Pet Toys - Safety 1st

On one of the trainer Elists this morning there was a link to a very sad story of a dog that was injured when a toy ball he was playing with got tangled with his tongue. The ball was designed in a way that it only had one hole in it, allowing suction to be created as the dog chewed on the ball. This dog's tongue wound up getting sucked into the ball. By the time the owner got medical care, the dog's tongue had begun dying from lack of blood supply and eventually required surgical removal.

While the story is very unfortunate, it brings up several important points for pet owners. First, always check out toys you give your pet to make certain they appear safe. Just because an item is manufactured and sold is no guarantee of its safety, especially for your particular pet.

Second, supervise your pet when it plays with a new toy. You may find the toy is too small, too easily torn apart, etc. by your dog. Toys that have squeekies can cause gastric and choking hazards if torn apart, for example.

The toy in this story only had one hole in the ball - drilling a second hole in it before giving it to a dog may have avoided the problem. Also, if your dog is caught up in something like this, think of ways to get the item off your dog ASAP. Cutting the rubber with a knife would have released the vacuum and likely avoided the dog losing its tongue.

I know that hindsight is always 20/20 - but a little prevention goes a long way. In general, I recommend appropriately sized Nylabone and Kong products as the safest toys I've found.