Poor Rocky. A co worker brought in a knuckle bone for him to try. When I got home, he was very enthusiastically digging thru my bag for it.

Next day, I have him in my room with the door shut for privacy and I offer it on a table mat for him. However, all he does it sit beside it and guard. He got angry when he heard anyone approach the door, growling like he meant business. But after the person went away, he's back to sitting beside and guarding.

What does this mean? Maybe it doesn't taste good to him?

It means he likes it. If he didn't like it, he wouldn't guard it.

I spoke too soon. I think the bone is simply too big for him. I figured maybe if I hold it for him, he could chew on it. He was guarding with such ferocity but I successfully got a hold of it by exchanging with a treat. He wasn't happy but then he realized I was helping him. He allowed me to hold it while he chomped away.

Meanwhile, Miu the cat was crying outside my door because she was curious about what we were doing. I had confidence that I could handle it at this point so I let her in. Rocky growled at her, but I issued the 'ignore' command and got his attention back to the bone. A few more 'ignore' commands later, he was totally oblivious to her presence and fully focused on the bone.

My next concern is, would he break a tooth on the thing? I don't have much experience with recreational bones. I heard all sorts of crunching noises and his teeth aren't exactly great.

Jessica, I give my 2 raw beef bones and they just sound awful chewing and such on them, but no broken teeth so far. Just quiet and happy dogs for an hour or so. LOL

Skye was twelve with less than perfect teeth too but she loved her bones. I would cringe at the noise sometimes and fully expect to find broken teeth but she tended to grind the bones down rather than try to break them.

Supervised your little one should do OK

Oh yeah. the awful crunching noises. LOL! I was so afraid he'd break something. My co worker was saying how it was such a godsend for his dog's teeth. He said within a month, her teeth became white. I'm almost desperate because his teeth are so bad despite me brushing and him on raw with bones. Maybe it's cuz small dog's tend to have bad teeth in general. I did try the knuckle bone thing b4 but he got the runs from it and at that time, he would be aggressive from food guarding so I stopped.

I'm willing to try again now since he seems to be more obedient with commands and I'll limit the amount of time to prevent the runs.

He does seem to love it a lot. He's a funny dog. If you do things for him like give him a 'spa' treatment (ie: bathe him, wipe his eyes, or brush him) he'll follow you around all day. After I gave him the knuckle bone, he's been extra chummy. He usually follows my mom around since she's a homemaker and home with him all day.

Gill you're probably right about the grinding. Even after the awful crunching noises, it does look like Rocky also grinds the bone down.

Oh Jessica dogs are smart enough to know who to suck up to!

If I even mention I'm baking or get out my supplies well suddenly I'm the be all and end all for three dogs in this house (they know I bake their dog cookies right after I do the human ones). I can barely move for three dogs jockeying around me trying to sit nicely and plaster "I'm the BEST dog in this house so I should get a cookie first" faces on. Half the time I have to kick the mooching pack out of the kitchen just to be able to move around my stove safely.

But let my husband walk in with a bag of kibble and all of a sudden he's the popular guy. Daddy's home and has hunted us up dinner! Whoohooo we LOVE daddy best!!!!!

Dogs definitely know what's up when it comes to effective sucking up.