The first thing I ever bought for Donna was a nylon bone which frayed within seconds of Donna laying her paws on it. I went, “Oh shoot! There’s goes this expensive bone! I should have bought the Nylabone instead!” I had already read good reviews of the Nylabone online but when I went to the pet store, I somehow picked another bone instead. Yikes!
It wasn’t long that I ended up buying the Nylabone for Donna, but you know what. After a while, it seemed Donna settled in her new environment and she didn’t chew on her toys as much, and spent more time sleeping instead.
As for the first bone I bought for her? It’s still around, its ends frayed more than the hardy Nylabone. I later bought a rawhide milkbone for Donna so that we have a few bones that we can rotate and keep her boredom at bay.
But before we started rationing them, when Donna still had all her bones at her disposal, it almost seemed like Donna prefer the first bone more than her Nylabone. Or maybe its just me convincing myself that she was having more satisfaction ripping bigger bits out of the yellow bone than small slivers out of her Nylabone.
I’m writing about bones today because Mr P’s cousin’s dog Doudou is certainly having fun with her new Nylabone that we got for her. The talented Doudou has to date ripped all her toys, often within minutes, and our cousin out of desperation keeps making trips to the pet store to replenish. Doudou finished her milkbone in minutes, while Donna took weeks to work on her milkbone. So we immediately thought that we needed to get a Nylabone for Doudou.
And Doudou loved the bone. Chewed it for a long time and was so fixated that she went right back to the bone after her dinner and ignored her family the whole time!
Make no bones about it, this is one toy that should last that dog for some time at least.
Note: I did read that rawhide bones are not only harder to digest, they can also be choking risks. The packaging on the nylon bones did advised supervised play. But the whole point of getting these bones are to ensure Donna has things to occupy her time with when we are out of the house. We usually supervise her use of any new toy for a couple of rounds so we can observe and only let her continue when we see that the way she plays with the toy is safe. Then we leave her alone with it once we find it safe for her. In Donna’s case, we observe that she will usually flick her tongue repeatedly to get the chewed bits out and onto the floor before going back to work on the bone. She doesn’t swallow them. We also ensure all bones are larger than her head, and in the case of edible rawhide bones, we remove them from her once they become soft or have been chewed down to a small size that can become a chocking hazard.
