The Chewing Wrath of Holly

This morning I fell asleep on the couch after Ryan left for work.  I had full intentions of waking up and watching the "Today" show so I could catch some Olympian awesomeness (plus Meredith is back!) but I actually overslept.  I woke up to my wonderful puppers licking my hand and crying.  Actually she does this every morning now because as soon as she wakes up, she's up for a good hour until she falls back asleep.  

Etsy shop: yellowbuttonstudio

 

 

(P.S. I love this print and the saying.  I fully think it also applies to me :P)

 

I was still sleeping when Holly went "exploring."  I woke up to her chewing on something.  If you own a puppy or have ever owned a dog, you know what it's like to constantly be reaching into their mouth to remove objects (I'm sure parents of young children are sighing at this, too). It's a chunk of brownish/black plastic.  I think, "huh, that's a little strange."  While Ryan was deployed, we planned on getting a puppy when he returned.  Part of his homecoming care package was a little German Shepherd figurine.  Guess who had a cannibalistic moment?  The little plastic shepherd didn't even have a chance.

Oh but her wrath would not be stopped because she disappeared upstairs for a while, which is never a good thing.  I go upstairs to check on her and she is chewing up my iPhone in its Otterbox.  Sweet Mary and Joseph, I was so glad my phone had that case.  It looks pretty gnarly but still works.  I should send a picture to Otterbox to show how awesome their product is but I'm just really grateful right now.

After she had chewed up both ends of her puppy Nylabones, I decided it was time to upgrade aka time to explore the aisles and shelves of Petco.  

I was searching for toys that are basically indestructible and that is actually a popular quality trend in dog toys.  I even found a brand of stuffed animals that have triple layers for heavy chewers. Mighty Dog Toys from VIP Products are pretty awesome.

 You can even become a toy tester for the company, where they send you one of their toys every month for 50% off! I definitely think Holly needs to become a toy tester, especially since I saw them priced at $19.99 at Petco.

I wanted to get her a couple different textures to help out with her chewing habits.  She recently lost one of her baby teeth and I know more of her teeth are coming in so this will help her out quite a bit.  So here are some of Holly's new presents!

 The two bones I selected were a Petco brand, jaw gym bone and a Nylabone "Powerful Chewers" bone.  What I liked about the purple bone was that it was made out of a tough, silicone-like, flexible plastic.  I thought it might be softer on her gums, depending on what she wants to chew on.  The Nylabone has all sorts of different textures on it and just helping her out further with her teething.  I'm already a big fan of Nylabone for their dental products and Holly loves Nylabones.  I also like that the brand has a wide variety of toys with different purposes and some of the bones are HUGE!  There's one that looks like a club...yikes!  I also got a "Rockin' Treat Ball" because it was just too cool to pass up.  The plastic nylon is really tough and you can untwist one end of the chamber and fill it up with small treats.  Holly loved it right from the start!  She runs around the kitchen with and we find her sitting on her bed trying to get treats out.  Definitely an awesome investment.  I purchased the Milkbone brand "trail mix" treats which are the perfect size for it.

What are some of your favorite toys for your large breed dogs?  I would love to hear recommendations on toys that are worth the investment :)