BEST BONES FOR DOODLES

[Lynne - North Carolina]

I have given my doodles both raw marrow bones and bully sticks. The raw are pretty messy, and unfortunately, they bully sticks end up being swallowed when they get down to a couple of inches long. I worry about these pieces being in the stomach and not digested easily. Looking for something SAFE and really enticing for the doods. Pigs ears and rawhide seem to harbor stuff that makes them sick, so don't want to use those. Any suggestions are welcome!

[Leslie and Halas]

I just bought a couple of these over the weekend. I gave Halas a filled one, and he loves it. He hasn't chewed on the bone very much yet, because he's been focused on the filling, but I plan to keep my eye on him when he does. I'll let you know if I notice it wearing down his teeth. But my plan is to give it to him for awhile each night. I don't plan to leave it out for him to chew on when I'm not home.

By the way, the filling in the one he has is called "maple syrup bacon." So now his beard smells like breakfast.

[Jackie]

Yum!! Sounds good..lol. Yeah, please let me know. I've been giving him one for alittle while and taking it away. Before that, I just left one down all the time. But his baby teeth were wearing down. Thanks.

[Tegan]

We have a local butcher in our area that has a variety of smoked bones they make on site with no preservatives. Kali has a rather sensitive tummy and those seem to be much better than the pet store variety (I gave her one from a pet store yesterday since they had some on sale and well, she's been making some pretty foul odours since). The only downside is that they need to be stored in the fridge or freezer since they will go bad if left out for more than a few days. You might want to check out any local butchers to see if they do something similar. I find she likes the joints best, she's not a very strong chewer and those are the only ones she can crunch.

[Tamara & Giada]

I just recently tried these for our dogs. They LOVED them. My Shih-tzu, Summer has never been a chewer and because of this her teeth are horrible!!! Well, I gave her this bone for the first time and 2 days later just happened to look at her teeth. I couldn't believe it..........her teeth were at least 80% free of tarter!!!! I'm getting then more today, and will continue to get them as long as they like them. They are a bit yuck, but I make them take them outside:)

[1knme66wzgv4k]

We also get smoked bones from our local butcher! They are excellent quality and so afordable! We buy a big bag and keep them in the freezer.

[Deb, Connor & Simon]

Bully sticks are much more digestible than rawhide because they are beef tendon. If you're buying a 12 in bully, when it gets small enough you can't see it sticking out of your dog's mouth, time to throw it away. I usually let my guys chew on one for about 15 mintues at a time, then put it away til next time. Merrick makes GI Bones, which are shin bones with a bar-b-q type baste outside and "marrow" inside the bone. These will last for quite a while, but again, I let my guys chew for 15-20 minutes, then remove the bone til later. Merrick also makes a pork chew (similar to a rolled rawhide but easier to digest) and they have a beef rib rolled in a rawhide. For small puppies, Merrick also makes a beef tendon chew called a Flossie. It is spiral shaped.

These are by far the most popular chews we sell in our store. Merrick has a website where you can buy direct.

Planet Dog makes some excellent chew toys for dogs with ratings of 1-5 chompers to denote durability. Their toys are embedded with mint, so they smell good, too. :-) West Paw makes one of my all time favorite tough chew toys. It's called a TUX - it bounces, it floats, has a place where you can tuck treats (my guys love this toy with or without treats) and is INCREDIBLY durable. Tuffies makes a wide line of super tough cloth toys with squeakers with a 1-10 tough rating - I sell many of these with the 8-9 rating to lab owners. All of these manufacturers guarantee their products.

Didn't mean to make this post so long, but I think most of these products have a wide distribution or can be ordered online and I know they are good. :-) Hope this helps.

[Patty Barnes]

My guys love knawing raw spare rib bones I get from the butcher. One bone keeps a dog busy for a happy afternoon.

[Jackie]

I've given Beckett these. I've noticed that they wear down his teeth alittle. Now that he has most of his adult teeth I'm concerned about letting him have them too much. Does anyone else have these concerns? I've been just giving him them every once in awhile. But not to often.