Coco is 15 weeks and going through a very bad case of chewing, the curtains, the sofa, the table legs/furniture, the kids toys, clothes, and most annoyingly my feet!! Prior his arrival I went to local pets store and spend over £100 on toys, kongs, squeaky's, balls etc and he is just not interested. He loved his dental sticks and reward treats so i thought about raw hide/cattle knuckles/bones with marrow filling etc so I returned to the pets store and they advised on not getting him these because it will snap his teeth and too rich for digestive system. So they advised me on Nylabone puppy starter pack (pic below) there's 3 - hard plastic, softer plastic and a edible bone bacon flavour, which he eat in about 20 mins - now just like his dad he loves anything to do with meat. So to keep him busy and away from the furniture I am looking for a long lasting, edible meaty chew/bone etc which will not break his teeth and be kind on his digestive system. Or any advice on training him to behave in doors. Any Questions? please feel free to ask
The best thing you can do is fill kongs with whatever you want and then freeze them. There's a post on suggstions to fill them with here: http://thelabradorforum.com/forum/need-help-with-your-labrador/labrador-puppies/5323-stuffed-kongs
thanks for the thread, there are tonnes of ideas there for his Kong, I will try some out, im keen to try the frozen banana filled one, and kibble with water poured over and frozen. im not keen on too much peanut butter and cheese so will stay away from them as much as possible. Do you have any suggestions on what I could use to plug the end of a Kong?
Hi if you get a khong go for the strong ones which are red and black. My very young lab makes mincemeat of the red ones and I have been using the black ones very since. They also do a puppy range of bright coloured ones my pup chewed them up in minutes. He is the most rabid chewer I've ever had though, I scatter feed him because he dents and destroys metal bowls. khongs are great but don't underestimate how strong your pups jaws can be. S
My two are a year old and still have blue puppy ones, which they haven't destroyed, and regular red ones which are fine for them, too. They're not power chewers, though. The most common fillings I use are raw minced meat for the smaller ones and, for the larger ones I use soaked kibble mixed with a tin of sardines. Because the kibble absorbs the water, there is no need to plug the end. If you have something runnier, then you can use a bit of cheese, peanut butter, regular butter etc to plug the end. For stuff that's only slightly runny, I've used a bit of clingfilm in the past - I tend to wet the base of the kong and then stick it on - it keeps it on better. Then just peel it off before feeding. You may find that you need to start with them unfrozen to start, because some dogs just don't understand the frozen thing! Mine got it straight off, though.
I put some banana in first and squish it down over the hole. It does pretty well. Also, have the Kong in a little bowl while you fill it to catch any drips, and keep it in the bowl when you put it in the freezer; once it is frozen it won't drip. Kong's are also good for using up the crumbly dusty leftovers at the bottom of bags of training treats. Mix them with yoghurt. (Pongo goes nuts for yoghurt.)
One other thought - we get (raw) lamb bones from the butcher and freeze them. Just the rib bones, not the leg. For a treat, Pongo gets a frozen rib or two. He thinks he is in heaven, he really loves the coldness (especially when he was teething, I'm sure it soothed his gums) and when he was a puppy a well-frozen bone could last 20 minutes or so. Now they get consumed in about 3 minutes flat. PS I'm sure you know this, but the bones MUST be raw - never cooked (cooked bones are brittle and can shatter into dangerous little shards).
My two have frozen meat for lunch. Sometimes it's a couple of frozen whole raw sardines, sometimes it's a chicken carcass, sometimes a turkey drumstick, portioned rabbit etc etc... A raw chicken wing is a good place to start with a little puppy, and will take a while to crunch through. It's great for their teeth. Very soon, a chicken wing will only take a minute or so, so you could then try freezing it to slow him down. A large frozen chicken carcass will take mine about five minutes now. A frozen turkey drumstick, or a whole chicken thigh, takes about ten minutes. A large frozen sardine, about ten seconds I've never tried lamb bones because our butcher never has them. Stay away from weight-bearing bones from larger mammals, because they're too hard and can chip the teeth. Having said that, I often buy osso bucco for my ferrets and cut the bones out for the dogs. But I sit with them and ensure they are only stripping the last little remnants of meat from the outside and getting the marrow out; they're not allowed to bite on the bone. I'm lucky that my two do not have any sort of resource guarding towards me with food, so I can sit with them and hold the bone for them if they try to bite it. I wouldn't do this with all dogs, because some would get very distressed and potentially protective of the food. When the bone is sparkly clean, normally after about 15 minutes, I swap the bone for a nice piece of stinky dehydrated tripe, so we're all happy.
I have the red one, large. but hes just not interested in it empty, i need to fill it up. and when I put dry kibble in it from his allowance he just pours it out, so was thinking of plugging the small end, filling it with kibble then water and freezing it and see how that goes. i know how strong his jaws are when hes biting my arms and feet haha :/
Im not keen on using raw meat, I will def try the soaked kibble in water and compact it in, i will try it for his lunch see how he gets off then experiment with different fillings. We have some peanut butter here, i will plug the small hole with a bit of that. I will let you know how i get off
thanks for your advice, I wouldnt give him bones anyway. only bones that dont break away like knuckle for example but when hes a little but older. I will try a filled kibble frozen kong today and let you know how he gets off.
im not that keen on raw meat, hes been kibble fed all his life. will introduce kibble into the kong (someway) by freezing it with water and introducing different things like yogurt, peanut butter, sardines etc. I will be doing one for his lunch will let you know how i do
I tried mixing kibble and water until it was a putty-like paste, rammed a kong full of it and froze it while we been out for the day down the beach/sea front and came home gave it to him and hes just not interested, licked it a few times and just left it. Going to need something else to get him interested I think.
You can buy liver paste from pet shops I think it's made by Kong actually.. a few squirts of this inside the kong and then add some kibble to it so it sticks. Bob loves these! x
I have Millie's Woolfheart lambskin chews for Twiglet, they are great - no horrible chemicals like a lot of rawhide. Only to be given supervised, of course.
I love stuffing the khongs its a bit of an arms race I make it more difficult each time it drives him crazy and keeps him happy at the moment its a bit of dry kibble at the bottom then some flaked fish the a big lump of dried venison as a plug but I push it in so he finds it hard to get started so funny
Peanut paste is great. I use it as a plug but you could also mix a teaspoon into the kibble before stuffing the kong.
I think some young pups need easy and tasty kongs to get them started - then, once they are well and truly hooked on the kong thing, you can down grade the food content to frozen water soaked kibble. My dog is absolutely addicted to kongs - he will dance round the room in excitement showing everyone he is clever enough to have a kong. These days, I can spread a small breakfast of kibble through 5 or 6 kongs and he is as happy as anything. But I started with pretty fancy stuff - home roasted chicken on a bed of crushed seabiscuits, topped with sardine mini fritters type thing....just to get him going.
