Indestructible toys

Labradors are known for their love of chewing, and Gracie is no exception. She loves chew toys, and will work on one until it's completely torn to shreds. Terhi discovered recently that dogs instinctively try to dispatch their prey. They like it dead before they eat it. So it seems that when you have a toy with a squeaker in it, the dogs interpret the squeaking as the pained yelps of a wounded animal and try even harder to kill it (rather nice of them to want to put it out of its misery, unlike cats, who like to torture their prey).

Most every toy we've gotten Gracie has had a squeaker. No wonder she becomes obsessed with destroying it right away.

I do think there is more to it than that, though, as even the toys that have held up longer she will still work at destroying if there is any hope it can be. For example, she recently got a tube-shaped toy--we think it was supposed to be a stick, a newspaper, or a cigar. The way she carried it so it stuck out of one side of her mouth made it look most like a cigar.

Anyway, it took her longer than usual, but she was eventually able to chew a hole in one end. Soon she had chewed off the entire end. Over the next several days she gnawed the thing down to nothing.

Her latest toys are a rope chew toy and a Kong. Kongs are supposed to be indestructible, and so far it's proving true. On the other hand, I think she's realized she's met her match, as she doesn't try to chew it nearly so often. This one might actually survive for awhile.

I'm still betting she'll destroy it. Eventually.