If you have a dog, you've likely encountered bully stick chews. They're great for keeping dogs occupied, but there is always the risk of swallowing them, especially when they get chewed down to their ends. Several products have recently hit the market, each of which tries to solve this problem in a novel way by sheathing, clamping, or holding the chews in such a way to make it impossible (ideally) for a dog to choke on them. Annie surveys some of these products, and interviews the inventor of the The Everchew, designed by Austin-based inventor Kirby Kendall. Help fund his product on Kickstarter (through 10/3/18) at Everchew.com. 

Notes: AnnieGrossman.com/podcast25 - What is a bully stick? - Bully stick holders at StoreForTheDogs.com - Music: "Bully of the town" cover by JazzBanjoRex - Sponsor: SANEBOX! Get $15 off at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Sane

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Partial Transcript:

**music**

Annie:

So, you know, you're a pretty big dog loving nerd, if you can get very excited about bully stick holders. And, uh, I'll explain later in this episode exactly what a bully stick is, if you're not familiar with bully sticks, but basically they're a very popular kind of dog too. I recommend them to clients all the time because they're a single ingredient and dogs love them. Lots of great things about bully sticks. But one downside to bully sticks is when they get to their very last  inch or so, they kind of look like cigars depending on the size that you get, but when they get down to that little nub, there's always the risk that a dog can swallow it which is never a good thing. So over the last few years, a couple of companies have started offering various kinds of bully stick holders, basically devices that keep your dog from being able to get to that last little bit.



And at School for the Dogs, we get really thrilled when we receive one of these things to try because like I said, we recommend bully sticks all the time. So right now a storeforthedogs.com, we sell three and each one kind of has a different approach to solving this problem. Probably our most popular one is called the Animaswizzler. It's this very cool looking kind of like plastic and rubber cage that fits over a bully stick. And we sell a lot of these. I like them, but they're not really great for super heavy chewers because plastic and rubber can be broken and sometimes the dogs do end up breaking them. So I don't recommend them for heavy chewers.

Then we have one made by the company West Paw, which is a really great company. It's all rubber and you kind of shoved the bully stick in. It kind of looks like a really big hot dog bun. Um, and that also has its advantages and disadvantages. I think the main disadvantage is most of the bully stick is lodged in the rubber thing, so your dog really can't get to it at all.



And then the third one we've be recently started selling is called the Bone Head. And it's kind of like a clamp that literally screws onto a bully stick with a screwdriver...



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

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