The Chew Toy That Saved My Table Legs

There is a chewed spot on the leg of my kitchen table. It sits low, where a small dog can reach without stretching, and it is pale where the finish used to be. It has been there since spring and it has not gotten any bigger. That is why I am writing this.

Murphy is our dog. He is a 6 year old beagle mix, about 28 pounds, tan and white with a black saddle, adopted from a local shelter when he was 2. He has a strong nose, a firm opinion about squirrels, and a habit of chewing we knew about before we signed the papers. What we did not know was which furniture he would decide was his.

For a while it was the kitchen table and one dining chair, plus plush toys that lasted about a day. One night in May I typed Benebone into the search bar on my laptop, because a neighbor up the street has a lab that destroys everything and she told me their Wishbone was the only chew that survived. I ordered the medium, chicken flavor.

I picked the Benebone Wishbone for plain reasons. Medium is the size for a medium dog, the listing says the chew is infused with real chicken for flavor, and the wishbone shape is curved so a dog can grab it and get a good hold. I have bought enough dog things to know that the ones that work are the ones he can pick up without fumbling. The old basket by the couch is full of the other kind.

The first evening I sat on the floor and watched him with it, because that is what you are supposed to do with a new chew. He sniffed both ends, took it by the middle, and worked on one tip for about twenty minutes while the news was on. Then he fell asleep with his chin on it. He has not gone back to the table leg. I want to be careful about promising that. He is a dog and he could change his mind tomorrow. Six months later, he has not.

Six months in, the ends are roughed up, the table leg is exactly as chewed as it was in May, and there has not been a plush toy in this house since.

It lives in a basket by the couch now. Most evenings he pulls it out around eight, settles on the rug in front of the TV while Frank has the news on, and works on one end for a while. He is not a frantic chewer. He is a steady one, and steady is harder on a chew than people think. Twenty minutes a night, six nights a week, month after month. That is a lot of wear on one piece of anything.

The ends are roughed up. That is the honest description. What was smooth in May has a texture to it now, the tips are a little ragged, and one end has lost some of its shape from the chewing. The Benebone is still one whole piece. I check it every Sunday when I do the rest of the dog chores, and the label says to replace it when it gets small or starts to splinter. It has not splintered. When it does, I will get another one and I will not grumble about it, because six months out of a single chew is a better run than anything else in that basket has had.

Two things I want to be straight about. The first is that I supervise. He chews it in the living room with us, not alone out in the back yard, and I put it back in the basket if I am leaving the house. That is how I handle anything he puts in his mouth, so it is not a knock on the toy. The second is that it did not turn him into a different dog. He still pulls on walks when he catches a scent and he still sheds on the couch. This got him off my furniture, which is all I asked of it.

If you are wondering about size, we went with medium for a 28 pound dog and it fits his mouth well. He can carry it from the basket to the rug and hold it down with a paw. I have watched him lose interest in chews he could not get a grip on, so the shape matters more than I expected it to.

One more thing worth saying. I am not a trainer and I am not a vet, and I am not going to tell you this fixes a chewing problem in a dog who is chewing out of worry. If Murphy had been at that table leg all day and all night, I would have called our vet about it instead of shopping. This worked for a dog who chews because he likes to chew and needed something better than my furniture to do it on.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to buy one and not five. Pick the size for your dog's mouth, not the biggest one on the shelf, and give it to him while you are in the room the first few times. If your dog is the type who destroys a plush toy in an hour, this may buy you an evening instead of six months, and you should know that going in. If your dog is a steady chewer like Murphy, it may do what it did here. I would also tell you that the table leg is still chewed. I never fixed it. It is under the table where nobody sees it, and most days it just reminds me of the spring I spent vacuuming fluff off the rug.