bully sticks..
 

Ok so I hear about everyone talking about bully sticks and how much their pups love it.. I have seen many of them in petsmart but which one is the best to get.. Miss Brandy's teeth are clean and get brushed everyday.. Vet says their the cleanest she ever seen.. so I want to give her a treat that would keep her teeth strong and clean.. I want to get one for her so.. which one is the best? and where can we get it?

I usually get mine from Best Bully Sticks online either at their site or their ebay store. A couple of times I have gotten some from the grocery store and I bought them at pet store a couple of times. I have to say Gracie prefers the ones from Best Bully. They even look different. Best Bully tells you where they get theirs from while the brands in the other stores give you no information about where they are from or how the animal was raised.

I like to get mine from bestbullysticks.com. Where ever you buy them make sure there not from China.

Bully Sticks and other chews can be a choking hazzard. Don't leave her alone with any ever, and be sure you have enough in your bank account to pay for an emergency surgery to have it removed if she should swallow a chunk of it.

I have read of this and watching them with it.. Question is it a good thing to give to your dog or bad? I hear it helps their teeth and I always watch Brandy she is only 6 months.. she does not have free range in our place either..thank you for your f/b

Make sure you know what they are.

I do..lol

I think they are great for there teeth and keep them from getting bored and into trouble as long as you are watching and around when they are chewing.

Your dog can't bite off a piece of the bully sticks like they can many other chew items. They are dried solid and hard. It takes Gracie a long time just to soften the end of the bully stick and by then she has done enough chewing. When she starts again she has to soften it up all over again. I always get her the 12" size and throw them away when they get to be 3 to 4". Anything a dog puts in it's mouth is potentially dangerous just like you could choke on the next piece of meat you eat. I think having my dog searching around for something to chew and finding pens and cardboard and other plastic items is more dangerous. She needs to chew occasionally and a foot long bully stick is a lot safer than some of the other things I have caught her with. She is almost two and her teeth have stayed perfectly white.

I totally agree with you.. Miss Brandy is just crazy biting up the soles of my nike running shoes.. She doesn't bother with the sneaker but the insole since it comes out she goes nuts with it.. thank goodness it doesn't rip easy.. Bully stick sounds like a good idea.. I never leave her unattended.. I think the rule of thumb is not for them to have free range of the house till their two.. Right.. If I can't watch her I crate her..

Sounds like your doing a good job. Just like you need to baby proof a house when you have kids, you need to keep your home doggie proofed. It's a dog's natural instinct to want to chew. It's better they have something safe to chew than go around destroying things and eating toxic substances because they need to satisfy that desire. I still have to make sure Gracie does not get a hold of things made of plastic or paper in particular. I can't use my little waste basket for the bathroom because she will raid it. She is a good dog but she still has her weaknesses!

When I worked as a Vet Tech, choking and/or chew ingestion was one of the more common problems seen during Emergency hours, so much so, I vowed then that I would never give my dog a chew of any kind, ever again.

I do give raw or boiled soup bones, raw is best but messy, lol. For inside they get cooked, the risk with these is a broken tooth bc they are very hard.

I thought bones were bad.. I never heard of soup bones.. what do you have to do?.

bully sticks
 

I get mine from www.westbrookdog.com
I was told on yorkie forum about this site, no China worry here

Bones, especially cooked bones are bad. The cooked bones are more likely to splinter than a raw bone and splinters can damage the throat or further down the digestive system. Raw bones of the right size for your dog can be OK for a short time but can carry harmful bacteria after an hour or so. Not a very good idea. Bully stick are about the the safest chew available right now for your dog. The junk they sell in Walmart and other department stores are just that JUNK!

You may have to ask for 'soup bones' at your grocery's meat counter. I just boil them for about an hour then let them cool in the pot, take them out and give them to the dogs. You can make soup out of the water... I remove the marrow from the inside of the bones... it's very rich. These are done. Make sure your dog doesn't drop one on your foot. I've never had one of these bones splinter. My Mom used to smear some peanut butter inside the bone to keep her dog's interest.

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Many people used to feed dogs chicken, turkey, pork chop, and steak bones. These are small and when cooked will splinter when chewed and can cause problems in the gut.

This is a recent post about Bully Sticks:

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...t-surgery.html

Rawhide chews can cause problems when swallowed too. They will act like a sponge and absorb any fluid around them and become stuck, and cannot pass. Chopped, pressed rawhide is better, but it is still rawhide.

I agree, chewing on anything inappropriate is not good and can be harmful. I think if you are going to give your dog something to chew, one needs to be aware of the consequences of that item or product. And, yes, dogs can even choke on their food. We need to know what to do when this happens:

There is a 'first aid for choking' article in the YT Library:

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/eme...-maneuver.html

I have four Yorkies. If I give them all a rawhide stick, they will end up fighting bc Peek a Boo tries to collect all of them and hides them in his bed, and then protects the bed against all intruders into the bedroom, lol. He hasn't done this with the soup bones .... yet.

Bully sticks are garbage byproducts in my opinion.

I also caution the use of soup bones - I had a dog crack a tooth a fourth premolar tooth and she had to go for surgery and the veterinary dentist told me not to use any hard animal bones or hooves as they are tooth crackers.

I give mine fresh raw meaty bones. It's the best thing for teeth cleaning imo, it's healthy and all natural. I don't give any large weight bearing bones but I do give necks and backs. Her teeth are sparkling white and I no longer brush them. I'm not really a fan of bullysticks either.

I think as soon as they are potty trained and not chewing up things they should be able to have free range. Two seems like a dog time to not get free range. If we are talking about when your home.