Chewing...and more chewing

 Daisy has never really been a particularly big chewer. She's enjoyed getting stuck into rawhide chews, will happily work on a stuffed bone until the stuffing is removed, and occasionally has a bit of a chew on the bone that's left.  She did develop a particular desire to destroy a roll of parcel tape on one occasion (turns out I wasn't even the first person to Google "Is parcel tape safe for dogs to chew?" - in case you're interested, the answer is "not really" due to some of the volatile organic compounds in the adhesive). But that's pretty much it, with the exception of the odd cardboard box and USB cable.

Cybi, however, chews EVERYTHING. He is a particular fan of Daisy's food bowl which is lightweight plastic, but if that is moved out of his reach then it becomes a game of "whatever is nearest". Some of his more imaginative contributions to the "distressed" look in my house include the underside of the doormat, the clothes horse, the corner of one of the doors and a string of Indian elephants that used to hang by my door. That last one must have taken ingenuity, as the string was hung about 6 feet from the ground and dangled down, but he managed to get every last elephant, little horror that he is. (Amazon link to similar elephants here in case that description doesn't make any sense)

Given his preference for chewing things that aren't supposed to be chew toys, I thought I'd give him a go with a "nylabone" chew. My previous dog, Jess, had never been a fan (in fact when I gave her one she looked at me with an expression that quite plainly said "why are you wasting my time with this?") so I've tended to avoid non-edible chews up until now. But for these two it's an experiment that seems to have paid off. I opted for the "dura-chew" type, given the size and enthusiasm of my idiots, and bought them one bacon flavoured one, and one peanut butter flavoured one. And so far, so good.

Nice and pristine at the start of the great chewing experiment.

Lots of focus on the matter at hand

Inevitable swap over because the one the other one has is always better...but at least I now know that both the peanut butter and the bacon flavours are getting good reviews.

48 hours later...

the novelty has worn off somewhat, though Cybi is still doing plenty of work on whichever one is nearest when the mood takes him to chew. I did have to suggest that he chewed on a nylabone rather than on Daisy's bowl, but he took the suggestion in good part and spent a happy half hour working on them.

So now the long term test - will they keep their flavour/texture enough to be a viable alternative to my furniture? And will they stand up to the border collie onslaught? So far, so good...