Pitbulls = Chewers

Pibble loves to chew.  She goes through cheap toys like a knife through butter.  If it squeaks, she loves it.  Unfortunately, once the toy gets into her back jaws, it's dead.  She love, love, loves to play with her rope.  She'll haul it around like a security blanket.  She bonks the other dogs in the head with it when she wants to play.  When Mommy comes home, the rope comes out like an offering.  She's gone through three ropes.  As long as she has something else to chew on, she leaves them alone.  Otherwise, she chews them to threads.  The other day I was cleaning and found rope threads on the ceiling.  I have no idea how she got them up there.

So, what are good toys for pitbulls?  One might think, "oh a chewer, must get rawhide bones" but the fact is, rawhide doesn't digest very well.  That is not to say that an occasional bone isn't unheard of in my house, but what seems to be the most popular thing for Pibble and Bella, my other chewer, is a beef knuckle or a goat hoof.  The hoof, not the ears, lasts for quite awhile.  And while, yeah the spawn does go around grossing out about the dogs chewing on "toe nails," they are digestible.  It's the same keratin in your own nails, only thicker.  Another idea that was suggested by a hunting pal that I haven't tried yet is deer antler.  He said his dogs love them and they last for weeks.

A lunch rope is another good toy for pitbulls.  It works with their need to chew as well as their lunging/leaping tendencies.  A lunge rope is basically a rope on a springy pole with a glove, leather tie or some other toy on the end that the dog has to jump up to reach.  The more they leap and grab, the more the toy swings and bounces around, giving them a good physical workout, as well as eliminating the need for you to be the one swinging the rope around for hours on end.

Lunge Rope, spring pole, firt tag

Kong toys are great.  You can stuff them with a treat or just peanut butter and the dog can chew all day trying to get the goodies out.  Of course, if you have four dogs like I do, you need to get four Kongs with the appropriate size for the dog.  When Pibble got the puggle's Kong (it was softer rubber), she chewed it to bits in less than an hour.  Kong also makes tennis balls, which are great because they can be hurled and help use up some of the boundless energy that Pibble has.  Bonus!  They squeak!

Kong

Finally, in my experience at least, is Orka.  They make heavy duty plastic toys that last.  Santa Paws brought Pibble an Orka stick toy that squeaks and it STILL is intact.  The other dogs absolutely detest the thing.  Probably because Pibble has a tendency to bonk them on the heads with it and then squeak the hell out of the thing, trying to entice them to play with her favorite toy.

Orka

Now for special occasions I get the dogs stuffed animals.  They are supervised with them because within an hour, they will be eyeless and have no guts left.  They also love to get the apples that fall from the apple tree out back.  And ice cubes....in the summer I freeze dog treats in a bucket of water and they will gnaw on that all day or until it melts, whichever happens first.

Keeping your dog from getting bored is the key to keeping your house intact.  A bored dog is a destructive dog.