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Sunday September 05, 2004

A Dog and her Greenie

As I've mentioned before, I'm new to having a dog as a pet, so I'm occasionally surprised by what they get up to. Our dog Dusti for example. My wife knew to go out and buy her a Greenie (or a whole bag of them), to help keep her teeth clean.

To me it looks like a plastic dog bone. I really couln't see her going for that. But she did. In a big way. In fact, the first thing she did was go and bury it under a bush in the garden.

Well after I'd dug it up again (I want her to eat it, not bury it) and cleaned it off, and bought both her and the bone back indoors (and closed the animal flap so she couldn't do a repeat performance), I watched her more closely. She's very possessive of this bone. I've seen cats with little sacks of catnip before, take a similar stance, but I don't think there's any doggie drugs in this thing. According to the link above, they are:

Human grade ingredients with a delicious chicken flavor dogs love!

Does that mean I can chew on one? And the green color in Greenies is from pure chlorophyll! Okay, but why? Is chlorophyll good for them? I know our cats like to eat grass, but should our dog be doing that too?

So is Dusti just exhibiting a normal dog reaction to being given a "bone", or is there something more about these greenies? Googling around suggests that this is just a common dog conditioning.

[Technorati Tag: pets]

( Sep 05 2004, 05:21:40 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [3]

Comments:

Hahahahaha... sorry, have to laugh. Your dog is acting *very* normal and as a matter of fact, she may not like it when you dig up the bone. It's very typical of dogs to bury bones and then return for them later. Her possessiveness is why she buries the bone... "save that guy for later" is the mentality. Dogs (at least, many breeds of them) will bury edible items they really like. I would let her bury it again and don't go digging it up - she'll go get it when she wants it. On the other note about humans eating those treats... yeah, you could eat them actually. I have a friend who eats MilkBones with his dog. Kind of like sharing a meal I guess. He's single though. Big surprise.

Posted by Vermyndax on September 05, 2004 at 07:30 AM PDT #

I work at a pet store and we sell greenies. Everyone I've ever talked to says their dog just inhales them. I think there really is something about the greenies that make them more than just a common bone.

Posted by Kyle on September 05, 2004 at 07:59 AM PDT #

Thanks Vermyndax, Kyle. Well now I've seen her demolish a greenie in front of my eyes last night, I'm happy to let her bury the next one. I won't be trying them myself. Or a milk bone. Yuk! Inhale would be a good word. Gone in about five minutes.

Posted by Rich Burridge on September 05, 2004 at 09:12 AM PDT #