Crates & chew toys

[Craig Boyle]

Hellllooo Boxer-lovers!

Our 5 month old Boxer spends about 3 hours in the morning and another 3 hours in the afternoon in her crate while we are at work. We have a great neighbour who comes by at lunch and takes her out for a 30 minute walk.
Im wondering if it is a good idea to leave a chew toy of some type in her crate while she is unsupervised?...She loves the peanut butter flavour chew sticks, but after 15 minutes of chewing they get quite soft at the ends....Is there any risk of choking, or other risks?....it seems for the most part she is asleep the entire time in the crate anyways...
Any advice would be appreciated .....Thanks!

 

[JulieM]

If she can swallow it, she can choke on it. We leave the large wolf nylabones in the crates, but that's it. Lots of people leave kongs stuffed with peanut butter, cream cheese, frozen dog food, etc. - I've had a dog chew pieces off of a kong, and I've had a dog get his bottom jaw stuck in a kong, so now my dogs only get kongs when I can supervise. It's a comfort level thing. I would say no to anything that she could possible swallow, bite pieces off of, pull squeakers out of, etc. Also, I recommend *never* leaving a collar (of any kind) on a dog in a crate.

 

[Craig Boyle]

thanks julie....great advice!!!!!

 

[Linda]

The only chew toy I leave in the crate for Bailey is her nylabone. She rips apart stuffed toys and chews apart the squeaky ones, so those are only for when she's supervised. And definitely no rawhides!

Her crate is the plastic, airline type. I've heard the warnings about leaving collars on, but I leave hers on anyway. She's only in the crate during the night (we're home), so it doesn't worry me too much. I think if we had a wire crate, I would take off her collar every time.