Chews wisely

Have you ever bought some great-looking edible chews at the store that were advertised to be suitable for power chewers and cost some high dollars, only to find out later that it took your dog a whopping five Minutes to devour the chew?
Frustrating and demotivating, isn’t it?
Well, after having my fair share of these moments, I have my own list of chews that I will give my power chewer pack. This includes:

• Marrow bones: they last a long time because the dog isn’t eating the bone but rather the marrow inside it. So when I buy them, I ensure they are stuffed with a lot of goodness. Another reason why I like these is, that once the dog has eaten all the marrow out of it, I can re-stuff the bone with my own creations and reuse them
  
• Beef knuckle bones: these last because they are usually huge, and the dog can eat the actual bone plus all the tendons, that are on the outside of the bone. Word of warning: they can be very messy with crumbs all over the floor, so I wouldn’t give them to a dog on carpet flooring
  
• Elbow bones: Great chew, and the dog is eating the actual bone
  
• Shin bones: just like the elbow bones. I discard them once the dog hasn’t eaten off the ends
  

All these bones can be fed smoked or raw. When fed raw, the dog will probably eat more of the actual bone material because the cooking process hardens the bone more.
Another chew that has worked semi-well for some of my dogs are Himalayan Yak chews. I say semi because I have one extreme power chewer who will shrub this in 15 minutes while the others could gnaw on it for hours.
Here are some of the chews that I have found pretty much useless for long-term entertainment

• Bully sticks (don’t last more than 5 minutes)
  
• Pig ears
  
• Beef cheek rolls
  
• Horns and Hooves (they splinter)
  
• Trachea
  
• Chicken feet
  
• Kong edibles
  

Things I definitely cannot recommend are any kind of rawhide chews and ham bones and antlers. The rawhides are chemically treated to be shiny white, and the ham bones cause diarrhea, in my experience. The antlers can be too hard on a dog’s teeth and actually break them especially if the antler has been dried for a long time.
All of these are just my recommendations; please use your own judgment when feeding your dog any chew. I recommend watching your dog whenever you give a chew for the first time before leaving the dog unsupervised with the chew.
Happy shopping!