We know that we have a chewer on our hands. If I had any type of foresight, I would have pushed to name her Chewie, skipping the whole Harry Potter theme and going on to another beloved franchise. Needless to say, I did not pass the entrance exam to the Psychic Network and am not employed by Ms. Chloe. In all honesty, it's probably better that way.
We still have a problem on our hands. You know about the baseboards and what our darling Bella has been able to accomplish when trusted alone for a little while. Now, as she has gotten older and we have taken her to get some of her excess energy out, she has been a lot better about not chewing the baseboards. She will still get bored when we're downstairs. Her toys and I, therefore, have developed a special relationship.
There's the Nylabone, which is just a big hunk of plastic if you ask me. It's not just plastic though, it's a quality chew made in the U.S.A. and can keep her entertained for hours. In fact, just as I started writing about the Nylabone Bella picked hers up and brought it over to the couch and started to chew on it. The one she's currently working on has a notch in the middle that we can stuff treats into. The first time we did that it took her about half an hour to get the treat out and finish it. Now that's she knows what it is, it takes her about ten minutes to finish the treat.
The next go-to time killer is rope bones. She loves rope bones. We've had to move her up to the large rope bones just because she was going through the smaller sizes too quickly. I found what I thought was a badass, thick rope bone with tennis balls on each end. I thought it was the find of the century, or at least the past nine months and could not wait to see how many hours she would get of pleasure from it. She destroyed it in less than ten minutes. Chassie picked out a thick rope bone that's going on a few days. She's definitely been limited in the amount of time that she's allowed to chew in one sitting. If we allowed her free-reign, I think any rope bone would last no more than thirty minutes. Breaking it up, I think we've gotten a good 30-40 minutes of chew time in the last three days and still have more to give.
Then there's the elk antler. The elk antler is something that is relatively new to both Chassie and myself. She discovered them while shopping at Weber's, a specialty pet store here in Fairfax. She asked one of the employees what a good chew toy would be. This was at the time when the baseboard situation was at its peak. The employee recommended an elk antler and said that her labs are occupied for hours with them. Chassie looked them over, considered it and then purchased it. It was an expensive investment, nearly twenty-five dollars for one, but well worth it. We didn't give her the antler right away, in fact it sat in our cupboard for nearly two weeks. When we did, she was hooked. I'm not sure how long the first one lasted, but it was well worth a second one.
Since these antlers are quite expensive, we began to search for something cheaper. Chassie purchased one from Dr. Fosters and Smith online. She bought the large, expecting about the same size as what we were buying from Weber's. It was about a fourth the size. Around this time, Chassie shows me a Facebook post from my sister about finding a good, quality antler since her dogs are going through them quickly. Our search continues, but we continue to go to Weber's in the meantime.
Last weekend, we did a serious search on the internet and found a few places to buy antlers in "bulk" and save a few dollars. We decided on Yellowstone Antlers. They are naturally harvested from the Rocky Mountains, which were two important factors- a U.S. product and naturally found. The minimum purchase was 2 pounds, so we decided to order them up. On Thursday of this week we got the shipment in the mail. It was three antlers, two large and one massive. It came out to about fifteen dollars an antler. We gave her the first of the antlers this evening.
So far it seems like a great deal. She's had the antler for about an hour and has given it up twice. Once because she told me she had to go to the bathroom. We went outside, good girl. The second was because she pushed it underneath the couch, which I did not realize. This was when she grabbed the Nylabone. There was just a third time, another bathroom break. As we returned, she immediately picked it up and took it back to the couch to enjoy. How long these will last is the real question. When we have a good answer, we'll let the paying public know.
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