick to 100% digestible chews such as bully sticks. There are many other great products from the wonderful company I get my products from (link at bottom).
Remember each dog chews different, and you many choose a chew that last shorter or longer for certain reasons. The only way you know how a dog will do with a certain chew, you must observe it. Some dogs chew nice and slow, and some will try to swallow big chunks. So KNOW YOUR DOG. One example of how fast things can go wrong is when I had a dog choke on a single piece of kibble dog food. I gave her a few pieces as a treat and she inhaled it. She was only 7 weeks old at the time. She actually died, but the Heimlich Maneuver, and CPR saved her. I highly recommend you take the American Red Cross' Pet First Aid Course. But here is a great brochure on canine CPR and Heimlich, that you can save and print.
dogcpr.pdf
I have tested all the below chews with all five of my dogs. I have a mix bag of chewers in my pack. Because of age and chewing preference they all have different needs. I only have one that likes to try and swallow chunks, he is my scary one. I have to be more selective about what chews I give him.
I never feed rawhide. It is processed with a lot of bad chemicals, and is very hard for dogs to digest. It is a big source of impaction for dogs as well due to the lack of digestibility. I also do not feed real bones, such as marrow bones, and the ones sterilized. One of my dogs cracked a tooth on one, and the Board Certified Vet told me they they are the number one reason for broken teeth.
Bully Sticks
Because Bully sticks meet all five areas they will remain my favorite.
This is a very long lasting chew if you get the right size for the size of dog. It generally comes in 6", and 12", and in different diameters. There are also different shapes, which will determine how long it lasts. The braided, and bone shaped ones will last the longest, with the bone being the longer of the two. Some batches have a slight order to them, but not much, so don't let that turn you off of the bully sticks. Just let them air dry some and that usually takes care of it. There are no dyes or chemicals, and I have never had one stain any carpet or flooring.
With a small/medium, standard, thick, and jumbo size, there is a size for all. The Jumbo is the hardest to get though, so if you have a really aggressive chewer you might consider the fully bully stick that is 30 plus inches long. Purchase a few of each size and see how long it takes your dog. If you don't have a very aggressive chewer, the small/medium will probably work. I had one Bloodhound Boot Campee that if the chew was not the thickest available he would chew off a chunk, so he had to always have the jumbos, and they had to be taken away from him once they got to about three inches. Then my dogs would chew it. So as a rule, you should get the thickest one your dog will chew. My dogs are not aggressive chewers, so I stick with the small/medium, or standard. They do like the braided ones though, the pretzels, and the bones.
Himalayan Chews
This chew also met all areas so is a regular in my house.
Wow, talk about good for your dogs. This stuff is dried, very dense hard cheese from the Himalayas. It is actually eaten by the people there. The owner of the company it comes from will chip off a piece, and put in it his mouth on long trips. I did taste it, but have yet to actually just eat a whole piece. To me it taste like smoked cheese, quite good. Very nutritious. This one lasts a very long time as well. I have gotten some that will last about four times, if not longer then the bully stick. I have gotten some that lasted longer, but this could possibly be due to how much they dry it. I haven't figured that one out. They are more expensive then the Bully's so I limit them to getting one a month. If you have a iron jawed dog, he may be able to bite of small chunks, so make sure that is a dog that will chew the chunks and not try to swallow big pieces. All mine are okay with this chew, and chew up any smaller pieces. I like if to give them something a bit different. For smaller or less aggressive dogs, this chew could last a week or longer. There are no dyes so there is not staining.
Cow Ears
This chew meets all five areas, and is also a mainstay in my house.
They use to have two sizes, the small and large. But lately they have only had the small ones. they work good for shorter duration chews, and they actually last a fairly long time compared to other chews. If you have small dogs the small is great, but it is still a nice shorter lasting chew for big dogs. I do hope the large ears will come back again. These ears are dried not processed. It is not like rawhide, and it is not like pig ears. Pig ears can be oily, but these are not. My dogs can usually finish a bully in one setting, even if it takes them hours, but they usually do not finish a large cow ear. They are clean, dry, no smell at all, and will not stain carpet.
Pig Snout
This chew meets all five areas for the most part. Maybe does not last as long as some of the others.
They are still not bad, but are on par with the small/medium bully sticks, and the small cow ears for my dogs. It is however a really good chew that cleans teeth extremely well. It is also all my dogs favorite so I keep one for them as a change of chews. If I had all the above chews on the floor along with a pig snout, they would all choose the pig snout. Great for smaller dogs, or for larger dogs that are medium chewers. But also it is not quite as hard as the bully, so would be very good for young puppies. They have no smell, are not oily and do not stain. I actually think they look a bit comical.
Beef Trachea
This chew almost meets all five areas, but does not last as long as the others, so does not keep dogs occupied for very long.
But my dogs do love these, so like with the pig snouts I buy these for faster, reward type chews, plus they cost less then the pig snouts. In fact I have never tested this one with the Pig Snout, but I would bet it would be close. My dogs go nuts over Beef Trachea's. I have actually had a couple of my dogs turn down a bully stick if the Beef Trachea's are in the same box. They look at the bully stick then look at the trachea, then whine for it. The trachea is one of the best chews for teeth cleaning. I do have one dog I have to watch. When he gets to the end, he will try to swallow it while it is to big. They are soft, yet crunchy, and chewy. Very slight film on it, but not oily, and does not have much odor. I have never had these stain the hard floor or carpet.
Great White Chews
This item meets all five areas, but is almost to hard to chew for my dogs.
My dogs don't chew these much because they take so long. They are all older now so want their chew to be easier to chew, and consume. I can put some down and a month later there will still be parts left. I am not sure how they would do with an aggressive chewer. This item is wild ocean thresher shark spine only. So nutritious, and actually provides added benefit not found even in your daily meals. Kind of like an apple a day thing. Feed one of these every week for nutrition, teeth cleaning, and fun for your dog. No stain or smell. This item has come under scrutiny by naturalist, so you may not see these on the menu for long. Once they are gone from this company, I doubt they will be back.
Texas Taffy
This item did not meet all five areas, except for very small or very young puppies.
It just did not last long enough for my dogs, but would be very good for the smallest of dogs like Yorkie size, or very young puppies. They would be a good item for cleaning the teeth of small dogs. Clean, dry and make no mess.
Beef Tendons
This item meets all five areas.
The small did not last a really long time, but the large is pretty darn good. Great for cleaning teeth and my dogs like these a lot. Great for all sizes of dogs, and would be a better choice for dogs with teeth that are not so good, or missing. It is not as hard initially as the bully stick, so would also be very good for very young puppies.
Stuffed Gullets
The item did not meet all five areas.
I have not done these in awhile because they ate them fast and they were very messy. I do know they changed the stuffing at one point, so you might just want to try one to see if you like them yourself.
Sam's Yams
These did not meet all five of my areas, but are still pretty cool.
They did not last that long for my dogs, but I highly recommend these for smaller dogs, and very young puppies. Very clean and dry, and quite nutritious.
Lamb products
These products do not meet all areas for chews, but are really the best treats ever.
They are so very nutritious, just don't last long for big chewers. They are always adding new stuff and I can't even keep up with them, but some of the smaller lamb chew products would be wonderful for small dogs, and young puppies. The dried lamb lung is my choice of special training treats, and I get it from them by the pound. They break up nicely into small training bits. The good thing is I can feel at peace that I am giving them something very nutritious with nothing added. I have tried a few of the lamb products and my dogs like them all. But they did not last long. So I HIGHLY recommend these for training treats/rewards for all dogs, and chews for smaller dogs.
Fish Stix
This one meets all areas.
This one was so long lasting for my dogs that they did not chew them that often. They are old enough now they want that faster consumption reward. I have a lot of clients that love this chew though, both large and small dogs. Even for aggressive chewers, it lasted a really long time. This item has also come under attack, being a sting ray tail, so you may not see them much longer, and by the time you read this, it may be gone off the menu.
Antlerz
This chew did not meet all areas.
My dogs would not chew these. They are hard, and more bone like. If you like bones, you will like these. The only dog I would consider this with is one that is not being shown, young, very aggressive chewer, as over time this chew can be chewed down, where a bone cannot. I have had a couple of boot camps that loved them, but they were younger dogs that needed to chew a lot.
They have some new items I will be trying, so check back to see how they rated.
This is a great company to order from. They really have great prices. When you purchase your chews through my link below I get a rebate, which helps me provide chews for my SAR dogs. All my human search work is volunteer, so the rebate really helps. You pay no more, and the process is no different. Just click on my personal affiliate link to go to their web site, and then start your shopping.
To say thank you for ordering from my link, I will make myself available via email to answer your chew questions.
http://www.bestbullysticks.com/affiliate?aid=096699
Thank you,
Kim Willis, Master Trainer
