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Home » Zora our Dog

Zora: Chewing expert

Submitted by Joyful Abode on July 13, 2008 – 6:11 amView Comments
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Zora LOVES to chew on things… luckily, she hasn’t chewed on the furniture or anything like that (she tried the first couple days she was with us, but I think we got the message across). Lately, she’s taken to plucking one Kleenex from the box, and shredding it, then trying to eat the little pieces. Usually we catch her about 20 seconds into this and take it away.

My mother recently sent her grand-doggie a package with some treats and toys in it. Zora LOVED the toys.. for about half an hour. Then they were both in the trash, because puppies ingesting polyfill and plastic probably isn’t a good plan.

This one was funny! An angry cat with a squeeker in it. Zora started off gently mouthing the cat, and carrying it around the house like a baby (I couldn’t even get her to go out to pee without taking it with us).

dog/puppy chewing on a cat

But less than half an hour later, the cat ran away in fear, its ear missing. I love Zora’s pose in this one, paws crossed in a lady-like fashion. “What? Who, me?”

cat toy puppy chewed

The other toy didn’t even last long enough to get a picture…

And the other morning, when I went to go wake her up and take her out of her crate, this is the state her bedding was in. And we always give her a chew toy while she’s in her crate, so if she gets bored she can play with it.
puppy bed destroyed eaten chewed

The zipper was totally destroyed, the pillow pulled out of the middle, and stuffing pulled out of the pillow. Check out this damage:

destroyed dog bed

My teeth hurt just looking at that photo. I put the bed onto the floor to get a better shot, and look who jumped right on it again, to continue her destruction!

puppy dog eating her bed

Needless to say, she now has no bedding in her crate. I’m afraid that she’s in such a destructive phase right now that she’d shred/eat anything we put in there for her, and impacted bowels and innards would be much more uncomfortable (not to mention potentially lethal) than sleeping on the plastic crate bottom.

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  • sarahlynn
    I have a beagle who loves to chew, but doesn't like the harder toys like kongs. I make her these fleece braids and they last forever. They are good for the dog's teeth and you don't get polyfill all over the house and in the dog's belly! Be sure to make the braid tight - the toy will last much longer.

    http://www.hgtv.com/crafting/fleece-rope-dog-toy/index.html
  • Shakyra
    Ohh what a beautiful baby!!
  • my puppy was also a chewing expert today. she chewed my water bottle to pieces. it was supposed to be able to withstand any force. i guess nalgene doesn't know about bettie...

  • Hey Emily, we used the kongs, too, with our rottweiler and german shepherd--only we never used treats or anything inside of them. They also LOVED the monster-sized cow bones you can get at walmart for $10. They are about 12-15 inches long, with a basting on the outside. GREAT for cleaning the teeth. The basting is messy at first--esp on carpet--but the bones last forever--and they can chew theminto little bits. There are smaller sized dog bones, too. Our rottweiler chewed all kinds of things--and she was the same as Zora with her "babies". :)


    Jen


  • Nope, Michelle... she's a pretty laid-back pup for the most part. She just enjoys chewing on stuff. Which is great, because chewing keeps dogs' teeth clean! (http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/bbenofchewfo.html) She LOVES her Kong toys.
  • michelle
    is it anxiety- or stress-induced?
  • Except that.. she's NOT teething. she has her adult teeth already. She just likes to chew.

    We got her some "puppy friendly" Nylabones, but do you want to know what she did? She ATE them. Well, one of them. Then we got her a DOG (not puppy) Nylabone, thinking that it would be more durable, and she ATE that too. The whole thing, in under 30 minutes.

    Rawhide is out of the question. We also had a ropey-type toy and after a couple days, she had shredded the rope part and was eating the strings. So, so far, Kong toys (for dogs, not puppies) are the only ones that have survived!
  • Get her hard things, she's teething! Kongs are AMAZING (skip the fill-ins, use peanut butter), and some puppy friendly rawhides or pig ears. My shelter also suggested getting one of those rope toys, and boiling it in meat boullion flavored water and then freezing it. It will soothe her gums and last a while. Hope this helps!
  • Ashley, I'd hate to see what she would do with a PUPPY kong toy... she's already on the large size dog one. :-P She also has the Kong "tack" toy, which is fun, but she's managed to eat a little piece of that.

    We need to get her some Kong balls too... because she keeps eating the fuzz off of all the tennis balls. We got her a new one yesterday and she somehow got some rubber off of it and was trying to eat it. Trash!

    But yeah, Kong is definitely the best for durable dog toys. There was one other brand that looked really strong at the store, but we haven't tried it yet.
  • Ashley
    My dog did this when she was a puppy. The best toy to get her is a puppy kong. You can find them at any pet store. There's a hole that you can put treats and stuff into and then she can try to get it out. It occupies them for a while and also is great for teething.
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