November 9, 2012

Just Chew It

The other day on CometDog.com, a site my friend started for "sharing, support & shenanigans" with other dog lovers (and also cat and lizard and any-ol'-pet lovers!), she posted a link to this very informative article from Whole Dog Journal on The Best Rawhide Chews for Your Dog.

Rita is not a destructo-chewer (thank heaven!), but I love to give her something to munch on in the afternoons when she's bored and wants me to stop staring at the box on my desk. Since I normally write in the afternoons, I need to keep her entertained. But I've never been really sure about what's best to give her.

We've tried a few things, starting with bully sticks. You might remember I posted these pics of her enjoying her bully sticks before.
"Give it to me!"


And you might remember/already know that bully sticks = a bull's "pizzle." Luckily I found her non-stinky bull's pizzle (I've heard complaints about the smell before. Stinky bull's pizzle. No thank you.), but still... there's just something about these that is downright gross if you think about it too much. I mean, I guess it's good that we are using every part of the animal and all . . . but where's this pizzle been? Do I really want my girl munching on it?
"That's good pizzle, Momma! I give it a two dew-claws up rating!"
We've also tried antlers. She LOVES the antlers, and they do an amazing job at whitening her teeth (amazing!), but they are really hard and I'm afraid she'll chip a tooth.
"Mmmm. So good. Wish Momma would give me the full rack."
We've also tried rawhides, and I thought as long as they weren't made in China (good details about this in the article) and didn't have a knot on the end, we were okay. (Our vet told us rawhides were okay, but to avoid the kind with the knot because some dogs bite the knot off and swallow it whole. This is also addressed in the article.) So, I'd been buying Rita the rolled kind. Well, the article explains that these can sometimes be a nice solid piece of hide rolled around a bunch of bits and scraps - which your dog could potentially choke on. Oops.

Turns out, you need to look for rolled rawhides that look like this on the end:
Now, that is one piece of hide!
So, I ordered Rita a couple of these ginormous, Made-in-the-USA rolled rawhides from "Wholesome Hide" via Mickey's Pet Supplies. Rita was very excited when it arrived:
"Hmm. I need to study this and figure out the best way to attack."

"I bow to the superior power this giant rawhide has over me!"

"Maybe I should sneak up on it!"

"It smells fantastic. So... cow-y. Mmmm."
"Guess I'll just dive in."
An hour of happy gnawing later, it was STILL ginormous.

I think we have a winner!

Do your dogs like to chew? What do you give them to keep them busy? 

In Other News...
I finally realized that I should take advantage of the "Pages" feature on Blogger and have added an "About us" page and an excerpt from the What the Dog Ate. I don't know why this didn't occur to me sooner... D'oh.

My new ad! Thanks Ge'!
Also, I'm running an ad for my book on Pawcurious, a cool site I recently discovered run by a vet here in San Diego. Thanks again to my friend, Ge', for creating the ad for me! She did a way better job than the simple, boring thing I had in mind!

Finally, I was excited to see that What the Dog Ate is the 3rd "Top Rated" e-book in the "Comic Fiction" category on Amazon. You can check it out here (the link shows the top sellers - and the book's place on that list fluctuates every day, but to the right on that page it shows the top 3 highest rated books - and there's my book! Hopefully it stays that way, or even moves up a spot. If you've read the book - or any book - the best thing you can do for an author is to leave an honest review for them on Amazon or Goodreads. Thanks!)

Oh - I just remembered one other thing... Tomorrow I'm going to be helping out with the annual HOPE telethon for the Helen Woodward Animal Center (the place I volunteer). I'm going to help with the adoptable dog handling and, in theory, I might be on TV in the 1 - 2.30 slot. My hope for the HOPE telethon is that I don't embarrass myself on TV. I'll let you know how it goes next week!

7 comments:

  1. Just set up the DVR so we can watch you in action with those pups tomorrow.

    Lou & family

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  2. Oh man. My dogs LOVE Jones Natural Chews hooves. They smell, but Patches will sneak them into the bedroom at night. She's obsessed with the hooves. And they last practically forever.
    Oh! Come to the blog to claim your major award! I'm betting your pooch will like the Windee Rings.

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  3. OH BOY!!! Those are some terrific chews! Rocket hasn't even made a dent yet and it's been several days! Love Miss Rita and her poses!


    And you are welcome! :)

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  4. I don't give my dogs chew things. I honestly would like to but they create issues in the house:)

    Congratulations on "What the Dog Ate" being the 3rd top rated e-book! That is awesome!

    Good luck tomorrow, I'm sure you'll do fine!

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  5. Woohoo!! That's awesome that your book is rated no. 3 - I'm sure it will be no. 1 in no time, I know my Mum loved it!! :)

    My Mum is always at the computer at the moment, she normally puts carrots into the ends of my bone and I spend forever getting them out again - we ran out of carrots these last few days, so I was really bored, but yay Mum finally went to the store yesterday and we have carrots!! :)

    Wags to all,

    Your pal Snoopy :)

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  6. Congrats on the ranking! Yippee!
    My dogs love the antlers but they have eaten them almost all the way down and now I feel I have to take them away because they might swallow them whole. After Brooks' obstruction and surgery, I'm not taking any chances.

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  7. Wooo hooooo!!! These were the ones we used to get our dogs and stopped. I'm going to make a stop on the way home and pick up a HUGE bag of these.

    Thanks so much for the heads up!

    ReplyDelete

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