Tag: Bully Sticks

The growing trend in dog ownership is the purchase or adoption of designer dogs – those dogs that have been deliberately bred from two purebred dogs with an expected result.  While I would never discourage the adoption of any dog, designer or otherwise, there are certain pros and cons that come with giving a home to a Designer Dog.

Pros

The pros to giving a home to a Designer Dog (besides the obvious good karma of giving a home to a dog in need) typically relate to the health of the dog in question.  While many purebred dogs are prone to health problems related to the lack of genetic difference between one generation and the next, Designer Dogs, much like mutts, bypass many of the health problems that purebreds are known for.  The difference between the Designer Dog and the mutt is that while a mutts heritage isn't know, Designer Dogs often have papers stating what their heritage is, including the breeds and history of both parents.

Along with avoiding many of the health issues associated with purebred dogs, Designer Dogs are often bred to combine favored traits of two breeds, such as a lack of shedding and the size of one dog with the playful nature and affection of another.  The hope with Designer Dogs is that the penchant that one of the breeds may have for chewing on your shoes will be countered by the penchant the other breed has for eating dog treats from your hands.

Cons

The cons to bringing home any dog of mixed parentage is that you never really know what to expect.  You can breed two of the most affectionate, loving dogs, and at the end of the day you might still get a Designer Dog that sees your slippers and thinks chew toy.  Temperament and size are very hard to judge with Designer Dogs, especially those that come from two dogs of largely varying sizes (you might end up with a Labrador/Dachshund mix that is either the size of the Dachshund, the Labrador, or somewhere in the middle).  Poodle Designer Dogs are known to exhibit many of the Poodle's often aggressive nature, in spite of being bred with a more docile breed.  While giving you hope having a Boxer mixed with a Chihuahua will curb its need to chew on things better than giving it bully sticks, at the end of the day, you can't know what you will get from the dog until you've spent time with it and tried to train it.

Don't Go in With Any Expectations

When bringing home your Designer Dog, remember not to have any expectations.  You may bring home the most perfect puppy that will be easy to train, have all the best traits of both their breeds, and be a ray of sunshine in you and your family's lives.  Or you may bring home a little terror that will drive you all insane…just like any other puppy.  Don't assume that the new trend in Designer Dogs means that you don't have to put in the time to properly train your dog.  Good genes are no replacement for proper training and love.

About the Author

Avrum Elmakis is the owner of Best Bully Sticks, a leading provider of dog treats, bully sticks, and lamb treats for dogs.  They can be found online at:  http://www.bestbullysticks.com .

Is Rawhide Safe For Dogs

We are often asked why we do not carry rawhide on the website.  The answer to this question is very easy.  Although rawhide is reasonably priced and accessible, it is not safe for dogs!  We can not tell you how many customers of ours started buying bully sticks from us because at one time or another they ended up in the animal hospital. The reasons varied from dogs that had choked on rawhide or got a piece lodged in their body somewhere and needed to be operated on.

Rawhide is made of the hide (skin) of animals, much like the shoes we wear.  Unlike bully sticks, rawhide is not digestible.  This means that if your dog swallows a piece of rawhide (like all of them do), you are taking a chance that that rawhide could sit in their body undigested until it makes its way through their body to be passed.  In addition, rawhide expands at an alarming rate which is why dogs may not have problems when they initially swallow a piece but several hours later after it expands the symptoms present themselves.  To test this for yourself place a piece of pressed on regular rawhide in a bowl of water for a day or two and watch what happens!

In addition, rawhide is typically bleached to rid it of any odors and make it aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  One question comes to mind:  Would we eat anything ourselves that has been bleached?  There are several alternatives to rawhide that will still consume your dog’s time and keep them entertained without the risks associated with rawhide.  Bully Sticks are often called the rawhide alternative and are not only natural, but 100% digestible.  There are also some great other treats including trachea, tendons, Sam’s Yams, and others which will offer similar characteristics to rawhide, but will give you piece of mind that you are giving your dog a safe treat.

Greatest American Dog Finale

Wow the show is finally over...I don't know how many of you stayed with it the whole time but our interest did wane after the first few episodes!  The show's last three contestants were Travis and Presley, JD and Galaxy, and Laurie and Andrew.  For the final show there were a lot of interviews between owners and judges.  I thought that of the three owners interviews Laurie and Travis definitely did the best job.  JD's attitude was one of superiority throughout the interviews and we got the impression that he felt as though he learned nothing at canine academy; I think that the judges agreed with him!

In any case, the last two teams standing were Laurie and Andew and Travis and Presley.  Travis and Presley ended up winning the whole thing ($250,000) and plenty of advertising and publicity. Congratulations to both Travis and Presley  I am sure that they are both ecstatic right now!

I wonder how successful the show ended up being for CBS and whether or not there will be a season 2. What do you all think?

Make sure to check out our ever growing selection of dog chews and treats... especially the internet's largest selection of bully sticks !

Bully Stick Rings and Pretzels

We are introducing some new bully stick items this week....the bully stick ring and bully stick pretzel.  These are both new to the market and we are bringing them to you at the best prices on the internet.  If you are able to find them less expensive anywhere let us know and we will match the price!

I must say that when taking the photo of the bully stick rings the first thing that came to mind was the Olympics...  anyway, they are basically just 6-8" bully sticks that are formed into the shape of a ring.  We would recommend these as great chews for smaller dogs.

The bully stick pretzels are equally as good and are actually made from 7-10" bully sticks to bend them into shape.  Both of these new products can be purchased in bulk to save even more money!   Stay tuned to the blog as we have some really unique (only here) bully stick items that we will be launching in the next week.

Best Bully Sticks Bulk Items

We are experimenting by offering our products in larger bulk quantities, but would like your feedback to let us know what you think!  We are planning on starting this with our bully stick products by offering discounts on 25, 50, 100, and 200 pack quantities and seeing how it all goes.

We have started this with braided bully sticks and bully stick bites, but are planning on carrying it over to all of our bully stick and all natural dog treat/chew products.  This will be a kind of reward for those of you who choose to buy in larger quantities at one time.

Please keep up with the blog as this is where we will launch new products, introduce discounts, and special member only savings.  We are almost through with our new Lamb Dog Treats product release and have 2 more products (Lamb Trachea, Lamb Ears) coming soon...so stay tuned!

As always, thank you for helping to make us the best online shop for all natural dog chews and treats.