Which dog chew toy to choose?

Dogs love to chew and have a classic carnivore teeth. Their back carnassial teeth act as scissors to shred flesh from their prey while the more pointed canines and incisors are for catching prey, nibbling when grooming or self defence/ attack. 

Dogs have large narrow heads and their prey is normally rabbits and squirrels. Their powerful jaws can sometimes have up to a tonne of force on a snap bite.

If they attempt to crush “prey” larger than normal a dental fracture can easily occur.

carnassial just below thumb
slab fracture on carnassial
carnassial tooth with pulp exposure (pink circle)

There has been a dramatic increase in fractured carnassials with hard chew toys that attempt to simulate bone chewing.

The common culprits are deer antlers, hard nylon bones, yak bones and even large sticks. These objects to not have any degree of “give” so commonly the tooth fractures.

“A general rule of thumb is that you are able to make a 1mm dent with your thumbnail then the chew is not too hard.”

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