The problem with Kody is that he's an intense chewer, too intense. When he gets a chew he starts working on it and won't stop. But that's not all, he gets better and better at chewing them faster. In the case of the rawhide chews he finally learned he could just chew off gigantic pieces and swallow them.

This morning, he got one stuck in his throat. He started making the scariest noises. He coughed that piece up again, but then re-swallowed it. Just a few minutes ago, he threw up his lunch and in it was a big piece of rawhide. He did the same thing last night. That's why this is the end of chew toys.

It's so unfortunate, because he loves them so much. I hope I can find some good alternatives to chew toys that give him at least some chewing satisfaction. I mentioned there might be one exception which is that if I can find a chew toy that turns to mush in a bowl of water in a half hour, I might give that to Kody.

The truth is, I'm probably very lucky that Kody threw up those pieces of rawhide. Since he hasn't yet fully passed any food I'm not in the clear yet, either. But we'll just stop the chews altogether and hope things go well. He seems pretty happy, so I he's not clogged up.

Kody could best be described as traumatized followed by drowsy. He can walk and jumped into the back of the car but I think both the post stress and the medicine are making him very tired.

Physically, he has a little patch on his leg shaved for the IV. He coughed every once in a while after I first picked him up. Both of his cheeks are still a little swollen but the doctor says that will fix itself pretty quickly. Kody doesn’t need any medicine after the surgery, and should be mostly pain free without it.

I asked the dentist, “What’s the hardest thing Kody can chew on going forward?” He said rubber toys like a kong would be the hardest thing I would want to give him.

We also had a discussion about rawhide. They sell CET Enzymatic Oral Hygiene Chews for Dogs at my vet and the dentist had them too. The medium ones I would use are about 2″ x 3″ rawhide. I asked the dentist if it would be OK if Kody swallowed these.

His feeling was that it was fine. He has seen dogs come into his office after swallowing the knotted end of a rawhide bone and seen it under x-ray expanded a bit and the dog still passed it without surgery. It’s not a good idea to let that happen, of course, but the point was that a 2″ x 3″ single sheet rawhide chew doesn’t present a very likely worst case scenario. He gives his own dogs chews like this and allows them to swallow them.

This is a big relief to me because even though these won’t last as long for Kody as bully sticks, they will definitely be better at cleaning his teeth.

Speaking of which, when Kody gets his crown placed I will also have his teeth cleaned. It was only a hundred bucks more which feels like a drop in the bucket at this point. Then I will start brushing his teeth daily.

I asked the dentist what a good process was for training your dog to let you brush his teeth. He said, first to put a little wet food on the toothbrush and just let the dog eat it and chew on the brush for a little while. Then stop the session and give the dog a special treat he will only get after getting his teeth brushed. Continue to do that for a few days or until they seem comfortable and then add in kind of touching the tooth brush to a single tooth the way you would want to hold it for brushing. And then stop the session and give the special treat. Over time you’ll be able to truly brush your dog’s teeth.

You never stop giving the special treat after brushing but eventually the dog will basically come and sit with you to have their teeth brushed and then be happy to get the treat. Classic positive training.

I’m just glad Kody is okay. He’s laying beside me in a deep sleep and it feels good to know he’s taken care of. My energy has also come back having put this behind us, or at least the hardest most painful part. I feel like I’m breathing easy for the first time in two weeks. At this point, if feels very worth it to have spent the money on this.

We tried brushing his teeth (letting him chew on a tooth brush) and I’ve narrowed it down to the his right side or if you’re looking at him the left side of his mouth. I’m fairly certain whatever happened, it happened while he was chewing on a bully stick. I’m also fairly sure that whatever it is it might be hurting him at least somewhat at all times. My best guess is a hard piece of bully got jammed between two teeth because he’s doing the kind of licking he does when he’s trying to get a piece of rope out from between his teeth.

He can eat his food and kibble fine, but is slow to eat hard cookies. He will only nibble with his front teeth on a bully stick, but seems interested in them, but looses interest when he realizes he can’t make much progress with just his front teeth.

I tried to get a look to see if it’s something just stuck between his teeth but he clenches down and I can’t see. I don’t want to try to force his jaw open so I’m going to take him into the vet and let them have a look. It’s time for his yearly checkup anyway.

I hate it when he’s hurting and I’m helpless to do anything about it. It kills me. I wish I would have figured this out days ago. I wish I would have figured it out while the vet was open. I hate that I have to trust the vet to be gentle with Kody and really figure out what’s wrong, because to tell you the truth, I don’t really trust that they care or that they will take the time to figure out what’s going on. I wish Kody could talk, but I guess it’s good that I’m getting a little better at reading him. I never thought owning a dog would be this hard. I know for a fact that it’s not this hard for other people.

The way you train it is basically by using a clicker and clicking and treating when they get on the mat and doing some other simple exercises on the mat. You’re basically training that fun and rewarding things happen on the mat.

The first time I did it, I accidentally messed it up because I went to fast and did long waits on the mat and after that Kody wouldn’t even step on the mat. So we went back to square one and did more simple things. Just sits and downs and quick things. Now he’ll ask to play with the mat, even though we don’t do it nearly as often as we probably should. But Kody’s learning lots of stuff right now, so I’m not too worried.

There’s been one pleasant side effect of this. Kody has another little snuggle sack that is kind of like a mat. Since we started that mat training, he goes and lays on that when I’m working in the kitchen or at my desk. I also try to move it so he can have a good view of me working wherever I am. He usually takes his bully stick with him onto the mat, which is great. He never did this before mat training, but now it’s his default behavior. So I think I’m just going to make this “the mat” because he can even snuggle inside of it if he wants to and it’s just as easy as a mat to transport.

When things start making sense to a dog, everything starts getting easier and better. It’s great when that happens.

When you order 50 bully sticks at a time from Amazon (via Dig It Pet Products) they come as a case with the packaging for retail. I just chose the number 50 because it was nice and round, I didn’t know that was exactly how many were in the boxes they get.

Why would I order 50? The economy has been playing funny tricks with the price of pet products. I’ve noticed the prices of all pet products everywhere are going way up, sometimes even doubling. I used to by these bully sticks at an actual store, and I think they were about $5.50 each. But now, that same store has jacked the price up to $9.00. Seriously? $9.00 for a bully stick? Even online the price fluctuates. $3.99 (for the Free Range Moo! Supreme bully sticks, which last twice as long is the same company’s next lower grade, Select) seems to be the lowest price and it’s only available on Amazon. The seller’s own website is oddly always more expensive even though their costs for selling it themselves should be lower. Anyway, when I see them at $3.99 I buy big because who knows when or if they’ll be back to that price. As of this writing, they are $4.39 which is still a really great price.

The thing is bully sticks are like lattes for my dog, he really likes them, and he gets them often, but if the price goes up too much, it’s over. As the price goes up, I quickly start buying less. Once they get higher that $5.50 I won’t buy any at all. At $5.50 I would probably only buy them occasionally. I know bully sticks are probably pretty cheap to make and once they start charging a lot for them, it feels insulting.

I got my first order of Amazon Bully Sticks today. The place I usually buy them was always more expensive than Amazon but more convenient because it was just down the street. But the other day, I noticed they had raised the price $3.00 per bully stick to above $8.00! The ones at Amazon are $3.99.

I should tell you, these aren’t just any bully sticks, they are the bully sticks. I have found the perfect bully stick and I’ve talked about them here before, the Free Range Moo! 12″ Supreme Bully Stick. They last a long time and they have no odor. I’m definitely comparing apples to apples, as I don’t use any other bully sticks but these.

Note that Moo! also makes a “select” bully stick. There is a difference, the select ones are thinner. Yes, there are different grades of bully sticks. The “supreme” ones are definitely worth the extra dollar if you a have a strong chewer like I do. They will last at least twice as long as the “select” bully sticks.

I ordered 10 this first time and was happy that they arrived and were properly labelled as the “supreme” bully sticks. So next time I will probably order like 50 to save on shipping charges. These are the cheapest I’ve found and they are even cheaper than if you order directly from the company that ships them, so definitely go through Amazon.

Just for fun I ordered a Moo! Bully Jr. Knotted Bone. It turned out to be too small and thin. I gave it to Kody and planned on keeping an eye on him but got a call from my sister. Next thing you know, it was gone. Yikes! He doesn’t seem sick or anything, so I’m hoping it won’t cause digestive issues. When I realized it was gone he was right under the Amazon box saying, “Give me more!” I have no idea how much he chewed the pieces before swallowing them. I know he had to chew it some because he doesn’t usually swallow larger things he can chew on and it was way to big to swallow when I gave it to him. Anyway, I would say avoid the Bully Jr. Knotted Bone. Even puppies would probably love the full sized bully sticks, and they’d last for days.

Happy Bully Stick Chewing!

It’s been a couple of months and it’s flea season and Kody’s been a little itchy lately, so I applied Advantage today. I’m getting really good at it now. I can get the hair to part so I can apply drops on the skin. It’s easy for Kody and me. Then I always follow up the application with a fresh bully stick.

He hates it, though, I think it’s the smell he doesn’t like. He gets a little moody until it dries, which takes longer than you’d think. Poor guy, but he’ll fell better in a little while.

Today on a walk I walked him right into another dog. It was an accident there was a fence blocking my view. Kody started barking so we just walk away until he felt he could control himself, which was about 20 feet, and the other dog walk away from us further. Then I turned right around and started clicking and treating. Then the dog was in viewing range and crossed our path again for a while after that and Kody was doing pretty good, really good considering how it had started.

But even though he barked, it’s just nice to me to be able to gain control and peace again after that happens. It makes all the difference in the world. When we were done with our walk I was so happy and proud of Kody. Just a short while ago, that kind of event would have ruined our walk and put me in a bad mood.

Hopefully our good fortune will continue and when I get mentally settled again, we’re going to do some work with other dogs with our trainer. I’m really looking forward to it. I gave my trainer a reference the other day and was so happy to do it, she really has helped us a ton.

I’ve been watching golf lately and this commercial keeps coming up. This is how Kody acts when he has a bully stick and I love it. Kody even brings his bully stick to me to “deposit” when we go outside.

It makes me laugh every time I see it, especially the part where the dog’s dreaming. The music is great and so appropriate. I know they’re trying to make a point with this commercial, but it’s actually a really good depiction of dog behavior. I know we can all relate.

I know that I don’t really know what Kody is thinking, but if I am doing him some sort of a favor by protecting his bully stick for him, then I’m really happy to be able to help him out in that way.

It was dark and there were some teenagers outside working on their car. I wouldn’t say they were in any way dangerous, but maybe suspicious and Kody picked up on that. Plus he is still nervous about anyone outside when it’s dark because we don’t encounter that very often. His ears were back and his tail was down. So we went back in to get the hot dog bits. We started off right by our front door and did “look at that” until Kody seemed comfortable and then went down the stairs and continued training both closer and further away from the teenagers. Things went pretty well, I think as well as they could have gone. It was one of those “first time” situations so it’s about starting a pattern, not being perfect, and I think we did that successfully.

If you’re a regular reader you might remember how I mentioned this type of behavior in the past where Kody has seemed to want to entrust me with the safety of his bully sticks rather than his own hiding places.

The other interesting thing that happened is that Kody followed me for a while. He’s done that a few times since we started using the new trainer’s methods. I think now that he realizes he needs to track where I am to walk on a loose leash that it’s sometimes just easier to do that from behind me. Who knows, but it’s definitely a good thing. I’m a little thrown off by it. I’m so used to tracking him that it’s weird not knowing what he’s doing.

The best place to do that is in the bed because there are sheets and comforters to bury it under. But he never really feels secure with any of the hiding places he chooses and soon comes back to dig out the bully stick and find a new location.

Just a few minutes ago, he barked and it was about time for us to go outside so I got up to let him out. But when I approached him, he ran into the bedroom. I figure this would be a good time to get the bully stick back anyway. Kody ran up the ramp onto the bed, got the bully stick, brought it down, ran to our usual “trade” area, set the bully stick down and looked at me. I said, “Do you want to trade?” I got a little piece of roll-a-round to give him in return and put the bully stick in the cupboard in the kitchen.

This was very odd. He loves bully sticks and would normally not be so obviously willing to give it to me. He will normally trade just fine, but this time he didn’t make a single protective move, in fact, he seemed to be leading me. It seemed he wanted me to take it.

I wonder if he thought my hiding places were better than his, and since he knows he’ll get it back anyway, just gave it to me. It was really odd, but charming. We’ll never really know our dogs’ motivations, but sometimes they sure have a way of intriguing us.

I am not feeling well. It seems like, compared to when I was a kid, being sick always sneaks up on me now. It starts of with a few days of feeling not so good and then one day I realize, “Hey! I’m sick!” Of course, it’s much better than being blatantly sick, but I still have no energy to do anything, especially write impassioned blog posts. Hopefully this will pass soon. Kody’s looking after me with plenty of kisses. At the moment, he’s chewing on a bully stick to give him some “enrichment” to make up for our reduced activity.

I am a big fan of bully sticks, I tried bones, but soon found them to have too much risk of tooth breakage. But bully sticks have never done me wrong. I’ve been through many brands and have found what I think is the best one. The Free Range “Moo!” 12″ Supreme Bully Sticks.

Here’s what’s so great about them. First of all, they don’t smell. The other brands have quite a strong and unpleasant odor. These really don’t smell at all. Your dog can chew and kiss you and his breath is actually fresher!

Second, Free Range has different grades of bully sticks, and the Supreme grade lasts for ever. They have a Monster grade now too, but I haven’t used those. I can take one bully stick and make it last two days. It would probably last one day if I gave it in the morning and never took it away, but it would he would still be working on it when it was time to go to bed.

These are great for dachshunds. I don’t know if all dogs are like this, but Kody is a massive chewer. It’s hard to find anything that lasts a while, is economical, and safe. But these bully sticks are.

I write about these all the time, but I still want to warn that you need to supervise enough to take the bully stick away with about about 1.5 to 2 inches left. While Kody has swallowed that last piece (probably 0.5 inches) and was fine, I wouldn’t want to take that chance on purpose. You want to take it away at a length where they can’t swallow it, because if it’s small enough to swallow and you come looking for it, unless you have the your dog so well trained they will drop food out of their mouth on command, they are going to swallow it rather than give it to you. They LOVE them. Kody is pretty good about trading for that last bit now, but at first these are like heaven to them.

This Amazon price is great to, it’s at least $2.00 cheaper per bully stick than in a store, probably more. And I go through at least one a week. That’s at least $8.00 saved per month! And one more tip, I made the mistake of getting the 6″ sticks for while. It’s better to get the longer ones and take it away and give it back later. The 6″ ones don’t leave much room to chew before you have to take it away so you end up wasting more.

Amazon: “Moo!” 12″ Supreme Bully Sticks

On his second bone, he got much more aggressive. Within a couple of hours he had chewed out all the marrow and was really going to town on the bone itself. Again, it was just inviting trouble.

I’ll stick with the bully sticks. I do have to keep an eye out for when the bully stick gets small, but this is OK, because it still seems like the bully stick is the perfect chew toy for Kody.

One day I went to my favorite pet store to buy some more bully sticks. They were out of the brand I prefer which are nice thick ones that last over a day and are cheaper than the others. I was thinking of getting some others when I asked the woman, “Well, you guys recommended the bully sticks, and they were great. My dog is a super chewer, so what else do you recommend that would last a long time?”

I should explain that this pet store only carries natural foods and high quality products, so I trust them. The people are also knowledgeable and use these products for their pets. I wouldn’t even think of asking this question at a regular pet store. Which is why I was surprised by her answer.

She suggested a 4 inch piece of a cooked beef leg bone. I was like, what? So here were my questions which I’m sure are your questions too.

Aren’t raw bones supposed to be safer than cooked?

She said that raw bones are OK for dogs, but you have to pick them up after a few hours because they will start to become dangerous for humans. So then you miss out on how long they last.

But aren’t cooked bones supposed to splinter?

She said that these big thick beef leg bones will not splinter. She said the worst that had happened to her was one of her big dogs broke one of the 6 inch bones in half, which just meant they had two 3 inch bones then.

How long will they last?

She asked one of the guys who worked there how long his dachshund would keep a bone. He said about a week.

The bone was only $2.50, I was used to paying $5.00 for bully sticks that lasted a day! So I bought a couple of the bones. They are really thick, so Kody can’t chew on the outside of the bone because his mouth isn’t big enough. Instead, he chews the marrow out of the bone. He chews from the side of the bone with the bottom part of his jaw outside the bone and his nose inside the bone. Well, at least he works his way there. At first the bone is full of marrow which he somehow chews out.

It’s been about a week and we’re still on the first bone. He loves it. At this point he’s not obsessed with chewing it all day, but when he’s bored he’ll go grab it and work on it. If I’m watching TV he’ll be on my lap with it.

I did a little more research on bones since then, and the internet reflects all possible opinions. One other concern I found was that heavy chewers could break their teeth on bones because they are hard. I think that’s a valid point. So I watched Kody to see if he was chewing in a way to make that a possibility, but he doesn’t see to chew on the bone, he’s working on the marrow.

The unfortunate truth is that every toy is potentially dangerous. So you just have to choose the toys you feel are less dangerous in general and less dangerous for you depending on your dog. And you also have to remember that if serious accidents were that common, the products would not be sold. At some point it’s like the choice between letting your child go outside at the risk of getting hit by a car while doing your best to educate them, or keeping them in the house at all times. Even though there’s risk, you have to give your dog something to do.

But this morning I noticed something surprising. Kody already has a small Extreme Kong, but I bought him a new medium sized Classic Kong yesterday and it came with some free Kong treats. I was just about to throw them away because I figured they were full of chemicals. Then I noticed the package said “all natural”. I didn’t believe it so just to entertain myself I looked at the ingredients. OMG. They were not only truly all natural but they were actually really good ingredients for dogs. No corn, wheat, or soy. Here they are:

barley and spelt flours, gound oats, chicken meat, rice flour, chicken liver, canola oil, beet pulp, dried skim milk, apples, salmon oil, tumeric, tocopherols (natural source of vitamin E)

It’s nice to see that dog treat manufacturers are starting to use better ingredients. I will actually let my dog have these! The truth is, even with the better ingredients I’m sure they’re making a ton of profit, so why not?

These last at least all day, and sometimes two. When he has one he chews on it nonstop all day. I have to take it away to get him to go outside and when we come back in he starts sniffing around to find it. He’s not possessive of it, he just loves the chewing.

Kody un-stuffs a soft toy in about half an hour. And then I have to worry about threads or him chewing parts off. As for the toys that claim to be tough, he’s tougher and they don’t last much longer. I don’t buy those anymore because their toughness isn’t worth the added cost. Then with rawhide chews he gets them soft pretty quickly and has swallowed them before. So I don’t like those.

So for the bully sticks to last a whole day, and be tough enough that he only chews of tiny bits at a time gives me a worry free treat and him a ton of fun. I didn’t know about these before, and I expect others don’t either, but they are the perfect toy.

Watch out for rawhide treats that look the same. Bully sticks will always be labelled as such, it’s not a brand name, so don’t be fooled. They’re uncommon, a pet store here has an entire isle of rawhide and in the middle was one, just one, bin of bully sticks. Natural pet stores will have more. They are a bit pricey in the stores, up to seven bucks a piece. They’re less than three dollars each at Amazon. Still cheaper that a stuffed toy and they last much longer.

One safety note is you take it away before it gets short enough for them to potentially swallow, so you do have to monitor that, but it isn’t likely to sneak up on you. They start out at twelve inches and I take it away when it’s two for Kody. Your dog may be able to swallow larger things so adjust as needed. So these are not good toys if you’re not able to monitor your dog or if you’re away. They’re perfect for when you’re at home with your dog and need a little time for yourself.

The weather is horrible so we haven’t gone on our usual walks today. To keep Kody occupied and to use of some energy, I gave him a bully stick which he’s been working on for hours.

Well, he’s only about half way through it and is ready for a break, but desperately wants to bury it. He’s trying everything, the pillows, the couch dog blanket, he even pulled the liner out of his crate and was whining because he couldn’t dig through the crate. He seems to have found a decent place in his dream sack, but it’s no substitute for dirt.