* Give your dog toys that are the appropriate size for your dog. A dog can choke on balls or toys that are too small.
* Give you dog toys made especially for dogs. Toys made for children or other animals and items found around the yard or house can be dangerous.
* Avoid giving your dog sticks, wooden toys, and cooked bones. They can splinter, causing damage to a dogs teeth and mouth, choking, vomiting, ulcers and intestinal perforation. Hard bones can damage teeth. Some people feed their dogs uncooked bones as part of a raw food diet. While they usually dont splinter as easily as cooked bones, uncooked bones may harbor bacteria such as salmonella, which can lead to illness.
* Give your dog bones and toys made of hard rubber and nylon. They are safe and especially good for teething puppies.
* Do not allow your dog to chew towels, socks, shoes, and other pieces of discarded clothing. They can be swallowed in part of whole, and cause intestinal obstructions. Soft latex toys can shred.
* Do not allow your dog to chew rocks, in addition to damaging the mouth and teeth, rocks can also block the intestines if swallowed.
* Purchase only high-quality, 100 percent rawhide chew from reputable pet supply stores. Inexpensive rawhide bought at swap meets and other discount venues may be preserved with arsenic, which is toxic. Throw away small pieces of chews so your dog doesnt swallow then, potentially causing chocking or intestinal obstruction.
