The importance of chew toys

Lesson 5: When you’re not near the chew toy you love, improvise!

For puppies growing new teeth, “chew toys” are more than a game; they are a salve for the teething process. But for dogs of any age, they can bring comfort, relieve stress, weaponize your relationship with your human, and provide sustenance when Nike sneakers, hard-brimmed Boston Red Sox caps, James Patterson novels, and smelly jock straps are not in abundance. They are also an important lesson in persistence.

If you start by chewing on your human’s fingers, then after the first few “ouch” responses and occasional stitches at the local clinic, they will begin to recognize the importance of buying you things to chew that do not include human appendages. Beyond toys, these may also include “chew sticks” such as rawhide or beef jerky. The smellier, the better, I say.

If your human is too cheap to buy what you want, do not despair. Eschew (pun intended) their miserly gift and find something else to masticate. See the opening paragraph of this lesson for a few suggestions, but your options are, quite literally, limitless! As I mentioned in Lesson 4 (Everything, everywhere, all at once), humans learn through positive reinforcement. Once they figure out what you like to chew, as long as it isn’t an $800 Giorgio Armani, there’s a good chance they’ll buy it for you. Persistence is the key.