We are getting our new baby in 2 weeks, pic for my avatar was taken today.... SHE'S GORGEOUS! Anyways, we are traveling the next 2 weeks and want to get all we will need. What chew toys do you recommend for new pups, we want her to learn right away that she has her own toys and nothing for the kids. I read a lot on those bully sticks but are they a bit much for an 8 week old puppy? Thoughts? THANK YOU!

Congrats on the pup!!

Bully sticks are great, also antlers, tennis balls, anything textured like rope toys, then of course sticks (my pup loves anything wooden).

My pup never liked anything nylon or artificial, but some do for sure.

It was a lesson to learn to not give them constant access to the chew toys because on the one hand it fostered boredom with them and on the other hand it made him think that anything on the floor is fair game to chew, including socks, sofa legs, bar stools, shoes....they need to be proactively taught what is appropriate and what is inappropriate.

but of course for a while appropriate chew toys for the pup will include your hand your fingers your calves your feet your clothes etc. that is the really tough life lesson

good luck!  we can't wait to see pictures.

also for stuffed toys there is a company called Fluff n Tough (maybe Tuff) that makes truly indestructible stuffed toys that have squeakers. Link has had a couple since day one when we got him and  there is not a single hole or tear in either of them.

I have no idea what kind of online availability they have but there is a great pet store here in Seattle called MudBay that features them and while they don't have an online store per se I bet if you contacted them they could send you some of these toys if you wanted to get one or two.  They are great.  We have had friends bring him other stuffed toys as gifts and he ripped them open in minutes, right in front of the friend, as if to say "cool, thanks, what next?"

Fluff N Tuff toys he has never conquered!

EDIT: ha, here ya go...I had no idea

http://store.fluffandtuff.com/

Link's first toy ever was Finn and he also has Sadie (who these days mostly just gets humped).

Yes, hands and arms as chew toys, kept me up at night for a while lol. Still working on it, but seeing improvement. When I first brought Dizzy home, he really seemed to love everything except chew toys. He loved empty or half empty water bottles, insides of paper towel rolls, shoes, slippers (still loves them, I think because they are stinky), table legs, rugs, and pretty much anything else that was free and/or off limits. :/ I kept thinking I wasted so much money on his toys, but he's starting to like them and actually play with the stuff I got for him. He actually liked a nylabone at a relatives house, so I ordered one of those, but haven't gotten it yet. Its possible though, he only liked it because another dog had slobbered all over it. I'm trying to find some stuff for him to chew, but that he can't/won't eat since he seems to have a sensative stomach. He loves pig ears and bully sticks, dentle chews (greenies), stuffed toys, and he has this squeaky football that used to have tennis ball covering on it. He ripped off the covering but will still lay around and squeak that damn football for as long as I let him, until I get tired of the noise. He also loves ice cubes.

dehydrated sweet potatoes are one of Link's favorite things in life as well. a lot of people have a good luck with rubber Kong toys in which you can put peanut butter, however Link does not like rubber artificial things so what we did instead was put his peanut butter inside of a center bone and that will occupy him for quite some time.

Kong has puppy kongs that they say are good for teething too, although Karli never chewed on it, she just sucked stuff out of it. Bully sticks and pig ears are very much loved around here. Frozen wash clothes were a God send when she was teething and she loved them. I stuff her kong with peanut butter, pumpkin, or yogurt and she gets it daily. She never chewed on shoes...we left our shoes down and would tell her no when she got near them. The only thing she's ever done to a shoe was take the sole out of one of my hubby's shoes. And then she didn't chew on it. Socks were a big thing, she would steal them off my feet and hide them in her kennel. She grew out of them though. Meat bones, those are amazing.

I think variety is key as each individual pup can have their own preferences. We're using a combination of nylabones, rubber squeaky toys, stuffed and stuffing free animals, as well as a kong. He came with a rawhide from the breeder so he loves to chew that even though most don't like to give rawhides due to their indigestibility and blockage risk. My pup isn't taking off anything more than tiny bits from his rawhide though so I let him have it since he loves it so. He does love to chew on any and EVERYTHING in the house so I have to keep a constant eye on him and correct him when he chews things that aren't his. I also have a 15 month old daughter who is constantly leaving her toys everywhere so that adds an extra challenge but he's learning. Man, it really does feel like I have 2 toddlers in the house now though. Play biting and mouthing are also something we're contending with. Never a dull moment with a puppy in the house. Good luck!

Kronos my 10wk old puppy has 4 types of rope toys, one Kong and one stuffed toy which is a baby doll shape. I kinda worry about that cause I don't want him thinking a baby is a chew toy, but he only sleeps with it. He never chews on it. He loves the ropes and any stick he finds outside.

Okay, so a couple days ago I ordered Fin the Koi and Lucy the Skunk from fluff and tuff and I love them! They are so cute and soft I don't even want to let Dizzy have them lol.

Finn the Koi is an absolute tank!! Still going strong at our house. Sadly though, Link finally put a hole in Sadie the bear's nose. I just pulled the stuffing outta the nose and he's back in service.

Jen, I propose a staged photo shoot with Link and Dizzy with Webmasters and Fin the koi...just sayin'.

Ha ha! Dizzy's webmaster is grey though, but I'm in... If I photoshop his mask to white I'm not sure we could tell who is who.

I jumped on the Fluff & Tuff bandwagon and ordered Anya Rocket the Raccoon (we joke that she looks like one). It's her favorite cuddle toy! Its so cute when she trots around with it in her mouth all proud like she just made a kill. Her favorite chews are bully sticks. They have been a lifesaver for teething! She hardly chews on furniture or any of our stuff. She also loves this obnoxious dollar store toy toy that looks like an ice cream cone and has the LOUDEST squeaker. She goes on crazy squeaking sprees with it

If I give Dizzy his kong football he will do a squeaking spree. Honestly, I'm not sure how long he would squeak, I've never outlasted listening to it. He ripped all the yellow tennis ball stuff off of it in a matter of minutes, but it still squeaks. I hate that thing lol! I stashed away a couple weeks ago though. I'm not sure I'll ever give it back! I almost got the racoon. He looked so much like a racoon when he was 5-12 weeks old. He was even the same color! I went for the skunk because it's slightly bigger and he tends to swallow stuff that I wouldn't think possible. I had to upgrade to the monster sized bully sticks because he swallowed one once that was about 3/4 in in diameter and 3 inches long. THAT was a nerve wracking 24 hours waiting for it to come out the other side.  

wpskier222 wrote:

I had to upgrade to the monster sized bully sticks because he swallowed one once that was about 3/4 in in diameter and 3 inches long. THAT was a nerve wracking 24 hours waiting for it to come out the other side.  

Ouch  Did it come out as a bully stick or did he digest it?

It came out as a bully stick!  

Ha, yeah we upgraded bully stick size too and yank them from him when they get to be about 4 inches.  

These days Link mostly enjoys meaty center bone cuts and cow knee caps.  His chew toys of choice mostly are animal parts with the occasional romp with Finn the koi.

Aww man, you got the grey one.......but wait, his Palisades pack has the grey harness even though it doesn't quite fit him yet, so take that.

Photo shoot on!

Lol! We could do so many hilarious/cool shots with "the twins"

We could start a thread trading 'duplicate' photos, as in we try to get them in similar shots.

Perfect. I'm in. I'm home now......

Well you should kick it off then. I'm "working" right now...

Ha, noted. Ok.

Jeff and Jen, I organized a game on the Chihuahua forum I'm on a few years ago and had everyone with similar looking dogs, like Link and Dizzy for example, PM me a variety of photos from puppy to adulthood. I then made several collages of the photos sent in, each photo labeled with a different letter (I alone had the answer key to which dog was which). I posted the photo collages along with a list of names for all the dogs included and let the guessing game begin. A lot of members posted their guesses and everyone really enjoyed it. I gave everyone several days to get in on the game before revealing the answers. Helpful hint though for such a game like the one I did is to use pictures that haven't been posted previously so people aren't going off of memory. Just throwing that out there. Of course I think I had at least 5 different dogs participating in mine which made it more challenging.

Bully sticks were a life saver they are expensive but doggyloot often has them on sale I got 8 for 16...she also loves her yogurt stuffed kong. I also got her this toy called chilly bone. It's a fabric bone that you wet and freeze she loves to chew it before she sleeps and yes definitely rope toys