Since it is Pet Dental Month I wanted to share my favorite way to brush my teeth. Nope, it doesn’t involve a toothbrush or one of those finger brushes, it’s a treat! Mom gets these Checkups Dental Bones from Costco and I get one everyday after dinner. I like these better than the other “Kirkland Dental Chews” that Costco offers. It’s not a matter of taste its the size. For a big mouth like mine those small chews are gone fast and don’t really make it to many parts of my mouth. With the Checkups they are larger and take me longer to chew. Due to the size I tend to work harder at it and I think more teeth end up touching it. Texture wise I think I would say its chewy, basically it doesn’t just break apart when chew, your teeth have to sink into it and work it apart.
Pros:
Great for big dogs
Tastes great
No Corn, Wheat or Soy (they make me itchy)
Cons:
Even in broken in half, too much for smaller dogs (bag lists smallest dog weight at 20lb)
Costco seems to always be running out!
Recommend:
Yep, taste great and even if they only take a little bit of plaque off, it’s better than nothing.
Do they really work?
Not sure, I am not a doggie dentist, but the vet has always said Trey and I have pearly whites and healthy gums.
Mom went to Walmart and bought Trey and I home a new treat. These are Dreambones, from the outside of the bag they look like rawhide but they aren’t. What caught Mom’s eye was that the peanut butter one said it was made with real peanut butter which I love.
Since this was next to all the rawhide bones, they are made to look like rawhide and specifically say no rawhide, I expected it to take a while to chew being something that I would work on throughout the day. I say “I excepted” because these bones are much softer than they look. Both Trey and I finished ours within 15 minutes and that is because I took my time and Trey spent 5 minutes trying to find the prefect hiding spot to eat his. I have to say for approx $10 for a pack of 3 I am disappointed. Mom will not be getting again after theses are on. No complaints on taste and no excessive gas afterwards but I would rather have either a cookie or something that I can work on throughout the day.
I thought I would share with you one of my older toys, my Dogbon Rubber Chew Bone. Most of my older toys only lasted because they were at the bottom of the toy box or they are truely durable. This toy falls under super durable and super fun! It is a semi-clear rubber bone, looking at it I would normally say it is nothing special but to me it is. It’s special to me because it makes fun sounds, well it doesn’t, I do! Normally when I chew on my Nylabone there is just a standard grinding sound, but when I chew on this I manage to make a squishy squeaky sound sound that sounds like two pieces of wet rubber rubbing together. If I am not in the mood for Nylabone but want to chew this is my first choice, I will dig to the bottom of my chew toy box just to find it. What is nice is after all this time I only have teeth marks on it, no chunks missing yet.
Pros:
Durable
Fun Colors
More give than a Nylabone, but has taken more bites
If you drop it on the floor, being rubber it does less damage
Much like a Kong but a little more slippery texture (probably why I can make my funny sounds)
Cons:
Harder to find, as of now I only see a small one listed on Petsmart’s website and none on Petco. I think I got mine at Petsmart 2 years ago.
A REALLY HARD chewer might kill
Recommend:
Yep, although I haven’t killed mine I could see a bigger mouth that wants to kill it would take off chunk unlike a Nylabone, but if toys like the Kong toys work for you then this should.
I spend a lot of time out on these trails so I thought I would share some sites you can’t see from the road.
This is a waterfall found on the Piety Hill Loop. It can only be seen after we have had a really good rainfall when all the seasonal creeks are flowing, so you probably won’t be able to see it this year. To see this fall you would want to park at the Horsetown trailhead, head across the street. The entrance to trail is right at the end of the bridge next to the Horsetown Clear Creek Preserve sign. You head up the steep hill until you come to an intersection. If you go left you will head clockwise on the Piety Hill Loop, however go straight (counter-clockwise). When you head straight it will take you down a hill, when you start heading down just look straight and slightly to the left out across the gully, you should see this waterfall if it is flowing.
If you continue down the trail, you will go up another hill, then when you start heading down again you will come to that seasonal creek that makes up the falls. If the water is really flowing you may need to get wet to cross it, otherwise if it is barely flowing you can usually step on rocks to keep dry (Hey BLM how about you put in really big rocks, a culvert or bridge? Pretty Please!). Continuing on if you go straight at the next intersection you can follow the seasonal creek all the way up and see little falls along the way.
These next couple weeks I am planning on doing reviews on just Kong products. As a chewer, Kong products are usually on the go-to list when looking for new toys.
How best to start off this series of Kong, but with my first Kong. That’s right, mom kept it! What better for a puppy than a pacifier aka Kong Binkie. Now this Kong is designed for puppies because it is a soft rubber that normal chewers would decimate in short time. Since this is a softer rubber and puppies are chewers make sure you do supervise the little tikes, afterall we grow so fast and it’s only a matter of time until this soft rubber is too soft. Not long ago Anderson Vet Clinic posted to their Facebook page about a chunk of Kong they had to remove from a dog that tore one apart and swallowed.
So here is a picture of mine, you can’t really see it but there are a bunch of teeth marks down at the bottom which was mom’s cue that it was time to get an adult Kong toy. The real shocker is how I didn’t chew off the handle, what was I thinking. But that does bring up a bad side of this toy, I can see that handle coming off with baby chewers and being eaten, so once again SUPERVISE US!
Pros:
Great for puppies
Gives pups something positive to chew on
CUTE!
Cons:
The handle could be a weak point to chew off and swallow.
Recommend:
Yes! But only while supervised. Actually I would recommend the classic shaped Kong Puppy over the Binkie for safety reasons. If you go with the Binkie make sure you watch the wear on this toy, once you start seeing good teeth marks, its time to take it away because it wont be long until that handle is gone.
Let’s start off with showing my favorite trails here in Shasta County (California). I LOVE the Clear Creek trails, these trails are on BLM land and since they aren’t in the city limits they allow off-leash. Here is a link to the BLM page if you scroll down to “Clear Creek Greenway” you can get information including maps. If you have ever been these trails, share your barks with me!
If dirt trails are not your thing or these are too far, Shasta County has a bark-load of trails. You can find most of these trails listed here on Healthy Shasta’s Website. I will try to review more of these trails in the future.
Here are some screen shots of one of our recent hike. This particular hike was on the Piety Hill Loop, but we started at the Horsetown trailhead and did a modified loop. Doing the trail this particular way has so many hills it turns into a bum-barker, you will be feeling this hike if you are not used to hills.
Elevation and speed chart of our hike, it shows a couple times we had to stop for fellow hikers and riders.
Map of our hike
Stats on our hike
Hiking the Piety Hill Loop
Excuse the poor photo quality, the camera on the phone is having issues.
