About a week or so ago, I wrote a post about the dogs ripping up toys.
Sometimes the toys are torn apart immediately and other times the toys remain untouched for an extended period of time. Some of the toys my dogs have they have had for years.
Even though we are lenient in letting the dogs rip their toys apart, we still monitor them when they are in a ripping frenzy. Because you never know what is inside those toys. Keep in mind almost everything we buy here in the states, is made in China overseas. I found that out when I was trying to buy “Made in the USA” toys for my grandchildren’s Easter baskets.
A lot of the stuffed toys have the little round squeaker inside them, (you may recall we refer to them as “bubble gum”) Sampson and Delilah love to pull these out of the toy, chew the little squeaky mechanism off and then chew on the remaining piece. Luckily for us, neither one of them has ever farted and squeaked or I’m pretty sure we would stop that practice all together!
Some of the larger stuffed toys, don’t squeak. Their sound is different, deeper and more drawn out. I discovered that these big toys harbor an even bigger secret.
Yes, the mechanism that makes the long drawn out noise, is housed inside the toy in a plastic bag! Thankfully I was standing there when she yanked it out, and I watched to make sure she didn’t swallow any plastic. It was actually quite large but folks, this is the dog whose mouth I pulled a plastic baggie full of ham from!
And just a couple of days ago, I pulled a plastic wrapper filled with pepperoni or sausage from her mouth because some idiot dropped it in the woods. She’s not human and doesn’t have the sense to pull the wrappings off, so imagine the damage this could do to her intestines.
If you let your dogs rip up/chew up toys that’s great; just please supervise to ensure nothing dangerous is in there.
You are giving a very important warning.
We don’t really let our dogs rip or chew cloth toys just because we worry about what they might eat, (even while we are watching). We stick to hard kongs and bones that they can chew. We have to watch them with those though because they have strong jaws and over time, even those toys break a part. I have heard of dogs who have pulled off parts of kongs and then needed surgery to remove them.
I think it is important; sometimes we can get so caught up in life that we don’t think about the common sense things.
I too have heard of dogs destroying kongs, that would really concern me!
We are probably too lenient with the dogs but they are our babies and so we let them get away with certain things. 🙂
We have to watch what toys ours play with and keep a close eye on the condition of the toy. If a stuffed toy starts to fall apart, time for it to go. I am a worrier. Miss Stella loves loves loves the squeakers and does not tear into them. She does well with kongs and chew toys. However, she has taken to carrying an empty water bottle on her walks (I am thinking she likes the ‘job’) and I have to make sure she puts it away when the walk is done or she will chew on it as it makes a great noise! Sadie Lou, we have to watch. She was able to rip apart a kong in her younger years and could destroy ‘nondestructable’ leashes in about an hour!
You really need to be careful, because you don’t know what some manufacturers put in their toys. It is a sad fact of life.
Yes water bottles make a great noise, what is it dogs like about the noise? LOL
Gwynn isn’t much of a ripper of toy… he loves his little squeaky toys (especially the one he found lying in ‘roadkill’ position in the road… shockingly, it’s a dog toy, squeaker intact. creepily… it’s the same colour as him, and kind of looks like his cartoony mini-me), but apart from making them squeak a lot (until the squeaker starts sounding like the animal is wheezing its last breath) and shaking it, he just mouths them until they’re drool-saturated. However, hard plastic, he loves to try to chew up, and succeeded at doing so with a big noise-making toy. Definitely good to supervise a lot of toy-time.
My cousins’ dogs ripped the smallest knob off their extra-tough-chewers type kongs… they are farm-dogs, though, so I wasn’t too surprised to find out they were that strong-jawed.
also – lol, doggy bubble-gum 😛
You are lucky. I can vacuum and have a perfectly clean house, turn my back to put the vacuum away and come back to find it covered in toy fluff.
The hard plastic can be harmful too, because it can rip their insides. 🙁
And yes, that is creepy.
Good grief. Glad you found that. I stopped buying my dog toys. He destroys them too fast. I use old denim pants legs, or shot socks. He had a thing for socks anyway.
Also, after reading the other comments wanted to say, the homemade toys are staying intact pretty well. He’s 6 so he doesn’t tear them up like he used to. No swallowing socks in our house.
Well that’s wonderful. I hesitate to do that because I had a friend who gave her dog her husband’s old work boots. Trouble was the dog didn’t know the difference! LOL