The Benefits of Knitting While Owning A Chewing Dog

Bella catches new toy.

Bella destroys most of her toys. At four, she's slowed down on that destruction only a little. I've spent more money on toys for her in four years than I spent on our last two dogs over a 29 year span.

I heard about a company called Bionics that sounded really cool and got Bellie a toy from them. (Friends gave her two more). If she destroyed them, they'd send me a new one. If she destroyed the second one, she could become a life-long tester. How could you argue with that? Problem is, Bella doesn't like their toys. She rarely even mouths them. So I continue to buy toys knowing their life span will be short.

Sputnik minus some niks.

I recently got her a new toy that looks (looked?) like a Sputnik. Now you might ask, "What does this all have to do with knitting? Good question!

Future knitting needle stops.

If you are at all into knitting, you know one of the foibles is your project might fall off the needles when put down for the night. Usually this is because your project is too big for the length of the needles and no matter how much you push it back to one side, it o-o-z-e-s to the other and just drops into space. This probably elicits a lot of colorful language from you the next time you pick it up to work on it. Hence, the invention of needle stops. (Of course, you can jam the needles into a ball of yarn and hope for the best, but this isn't always successful.) Those little point protectors don't fit all needles, so you need different sizes and after a while, you realize you are spending money on something that you shouldn't. (I've also twisted rubber bands 80,000 times around the tip. Tedious.)

Back to Bella's great chewing capacity. She is working on chewing off all the sputnik extensions at just the right length. I'm collecting them and they will become point protectors/needle stops. I'll just drill different sized holes into the chewed end. Oh the joy! This isn't money wasted on toys; I'm saving money in knitting!

Indestructible Dog Toys—Do They Exist?

I was chatting with a friend today about dog toys. Remember my post last December about the wonderful customer reward we received from our dog food store? My friend now shops there and we were discussing this year's goody bag which included a plush toy. Her dog, a lovely, sedate boy of six, has been carrying his toy around the house for the past two weeks. Bella and I picked up our bag yesterday. My lovely, energetic girl of two and a half, eviscerated, decapitated and delimbed hers within ten minutes. So I was lamenting with my friend that the amount of money I've thrown at toys is depressing as Bella destroys them so rapidly. Truly, if something lasts a week, I am thrilled.

Bella and the short lived Mr. Leopard.

I have been very interested in getting her a Nina Ottoson toy but they are just too expensive to have Bella destroy in a sitting. Treat filled toys my other dogs "worked" to get their food reward; Bella just chews through. There is no game involved other than the direct route to the reward.

I have given her Tuffys before (not so plush, plush toys) and those do last nearly a week as long as I get her an "8" or higher on the chew scale. I've read about some other plush toys called Fluff and Tuff that claim they are nearly indestructible, but they aren't available here. So I was quite thrilled when one of the clerks at the pet food store told me about Bionics. Again, it's a treat toy. Their selling schtick is if your dog destroys it, they'll send you another one for free. If your dog destroys the replacement, your dog becomes a product tester. This could mean toys for life! And, no sooner did the marketing ploy suck me into buying one, but I read about Goughnuts which has a similar promise.

This is music to my ears and a jingle in my pocket. Could there actually be a toy Bella can't destroy? The verdict is out. I'll report back on what we discover. Now tell me, have you discovered a chew-proof toy yet?

Stuffed Kongs

What do you mean you don't want to throw the ball now?

Besides the Chuck-It, the Kong has been the favorite, most used, dog toy/product I've purchased for Bella. We rarely see a day that doesn't have at least one Chuck-It session and any time we leave the house for an extended period of time, my Bell-Girl gets a Kong.

In fact, she has four Kongs through which she cycles. Once they are "finished," meaning she has successfully licked the insides clean, they are washed, refilled and thrown into the freezer. Licking it clean takes her all of a matter of minutes, so whatever is frozen inside, barely has time to thaw.

The Kong site has some great recipes to get you started, but I tend to serve up whatever I have available in the house. I nearly always include an organic grain (though the kibble I feed her is grain free): brown rice, millet, farro, quinoa, etc. If I plug the small opening with peanut butter, I may dribble in some chicken stock at the end through the other ingredients. If I don't add a liquid, I don't bother plugging the end.

A typical stuffing for Bella is brown rice, yogurt and banana. I may add some peanut butter mixed in with it. Often I'll dice carrots which she loves or fruit and mix that in to. Today she got her Kongs filled with brown rice, sunflower seed butter, ground flax, blueberries and diced, organic chicken hearts with a dribble of chicken stock.

What do you put in your Kongs?

It's All About the Chompers

We're a couple of days post surgery and teeth cleaning. Her teeth were pretty clean from daily attempts at brushing, but they are a bit more sparkly. (I don't think I can justify calling it actual brushing because I don't do a very thorough job.) The front, lower incisor has been removed and that particular part of the ordeal took a little less than a half hour The good news is after taking x-rays of the rest of her teeth, my vet felt the lower canine, premolar and molar were still okay (no pulp exposed) and therefore a root canal or more invasive surgery elsewhere in Bella's mouth was unnecessary.  Woohoo!

Bella is taking two drugs for four days:

• Clindamycin (150 mg) every twelve hours (antibiotic)
• Carprofen (100 mg) every 24 hours (anti-inflammatory)

She was pretty woozy the first night and not quite up to snuff yesterday. Today, we both agree, she's still a bit subdued and I think that's from the drugs. She's also pretty plugged up, poor girl.

She's to be on soft food for a week, so I've cooked up some burger, brown rice, pureed pumpkin and wheat bran for her. She thinks it's pretty darn good! We're getting around the morning "Go Find" by substituting Pup-peronis for biscuits. Our morning routine is to get my morning coffee, I hide, Bella has to find me, my husband delivers the caffeine. Upon discovery of me (hard to find clever spots to hide in a small house), he takes Bella outside for a series of tricks and then she gets a biscuit. BIG excitement. Because of the soft food requirement, the biscuit is a no go...hence, Pup-peronis to the rescue!

The tough part is no toys. No toys?!? Bella is a professional chewer! Life without toys to chew up is like no life at all. We were going to dog-sit her half sister, Molly, this weekend, but were advised against it as the two dogs play hard and Bella always chews on sweet Molly's ruff. So I'm not too disturbed if the drugs are slowing Bella down. It's keeping her from being completely bored out of her gourd.

It good be worse. Bella's best friend, Amber, has just gone through a second bout of leg surgery (torn ligament) and has to be crated for eight weeks. I can't imagine keeping a dog sequestered for that long. Even Lucy was able to move around fairly soon after her back surgery even though longer trips (up and down stairs or hills) were limited for several months. We're going to bring a frozen, stuffed Kong over to Amber's. What are doggie friends for, eh?

Oh the Teeth!

I mentioned my concern regarding Bella's topped teeth here. And as in all good serendipity, this concern was recently followed by a couple of articles by a local vet in our paper. One was on appropriate chew toys and the other on teeth cleaning. They both just served to focus my attention.

With Lucy, our last dog, I learned through adversity, that teeth cleaning was important. She never had teeth problems, but she had a horrible time with the anesthesia and/or other drugs they gave her during the procedure. She'd stagger around the house crying for hours after the surgery. It was awful. I vowed to be more diligent about this area of doggie maintenance with my next dog. Enter Bella, stage left. I brush her teeth about 5-6 days out of the week. I've never been able to do a very thorough job and noticed some tartar (?) or plaque (?) build up despite my diligence, but it was also how I discovered her "tipped" teeth.

As far as toys go, Bella is a Supreme Chewer. I am one the PetsMart Faithfuls. Every couple of weeks I'm there stocking up on new chew toys. I haven't given her rawhide as I've heard it isn't very digestible. Bones are from the local organic store and thought those would be okay. Nope. No more bones. I recently learned that ice cubes are also on the doggie hit list. (Bella rushes to the refrigerator when the freezer door opens in hopes a cube is in her future. We shall substitute those silly baby carrots instead—organic, of course).

Tennis balls? Those are what she lives for. Scratch! I guess too much dirt stays in the fuzz and can erode their teeth. Back to Petsmart for those stupidly expensive, non-fuzzy Chuck-it balls. After just a short amount of chucking, I must admit to liking them though. They are much more "lively" than a tennis ball and as long as it is round, rolls and bounces, Bella is happy. Hopefully I won't lose one in the bushes!  And price? Well, even though they are expensive, they are a lot cheaper than doggie dental surgery!

I had stopped by the vet's office to pick up more tooth brushes and paste and my vet urged me to come in for a quick exam. In a brief look around Bella's mouth, she said that Bella's broken off incisor showed exposed root and needed to be removed. She also feared the root could be exposed on the tipped canine, but was uncertain about the premolar and molar and would check all three of those when Bella goes in next week for a cleaning and extraction. (If you're curious, here is a series of good pictures on dogs' teeth.)

The vet went on to say that hopefully all Bella needed on the canine was a root canal and not an extraction as that was an "extremely invasive surgery." Please interject an expletive from me here. Here I was hoping all was well and now find myself hoping for a root canal for my sweet girl?

The initial clean and extraction is next week. I'm uncertain when Part II (root canal) will take place. Keep your fingers crossed for Bella!

Teeth and Chuck-it

I've mentioned before that I am not a photographer, nor do I know how to use the options on my camera in order to take action shots of Bella, so the pictures I share are of her lying down or standing still. I've also mentioned how obsessive she is about fetch. We have three Chuck-its: one in my car, one in the van and one in the garage and they all get a huge work out. We have several friends who regularly play tennis, so our ball supply can get "replenished" on a regular basis.

One very happy, hot and anticipatory puppy!

The shot today is of one happy puppy waiting for me to throw the ball. Notice how hot she is (long tongue) and how dirty her tongue is (lots of muddy ball retrieving!) and how happy she looks! The path to her right is what she has worn into the mud going back and forth after the ball. This path is her center path, but both sides of the alley sport a Bella-route where there once was grass.

Now, for the not so good news... Bella has knocked the tip off of one of her bottom canines. I noticed this a long time ago and assume it happened in her teething stage when it was a constant battle to keep her from eating rocks. But I was shocked yesterday to see that the two premolars behind that one had also been "tipped" and that one of her lower incisors is missing. I can't say when this happened, though I am fairly aware of her body from constant touching, examining and teeth brushing. My conclusion is that it is recent. My horror that it has happened is compounded by the fact that she is not yet two! Did this come from playing fetch or chewing on bones?

The dilemma now is how to manage her desire to play ball and chewchewchew with the care of her teeth which she will need for many, many more years. One thing is for certain, she'll be playing no fetch with anything hard!

Kongs

Kongs have been my go-to dog treat for eons. Lucy would work them for hours trying to extract a small piece of cheese. Bella is much speedier and I doubt the treat lasts as long as I'd hope. None-the-less, when I leave for work and Bella is crated, in goes the Kong with her. The new mix (rather than a bit of canned dog food, frozen) is peanut butter to plug the hole, a slice of banana, some plain, non-fat yogurt and some more banana...and maybe another dab of peanut butter.

Now that my husband is retired and home more, she is crated less. We're just beginning to try her loose in the house. At 10 months, she's just mature enough to give it a go if well regulated. Whereas Lucy was loose at the same age, she was much less chewy. I am not sure I'd trust Bella for hours on end. Because my husband might be in the garage or shop, Bella is free to roam the house (in which case, no Kong). Because he isn't far away or gone very long, he comes back in periodically to assess what might be happening. So far, so good.

My Smart Puppy

Bella is 9 months old. She's still a puppy, though a maturing one. This week, our first back home together sans hubby, has been unusually hectic. I've had a lot of obligations on top of work that meant my sweet girl had to spend more time than usual in her crate. So it was not unexpected that she would be quite "frisky" when she came out. She wanted to play constantly. I found my energy level didn't come close to matching hers and my patience began to wear thin. I wondered what odd brain cell had burst in my skull making me think I should get a puppy.

On Wednesday, she was at her worst, demanding attention that I didn't have the time to give. I made the mistake of releasing a tennis ball in the house. Bella has a habit with small toys to chew them by the couch and somehow push them under the couch so that I must retrieve them. After responding to her barking for me to get in action and get her ball way too many times, I grabbed the ball and put it away. Bella continued to bark. I grabbed her and put her outside. In a matter of minutes, she was scratching at the back door to come back in.

When I opened the door, there is my adorable puppy looking eager, tail wagging, with a very, VERY, muddy tennis ball (she had buried who knows how long ago) in her mouth. You could just imagine her saying, "I found another one! Can we play with this one?" How could I possibly stay mad?

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Yesterday I went to PetsMart to get her a couple of new toys. She had eaten the ones she had to a dangerous level, so I decided to replace them. We went on a long walk afterwards and when we returned to the car (in PetsMart's lot), I decided to take her in and see what their baths cost. My husband normally bathes her, but he's gone for the month. My back has really been bothering me, so I thought if the cost wasn't exorbitant, I'd let them do it rather than trying to pick her up to place in the tub.

I haven't brought her in the store for several months as the excitement level had previously proved to great for her. I wanted to give it another try. My oh my! She was excited, of course, because of the new smells and all the people and other dogs, but she stayed right at my side all the way to the back of the store. When we entered the grooming room, there were three dogs in addition to Bella crowded into the tiny waiting area. While the other hounds were pulling and winding their owners in their leashes, my sweet little girl-dog sat right next to me. Some one excused their dog's behaviour by saying it was only a couple of years old and asked about Bella's age. I said, "Nine months." They were floored how calm and well-behaved she was. I was so proud of her! She did a stellar job! What a smart puppy!

Chew Toys

Not all stuffed chew toys are created equal. I've only tried a few on Bella and literally in less than an hour, the toy is destroyed. At Petsmart, they aren't super expensive, but when they don't last, they aren't cheap either.

I tried a new stuffed toy on her (made by Tuffies Pet Toys) which are supposedly "built" for aggressive chewers. I bought her a gator which I was told was a "7" on a scale of "10" in chewing durability. Within minutes, Bella had chewed out the nose area and removed the stuffing. Over the course of a couple of hours, the tail (and stuffing) and the toes (and stuffing) were gone or opened up.

Now I know she is a chewer, but I had higher hopes for this particular toy. When I went to the manufacturer's site, I realized the gator was merely a "5" on the chew scale. Ah ha! No wonder! I bought it through a small, independent shop, so I let the owner know not all of those particular brand carry the same chew ranking.

Bella hasn't completely destroyed the toy yet (though it is a mere shadow of its former self). So even at a 5, the toy is tough. None-the-less, had I known of the gator's unique ranking, I would have waited until the store owner got more in stock and purchased a more heftily constructed toy. At over $20 a pop, I wanted something a bit more duro.

Coziness

Bella chews her toys only when we're around. In fact, she's happiest when she's chewing the toy right next to us or even better, on us. On our foot, against our leg, at our back. It's annoying, but somehow endearing. It's a little personality quirk that I'm not sure I really care to "fix."

Toys Part 2, Snacks and Food

Keeping Bella in toys that both stimulate her and that she can't instantly chew up is challenging. I've never owned a dog that enjoyed toys or was a hard chewer, so this is an interesting problem—and potentially expensive. Stuffed squeaky toys are a complete bust. Kongs are duro and fun, but I want to give her something that is not always food related. Her cocktail ball is good and she spends quite a bit of time with it for little calories. But what else?

Today I discovered the Teaser Ball at Immortal Dog. It feels like brittle plastic, and to me, didn't look very entertaining. (How much fun could a ball inside of a ball be?) But Nicole at Immortal Dog was correct—it works for heavy chewers and holds her attention. Be forewarned—the toy is quite noisy on wood floors. There was lots of banging around which I'm sure didn't do the floor any favors. None-the-less, Bella was extremely eager to play with it and went at it with gusto.

Now this store, Immortal Dog, is new to me and I'm uncertain how I came across it. Since I became aware of it, however, I've read several write-ups, all very favorable. One of the most encouraging things beyond the stellar inventory, is the owner, Nicole Bembry. She's a bundle of energy and knows her stuff. After mentioning Bella's propensity to destroy toys, she showed me several she thought would last including the Teaser Ball.

Any of you who have fed your dog hooves, know how stinky they are. The last one I gave Bella, she ate up in a single sitting only to throw it up again hours later. The hoof I gave her was small and thin, so perhaps I need to look for the really beefy ones (no pun intended). But Nicole suggested a really cool new chew toy called Snooks. It's made in Oregon from super-dried organic sweet potatoes strung on a hemp rope. Where a hoof smells stinky, these smell, well, like sweet potatoes—a hint of cinnamon and fall.

Bella went crazy when I brought them into the car, but to be honest, I'm not sure if it was the Snooks or her new food or both. I'm trying Legacy Puppy Food. It's not a designated large puppy brand, but is grain free, for what that's worth. Bella has pretty stinky stools and farts quite a bit. Although I feed her good food and give her a slow transition between different brands, I wonder if maybe she has an allergy to grains? I'll ease her into this new brand and see. It's got quite a bit more protein and fat than the last batch of food she's eaten (Avoderm Large Puppy).

My vet advised feeding Bella large puppy formula so as not to promote too fast of growth . This Legacy product may be both too rich and too high protein. However, the product I was looking for (Orijen Large Puppy) also is high protein and fat. My vet changes her dogs' food with each bag, easing the transition between products. Her take was that altering the foods not only gives the dog variety in taste, but also in ingredients and nutrition. I like that philosophy and am trying it with Bella.

Puppies and Computer Electronics

One of Bella's favorite places to be in the office is under the desk. I'm sure for a dog it's a wonderful cave, but for me, the owner, it's riff with potential danger. Computer cords snake through there and I'm constantly bringing her out "from under."

Well today it happened. There was a long USB cable that we used to access the port in back of one of the machines. Bella was at my feet chewing on one of her toys when I became aware the sound of her chewing had changed. I looked down and she'd chewed the USB plug off the cable. Luckily I was able to get her to drop it and fish out a little piece of plastic she continued to work on. I'm hoping nothing was swallowed.

Toys

It's interesting to see how different dogs play with the same toy. Lucy, at 10 months old, adopted a cedar log from our log pile. Over ten years, that log became a piece of kindling. It was one of two toys with which Lucy continually played. But although it diminished in size, Lucy wasn't really a chewer. Oh, she'd give it a couple of gnaws, but mostly she wanted to play tug or toss it around. Bella has found the "log" and is only moderately interested in it. Bella is a chewer extraordinaire, however, and if she sticks with it, it will disappear.

The other toy Lucy absolutely loved was what we called her cocktail ball. It came out when I started making dinner. She wasn't very food motivated, but she was definitely nose motivated. Lucy would roll the ball methodically throughout the house until every little treat fell out. She didn't pause, she didn't stop, until the ball was empty.

Bella has lots of toys which she plays with constantly. Her method with the ball, however, is quite different. Bella's nose is a mere shadow of Lucy's, but she loves the same ball because it has food. Bella will roll it only a bit. Otherwise she is determined to chew her way through. This says something for the strength of the ball—she's yet to rip it apart. Bella also is into dropping it or putting it on the edge of furniture and letting it roll off. She has a clever method, but Lucy got more treats.

Flash Back

With school starting up again, I haven't been able to write regularly (or at all). I never posted about our vacation and it's enough in the past, that I am no longer in the mood to write about it. However, I do want to say that Bella did beautifully. Within the first week we stopped using the crate when we went off biking and I'm not sure why we chose to do that. I always left her with a stuffed Kong and the van—and Bella—were fine when we returned. The only things we lost to her chewing was one magazine (which we gave her) and two rolls of toilet paper (to which she helped herself).

I took her hiking and her Aussie traits kicked in. Although I started her on a leash, I wanted to see how she'd do off-leash. At four months, I felt confident in her need to be with us that I doubted she'd run off, though I knew I was taking a risk. Again, she did beautifully. She'd go part way up a trail, stop and wait until I caught up. The trait I was not happy with was her nipping. In her excitement to get going, keep going or return, she'd start barking and nipping at me. Bad! When this started, I made her sit and rewarded her for complying. The disreputable behavior subsided.

We also tried her on very, very short mountain bike rides (under three miles). She stayed right with us. What a joy! She'll be a great mountain biking dog when she gets a bit older. Oh! And did I mention she figured out swimming on this trip? That's her labby side. Previously, she'd tiptoe into the water, but never chose to swim. At one point, she just walked into a lake and began paddling!

Of course when we returned home and reverted to "normal" life, it wasn't as "fun" for her. I had to return to work, she had to be sequestered when I left. No fabulous new smells and new woods to encounter. However, I think the camping trip also helped in other ways. It finally trained her regarding peeing indoors. The van was too little (like a crate). She's been stellar ever since.

Trial Run

We did a trial run for camping this past weekend getting ready for three weeks on the road. Bella took over the van "couch." Nary a second thought—it was hers. (This will require steadfast work on our part to convince her it isn't always hers.)

She was able to finagle a huge stick into the van as evidenced by the blurry picture. It isn't, of course, in the van in the shot. She was working up to that. She worked the angle, the run in and the leap.

And like all good dogs, she recognized the packing phase for what it was. FUN TRIP AHEAD! How do they learn this so quickly?

A small concern is that she just entered the "brat" phase. I'm a little leery of three weeks in close quarters, but am hoping the exercise and excitement of new environments will sufficiently tucker her out!