Chew Toys: Matching Toughness to the Dog You Have

Chew toys are sold by size and bought by hope. The useful question is not how tough the toy is, but how your particular dog chews.

Three chewing styles

Some dogs carry and mouth a toy gently. Some shred deliberately, working an edge until it opens. Some are power chewers who compress and crack. A toy that lasts months with the first will last minutes with the third.

Softness is not the same as safety

A soft toy is kinder on teeth but comes apart faster, and the risk with any toy is the piece that gets swallowed once it fails. Very hard toys have the opposite problem — they survive, but they can be hard on teeth.

Squeakers

The squeak is often the whole point for the dog, and it is also the small rigid component inside. For determined shredders, treat a squeaky toy as supervised play rather than something left in the crate.

Retire toys early

The moment a seam opens or a piece detaches, the toy is finished. Inspecting toys weekly and binning the failures is duller advice than choosing the right one, and it prevents more problems.