I've been giving our new 3 y/o dobie raw knuckle bones, cut into approx. 12" sections by the butcher, on the advice of the rescue group I got him from. I had the same dilemma of where to let him chew them, though! We have brick floors, but with a lot of nice, big Oriental rugs and I couldn't let him mess up those. What I ened up doing is putting him on his 6' leash and tying it to the doorknob in the family room. I move away his daytime bed that I keep there and lay down two throw rugs for him. The leash keeps him from moving onto the good rugs to chew, although he's so happy wiht the bones he doesn't care. He likes the rugs because he can get a better grip on the bones. I like them because I can throw them in the washer afterwards . . . although they don't get very messy at all. I was really surprised at that but am still not letting him chew on the Orientals! Lynn

What scared the dog is of less importance than how the fdear is handled. Dogs do not become afraid a person is going to take them back to a shelter, or to a vet---they become afraid of the situation in front of them. I have a scared young dog---loud or unfamiliar noises scare him. I make a lot of loud and unfamiliar noises when he is in a calm state of mind---and he sees no harm came to him---so that fear is tapering off. The other dog is terified of some storms---we just had a huge thunderboomer----was shaking the house---and Max was pacing. If I had tried to comfort him, all I would have been doing is enabling that behavior. So, for the duration of the storm, the other dog---who was usually sprawled out sleeping and I simply sat calmly, letting Max pace and come over near us. I even put them on leash---always a fun thing and we went out on the oorch to watch and get drenched. Never did I comfort Max---just allowed my calmness and Louie;s calmness to guide him. This is the fourth or fifth storm and Max is getting better every time.

Everyone has their own ideas of what is safe, so you'll get varied opinions here and will make your own decisions based on your research. I consider rawhide dangerous and will not give it to my dogs. Your dogs are small right? So yes the Greenies can be dangerous for them, but probably not more than the rawhide. I'd say brush their teeth or give them a raw meaty bone once a week. Chicken back, or turkey necks or beef necks will do a good job keeping tarter away. Two of my dogs are on raw diets, so their teeth are gorgeous. My older dog is on EVO, so I do brush his teeth and also wipe his mouth out with Novaldent (Chlorhexidine) once a day as well.

Your statements are so ethologically incorrect that it's laughable. Everyone, apparently, is an expert. The different between what I go by and what Handymac goes by is everything I write can be sourced and backed up by up-to-date research and is covered in ethological journals and other publications, while Handymac has either watched a television show or two, or has been reading some very outdated information. Think the 80's or by similarly uniformed self proclaimed experts. I don't see what foxes, or wolves, have to do with this woman's dog. I don't see anyone telling this woman to treat her dog like a human, nor did I see this woman indicate that that was what she was doing. So where's the relevance of this statement?? Domestic dogs do NOT form packs. They do have social structure but not packs. Ethologists have studied feral populations of domestic dogs around the world and have found that they form loose, shifting groups of small numbers, usually 2-3 individuals and they only come together in large numbers over communal resources, such as garbage heaps and sources of water, then they disperse again. They were not found to hunt, rear young and protect a communal territory as a stable group. Boitani, Francisci, Ciucci, and Andreoli, (1995) Which is the ethological definition of a pack. Domestic dogs do not participate in organized hunting, where each takes up a different job. At best, they hunt individually or in chaotic en-mass but not in different roles comprising an organized hunt like wolves, lions, painted dogs, and other social undomesticated predators do. It is VERY rare for males and previous offspring to participate in rearing young. And females are found to mate with several males during a single heat cycle. As stated before, loose, shifting groups of few members don't compose a stable group, nor do they protect territories when they congregate in large numbers to utilize a resource and then disperse again. Forcing dogs to live together in our homes or backyards does not constitute a stable group or pack. Nor are dogs such dumb beasts that they perceive us to be dogs. No. Even if they did form packs, they don't think that we're fellow dogs, or vise versa. They are well aware that were are different animals. How in the world is training a lab to point or a whippet to fetch dangerous??? Gads! My poodle is my service dog when that job has traditionally been filled by labs. She must be some kind of dangerous monster! There are no wild pack conditions for DOMESTIC dogs. There are FERAL conditions and as stated, they do not form packs. The human is obviously the boss at feeding time since the human buys the food and has the opposable thumbs to dish it out. Do you have some kind of ego issues? You seem very concerned that we're all very aware how much in charge you are and that you're the boss! Good for you? Being that dogs were domesticated and almost every breed was developed to serve mankind, is that supposed to be some kind of rare feat or come as a surprise that dogs look to us for direction? The dominant dog? The submissive dog? Dominant and submissive in regards to what resource?? Dominant and submissive are NOT personalities traits! How are you allowing your dog to become "too dominant" and how are you dominant over your dog?? You clearly don't understand the concept of social dominance. An animal can only be dominant in regards to a valued resource. Food, mates, safe and comfortable resting places, etc. And even this changes from resource to resource, day to day, and from method to method. Fluffy dominates Spot by shoving Spot out of the way when it comes to treat time. While later in the day, Spot snarls at Fluffy and wins the preferred resting spot. Tomorrow they switch as each resource changes in importance. Next week, the new puppy wins the rawhide by licking at Fluffy's mouth to get her to give it up. Regarding packs: http://www.associationofanimalbehaviorprofessionals.com/glossary.html http://www.4pawsu.com/dogpsychology.htm http://www.kathysdao.com/articles/Forget_About_Being_Alpha_in_Your_Pack.html http://4pawsu.com/pmdominance.htm http://www.jeandonaldson.com/jeans-blog-mainmenu-51/64-are-dogs-pack-animals The links go on and on, you can find many more by Googling. Find out what social dominance is and what it isn't: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201202/social-dominance-is-not-myth-wolves-dogs-and http://drsophiayin.com/philosophy/dominance/?/dominance.php Again, there are just too many articles and other material addressing these two topics for me to list everyone here. They are all easily found on your own. No REAL behaviorist will insist that dogs form packs and that dominance or submission are personality traits. REAL behaviorists are those with the behavioral science degree to BACK UP the title Behaviorist. There are Veterinary Behaviorists, Clinical Applied Animal Behaviorists, Associate Clinical Applied Animal Behaviorists, and that's it. A person CAN up and hang a shingle calling them self a behaviorist but unless they have that degree, they're not a behaviorist.