Nature's Perfect Chews

Each year across North America millions of male deer, elk and moose shed their antlers providing the perfect solution to your dog's chewing needs.

Using antlers for dogs to chew offers numerous advantages over other dog chews on the market today.

A dog's natural instinct is to search out and chew bones. Antler is bone, but unlike skeletal bones that primarily have a soft center, antler is solid bone making it virtually impossible for a dog to break. Antlers will not splinter or shred, therefore, last a long time.

Antlers are natural and rich in calcium and minerals to enhance your pet's overall health and well being.

All dogs enjoy chewing regardless of size or breed.

Next time your think about buying a bone for your dog, look for nature's perfect chew...an antler.

Taste Test

Did you know that.....
your dog has no real sense of taste as we know it?

A dog smells rather than tastes. It is possible that dogs gain more information about food from their sense of smell than from taste. This may account for their desire to for indiscriminate chewing or eating.

Dogs use their large tongues to lap up water, but they have few taste buds in comparison to humans, approximately one for every six, most of them clustered around the tip of the tongue. They can detect sweet, sour, bitter, and salty tastes.

This dog knows what it likes!

Save Your Shoes!

5 Steps to Save Your Shoes from Your Chewing Canine

You walk into your bedroom to find your dog chewing up your favorite pair of shoes. What do you do, and how do you stop it from happening again? Here are 5 steps to reclaiming your shoes, your socks, your sofa, and any other household object your dog enjoys destroying.

Remain calm. Unleashing your anger on your dog won't accomplish anything. In fact, it can further unbalance your dog - and move him to seek another object to chew to calm down!

Correct your dog. Do not try to grab the object away or take the dog away from the object. Instead, you can use a light touch correction on the neck or hindquarters to get your dog's attention away from the object.

Redirect the behavior. If the correction didn't get your dog to drop the object, find something else that will, such as the scent of a treat or another toy.

Claim the object. Use your energy and body language to communicate to your dog that the object is yours. It can be helpful to imagine an invisible boundary around you and the object.

Find safe chew toys. Many dogs use chewing as a way to calm themselves. Puppies who are teething chew to relieve pain. Provide an object that they can safely chew, such as a chew toy or a bully stick.

If your dog chews up objects while you are away from home, this may be a symptom of separation anxiety.

Why do Dogs Chew?

Is your dog a chewing bandit, chomping you out of house and home? When your shoes, furniture and clothing are all fair game for his teeth, it can be highly frustrating.

Dogs explore the world through their mouths - new objects, new places & new tastes.

Chewing also helps them relieve teething pains, tension and stress. There are also some instances where chewing could be a sign of mental or physical health issues including:

1. Boredom - chewing because there's nothing else to do
2. Poor nutrition - chewing on things to get lacking nutrients
3. Separation anxiety/feeling alone - chewing for comfort
4. Gum or tooth problems - continuously chewing on hard objects

In other instances chewing is quite normal. Dogs who chew significantly more than others are what many call Aggressive Chewers. What makes a dog an aggressive chewer? Here are some guidelines:

1. Destroys an appropriately-sized rawhide in less than an hour
2. Shreds the typical vinyl toy in minutes
3. Toys quickly turn into piles of frayed and tangled threads
4. You feel you'll never get your money's worth out of a toy before it's time to throw it away

Establishing good chewing habits is truly our responsibility as pet owners. Aggressive Chewers will continue to chew inappropriate things until you teach them right from wrong.

Be selective in what you give your dog to chew - start out by only giving your dog proper chew toys. Giving your dog an old shoe to chew teaches him that all shoes are made for chewing.

Dog owners of Aggressive Chewers need the toughest dog toys on the market. Tough toys allow them to exercise their natural chewing instincts and train them on what to chew and not to chew. With an Aggressive Chewer, chances are no dog toy will last forever, but they can still benefit from a tough toy that lasts longer than most.

Tattling on My Dog

Have you ever received the phone call about your dog misbehaving?

I have recently, twice!

My dog happens to like to get in the compost..........and literally, get in. Ebony thinks moldy old food is yummy. We put wire fencing on the ground under the compost bin to keep her from digging underneath. A cinder block is used to keep her from opening the trapdoor meant for shoveling out the decomposed compost. The lid will lock if you remember to do it. Between my neighbors and I in the course of a couple of years we managed to fill the compost bin. Neither of us are too disciplined to turn the compost. We decided it might be a good idea to let the compost do its thing and buy a second bin.

The Master Gardeners of Thurston County sell compost bins and even deliver. We got a new one which stacks nicely together and makes it easy to turn the compost. It was working great. Then the first phone call.

"I believe Ebony is chewing the corners of the compost bin. I don't think our dog (who is twelve years old) would do such a thing."

Sure enough! The corners were chewed and my dog is a notorious chewer. I apologized and said I would watch her. But Ebony knows when I am gone and that Border Collie in her is always looking for something to do. Then the second phone call.

"I came home today and Ebony looked guilty. The compost bin is tipped over."

UGH! Garbage hound has struck again! I will be subjected to horrible farts this evening :(