I've always given Gypsy Rose hooves to chew on and there's never been a
problem. I started giving them to Dakota but all of a sudden they are
hard to get. PetSmart stopped carrying them, as did many other stores.

I finally found a source but the hooves are awful, they shatter into
tiny sharp pieces and I don't dare let them have them.

Does anybody know the scoop on hooves? I tried a Google search and came
up empty as far as news items go. I thought maybe there'd been a recall
or something.

I was reading in another forum where they had to hospitalize their dogs
due to hoove injuries, serious injuries.

Shari

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Shari wrote:
I've always given Gypsy Rose hooves to chew on and there's never been a
problem. I started giving them to Dakota but all of a sudden they are
hard to get. PetSmart stopped carrying them, as did many other stores.

Good.

I finally found a source but the hooves are awful, they shatter into
tiny sharp pieces and I don't dare let them have them.

Does anybody know the scoop on hooves? I tried a Google search and came
up empty as far as news items go. I thought maybe there'd been a recall
or something.

I was reading in another forum where they had to hospitalize their dogs
due to hoove injuries, serious injuries.

Yeah, they do that. I stopped giving my dogs hooves several
years ago, after we saw one shatter, and I was afraid that the
dogs would swallow a sharp piece.

Have you tried bully sticks? Oppie thinks they are doggie crack.


But you still have to watch the dog and make sure he/she doesn't
swallow the stub (last inch or two) whole, because that could
cause an intestinal blockage.

FurPaw
--
The plural of anecdote is not proof.

To reply, unleash the dog.

On Sat, 31 May 2008 00:50:12 -0400, Shari wrote:

I've always given Gypsy Rose hooves to chew on and there's never been a
problem. I started giving them to Dakota but all of a sudden they are
hard to get. PetSmart stopped carrying them, as did many other stores.

I finally found a source but the hooves are awful, they shatter into
tiny sharp pieces and I don't dare let them have them.

Does anybody know the scoop on hooves? I tried a Google search and came
up empty as far as news items go. I thought maybe there'd been a recall
or something.

I was reading in another forum where they had to hospitalize their dogs
due to hoove injuries, serious injuries.

I used to give them to my dogs until my Siberian Husky cracked a tooth
on one.

Mustang Sally

FurPaw wrote:

Yeah, they do that. I stopped giving my dogs hooves several
years ago, after we saw one shatter, and I was afraid that the
dogs would swallow a sharp piece.

Have you tried bully sticks? Oppie thinks they are doggie crack.


But you still have to watch the dog and make sure he/she doesn't
swallow the stub (last inch or two) whole, because that could
cause an intestinal blockage.

FurPaw


Do bully sticks last a long time? I don't remember seeing one at the
stores.

Dakota can devour most chewies in an hour without effort. We used the
hooves as a pacifier, something that would keep her busy for a long time
without disappearing. When we first got her she showed signs of being a
dog who'd chew up your house, anything within reach of her mouth went
into it and she'd start chewing. If she's laying down peacefully and
something touches her mouth, immediately it opens and starts chewing on
the thing, like a baby in search of a pacifier.

So we put her on legal chewies, hooves and such, to divert her from
chewing furniture etc. Amazingly it has worked like a charm, she has
never chewed on our stuff. She can chew for hours, it's something she
seems to feel the need to do, so we give her the hooves and rawhides
when she's needy.

If you've looked at the articles I wrote about her, you'll see this
humungous rawhide in several photos. Way bigger than she is. That's
because anything smaller she'd literally inhale. The big ones kept her
busier a lot longer.

The thing you hear most in our household to Dakota: What are you
eating? Take her outside, look away for just a moment and when you turn
back, she's chewing on something or eating something. I think it stems
from her earlier home that didn't feed her enough. She's fixated on
eating.

I've caught her picking berries off a bush, not chewing on the branch,
but delicately picking the berries. She needs constant supervision if
she's in wide awake mode to prevent her eating something bad. She's
like having a two year old that sticks everything in his mouth.

Plus she's part cattle dog, they are bred to herd cattle, run fast and
hard and nip at the heels of cattle to herd them, and move away at
lightening speed to avoid getting kicked. These traits are pronounced
in Dakota. For one thing she's very mouthy. Like a baby bird with
mouth open looking for something to grab onto. And she treats our other
dog like a cow. Running fast and hard, nipping at her legs and zooming
off again.

So for her, chewies are pacifiers.... Keep the toddler busy so mama can
relax... Give her something legal so she doesn't do something
illegal.....

Shari

--
Humorous t-shirts
http://www.villagetshirts.com
Macintosh and Windows shareware games
http://www.gypsyware.com

Shari wrote:

Do bully sticks last a long time? I don't remember seeing one at the
stores.

It depends on the size and the dog. Like rawhides, they come in
a variety of sizes.

I've seen them in PetCo and PetSmart, but we get ours in bulk
online; the prices are much better than the individually packaged
ones in stores. Google on "bully sticks" and you'll get a lot of
hits and you'll see the variety of sizes and packaging. I'd also
suggest that you get the unscented type - the odor of the others
can be somewhat daunting. (Of course, it may not bother you
since you are used to hooves.)

You shouldn't give ANY chew toy to Dakota unsupervised. I
wouldn't give hooves at all, but if you do, remember that you
don't want her swallowing shards, so if it shatters, take it away
IMMEDIATELY. With rawhides and bully sticks, the danger is in
the nub, which can be swallowed whole and cause an intestinal
blockage; you need to take it away before it gets down to the
last inch or two.

FurPaw


--
The plural of anecdote is not proof.

To reply, unleash the dog.

"Shari" wrote in message
...
snipped

So for her, chewies are pacifiers.... Keep the toddler busy so mama can
relax... Give her something legal so she doesn't do something
illegal.....

Shari


My previous dog and one of my current dogs needed something to chew. Both
of them being strong chewers. I look for those white bones at Pet Smart.
I believe they are sterilized bones, holes at each end. I check the whole
bin for the thickest ones, the ones that would be impossible to shatter or
splinter. Sometimes I stick some peanut butter in the ends and let her chew
on them. In all the years I've been doing this, I've never had a problem.
But I do search for the really thick ones, where both ends of the bone have
at least half an inch thickness of bone, no thin ones that could splinter
pieces off.

td





--
Humorous t-shirts
http://www.villagetshirts.com
Macintosh and Windows shareware games
http://www.gypsyware.com

Shari wrote:



Do bully sticks last a long time? I don't remember seeing one at the
stores.

No. They're pretty much just a long length of, erm, penis jerky, and
either of the BCs can polish off a 3 foot length in about 10 minutes.

They're great for putting the kids off of begging for Slim Jims at the
convenience store, though.

On 2008-06-02 10:42:43 -0400, Shari said:

If she's laying down peacefully and
something touches her mouth, immediately it opens and starts chewing on
the thing, like a baby in search of a pacifier.

Kathleen isn't the only one with cognitive issues today:

I just read this sentence twice because a dog chewing on a baby in
search of a pacifier is a huge problem...

FurPaw said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

I've seen them in PetCo and PetSmart, but we get ours in
bulk online; the prices are much better than the
individually packaged ones in stores.

They used to be much cheaper when they were called "sperm
bones". No one wanted to buy them; smart remarketing (probably
the same ad agency which renamed the Chinese Gooseberry).

FWIW, I can't have anything chewy around for my dogs - if Rocky
gets hold of it, there's a pretty good chance it'll be
swallowed.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

In article ,
Rocky wrote:

FurPaw said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

I've seen them in PetCo and PetSmart, but we get ours in
bulk online; the prices are much better than the
individually packaged ones in stores.

They used to be much cheaper when they were called "sperm
bones". No one wanted to buy them; smart remarketing (probably
the same ad agency which renamed the Chinese Gooseberry).

A long time ago, when Buddy was still living up here, we took him into a
pet store and the clerk offered him one of these...he said "It's a cow
penis. People look at me really funny when I tell them that." I was
thinking yeah, because cows don't have penises. But I didn't tell him
that. (Buddy wasn't impressed either way, he dropped it and looked at
me with a "What am I supposed to do with *this*?" look on his face.)
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How can the light that shone so brightly | . . . . . . . . . .
Suddenly shine so pale?/Bright eyes* * * |* . . . . . . . . .