Benebone vs Nylabone Power Chew: Which Lasts Longer?

Murphy is a 28 pound beagle mix with a jaw that has never once considered his size. We adopted him at age two and he is six now, and in those four years he has chewed the legs of my kitchen table, one dining chair, and every plush toy that came through the door, usually within a day. The Benebone Wishbone came into this house in May. It is the first chew that has made it past the second week. So when a neighbor asks me about the Nylabone Power Chew, I understand the question completely. It is the other name that comes up the moment somebody has a dog that destroys things.

Here is the short version. If your dog chews hard every evening and you want one toy he will actually pick up without being talked into it, the Benebone Wishbone is what I would buy again. If your dog has already chewed through softer nylon bones and you need the hardest thing in the aisle, the Nylabone Power Chew is the tougher piece of nylon, and I will say that plainly even though there is no Nylabone anywhere in my house. I have never owned one. What I have is six months with the Wishbone, a neighbor named Denise who keeps Power Chews for her boxer, and the two listings open side by side on my laptop. That is what this comparison is built from.

	Benebone Wishbone	Nylabone Power Chew
Shape and grip	Curved wishbone with a gap in the middle, so a paw can hold it steady and the mouth can reach both ends	Straight bone shape, simple to pick up but less to hold onto
Flavor	Infused with real chicken flavor, per the listing	Also flavored through the nylon, and the line comes in more flavors on the shelf
Durability	Heavy duty nylon with a little give, six months of near nightly chewing and still whole	Harder, denser nylon aimed at dogs that destroy everything else
Sizes	The Wishbone I bought is the medium, right for a 28 pound dog	A wider run of sizes, up into the largest dogs
Cleanup	Listed as not water resistant, so it gets wiped with a damp cloth	Wipes clean the same way
Price at checkout	Sits at the higher end of the chew aisle	Usually less per toy, which matters if your dog wears them down fast
Finding it locally	I have only ever bought mine online	Stocked in the pet aisle at the grocery store near me
Best for	A dog that chews every evening and wants something to hold onto	A dog that has already chewed through softer nylon

A word about how I filled that in. The left column comes from the listing and from what is sitting in the basket by my couch right now. The right column comes from the Power Chew listing and from what Denise tells me over the fence. Where the Power Chew is the better buy, the table says so, and the section further down explains why. I would rather you trust the rows where I picked the Wishbone.

What Aggressive Chewer Actually Means on a Label

Both listings use some version of that phrase. Neither one defines it, and that is where people get into trouble. A dog that guts a stuffed duck in four minutes is not the same animal as a dog that can put a crack in hard nylon. Murphy is the first kind. He is not trying to destroy anything, he just wants something to work on while the television is on. Denise's boxer is the second kind, and she has spent a fair amount of money learning the difference.

So figure out which dog you have before you buy either one. If your dog shreds soft toys but leaves the furniture alone, a chew like the Wishbone will last you months and you will wonder why you waited so long. If your dog has already taken chunks out of a nylon bone, you want the harder product, and you still want to check it every week. I check ours on Sundays, the same as I check the harness straps and the bed cover. Small pieces coming off means it goes in the trash that day, no debate. The first Sunday in June I found a mark on one end the size of a grain of rice and sat there turning it over in the kitchen light for a good minute before I decided it was a tooth mark and not a split. It has stayed a tooth mark for five months since.

Where Benebone Wins

The shape is the whole reason this one works for Murphy. The Wishbone is curved with a gap in the middle, so he can get a paw through it and hold it steady while he works on an end. The listing calls it paw friendly and I can tell you it is the only chew he carries from room to room. He picks it up by the middle, drops it on the rug, and goes at one end for twenty minutes at a stretch. Most toys he shakes and guts. This one he settles down with.

Then there is the flavor. Benebone infuses real chicken into the nylon, and Murphy went at it the first evening with no coaxing, which is not how he treats a new toy as a rule. Six months on, the ends are chewed soft and a little pale where his back teeth work, and he still digs it out of the basket on his own. There was a Tuesday in July when Frank had the ballgame on and Murphy worked the same end of that bone for the better part of an hour, and I never once had to lean over and take it away from him. That is what the shape buys you. It also says made in America on the package, and that counts for more with me at 63 than it did at 40.

Where Nylabone Power Chew Wins

Now the honest part. Nylon is nylon, and the Power Chew runs harder and denser than the Wishbone does. If your dog sits down with a bone and does not come up for air until there is a chunk missing, that is the dog the Power Chew is built for. Denise's boxer is 70 pounds of stubborn and she gets months out of a Power Chew, longer than anything else she has tried. The Benebone has some give to it. That give is exactly why Murphy likes it. It is also why a serious chewer will wear it down faster than he would wear down the Power Chew.

Two more places it beats the Wishbone. Size range, for one. The Wishbone I bought is the medium and my 28 pound dog is squarely in that range, but a 90 pound shepherd is a different problem entirely. The Power Chew line runs wider, up into the big dogs. Availability, for another. I have seen the Power Chew in the pet aisle at the grocery store near me. I have only ever bought the Benebone online, which is fine until the evening your dog has finished off the backup and you do not want to wait on a delivery.

What Six Months With the Benebone Actually Looked Like

I watch chew toys closely because I have a dog who will swallow things he should not. Murphy gets the Wishbone in the evenings while Frank and I watch television, and I am in the room. The first month it barely showed anything. Months two and three, the ends started to rough up the way a pencil eraser does. By month four the tips had gone soft. It has never cracked. It has never chunked off. It has never given me that moment where I am hooking a finger in his mouth to see what he has got back there. I keep it in the basket by the couch and I have never had to fish a piece of it out of the rug.

The label says heavy duty, and heavy duty is not the same as unbreakable. I have never met a chew that was, and I would not tell you otherwise. When it gets small enough to swallow or rough enough to splinter, it goes in the trash and I buy another one. That is the deal with every chew toy on the market, the Power Chew included. Six months is a good run for a dog this size and I expect to get a few more out of it before I am shopping again, probably sometime after the holidays.

Six months, most evenings. The ends are chewed soft, but nothing is cracked, nothing has chunked off, and it is still the first thing he digs out of the basket.

The Sizing Question Nobody Asks About

People size a chew for the dog and not for the jaw, and that is backwards. Murphy is 28 pounds, so medium is right for him, and I did not size up thinking he would get more use out of a bigger one. A chew that is too big is hard to hold and he loses interest. A chew that is too small is a hazard. If you land between two sizes, follow the weight chart on the listing instead of your guess, and then watch how your dog picks it up. If he cannot get it steady in his paws, it is too big for him.

The other thing I would tell you is to buy one, not three. I made that mistake for years with plush toys, buying them by the bag. Murphy ignores a pile. One chew in the basket gets used every single night. Three chews in the basket get sorted through and abandoned, and then I am the one who feels foolish. The single Wishbone has more hours on it than everything else in that basket combined. The listing puts it at about six and three quarter inches long and six ounces, which sounds small until you watch a 28 pound dog carry it around by the middle like a trophy.

How I'd Decide If I Were Standing in the Aisle

If I were starting over with a dog like Murphy and no chew in the house, I would ask two questions. Does he destroy soft toys but leave hard things alone, or does he take chunks out of hard things too. And how much does waiting bother me. If he leaves hard things alone, the Benebone is the better evening for both of us, and I would buy the medium and be done with it. If he takes chunks out, I would buy the Power Chew, and I would still check it every week.

The second question is the one people skip. I am retired, so two days for a delivery is nothing. If you are working and your dog is home alone with a chewed up bone and no backup, the thing on the grocery shelf tonight is worth more than the thing that arrives Tuesday. That is not a knock on either brand. It is just how a Tuesday goes. Frank laughs at me for how much thought I put into a piece of nylon, and then he is the one asking where the good one went when Murphy has it under the coffee table.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the Benebone Wishbone if your dog is in the medium range, if he chews in the evenings while you are in the room, and if you want something he will pick up on his own without being bribed with a treat. It suits a dog like Murphy, who is not out to destroy the toy, he just wants a job for his mouth. It is also what I would hand a neighbor whose dog has been working on a table leg, because it puts the chewing somewhere other than the furniture.

Buy the Nylabone Power Chew if your dog has already chewed through softer nylon, if you have a big dog outside the medium range, or if you want to walk into a store tonight and walk out with one in your hand. That is not a knock on the Benebone. It is two different dogs and two different evenings, and only you know which one you are having.