Substitutes for sticks and pine cones for dogs?
My 5 month old Retriever absolutely LOVES sticks and pine cones. Every time we let her outside to go to the bathroom she comes back with a stick or a pine wanting to bring it back inside. I have heard some terror stories about dogs and pine cones and wish we could find something she would like to chew on more than what nature has to offer.
We have at least 4 different sized bully sticks around our house that she can access at any time of the day, yet she seems to be losing interest. We also give her dental bones, hooves, pork bones, nylabones, etc.
Nothing that we gives her can ever measure up to the great ol' pine cone in the backyard. I am wondering if anyone has gone through this with their dog and if they have found anything that seems to work that is dog-safe and also house-safe (don't want to clean up a big mess inside).
Thank you!
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Mine did the same when he was that age.
Must be the flavor of wood that they can't get enough of.... he still likes to chew up a good stick if given the chance.
My solutions was to find a broken branch about 2 inches thick (too thick to completely chew up) and strip all of the bark off of it.... and let him go to work.
Did he manage to chew of the corners and swallow flakes of wood.... yes. Did it hurt him or even slow him down.... no. And he eventually got sick of it... and prefers rawride "bones" now.
Remember.... they "chew until they are two."
I have about 20 big elm trees in my yard & I go out & pull down dead wood. some branches are pretty big, 4 or 5 in diameter & they will chew those down to just poles. Not all my dogs are chewers but the ones who chew do like to chew on them. They would also steal fire wood from the pile.
Bring home dead wood or a few chunks of fire wood from some one who burns wood. Get a 8ft 2X2 & cut it into one foot sections.
If you have a yard of any kind you could get them big knuckle bones from the butcher.
Check out the puzzle toys for dogs.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=puzzle%20toys%20f...
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oG7n6pZLBOrX...
kong with peanut butter in it