I'll take yours instead

Why is it when given two identical toys/treats/chewies two dogs always want
the one the other dog has? Are they jealous? Worried that they might be
getting the short end of the stick? What's the deal with that?

shelly...

the grass is always greener on the other side, so, whatever the other
dog has *must* be better than what you've got. it can be especially
entertaining when you've got 5-6 bones, and the dogs play musical bones

MauiJNP...

oh, yeah, I did hear that. I was thinking you meant the stuff they are made
of or something like that (like with diamond food).

MauiJNP...

do you give them any store bought bones/chewies? if so, what are some that
you have good experiences with?

Janet B...

They have rubber toys, latex toys, and some rope bones that are
carefully watched. I sometimes buy them some sort of sterilized bone
- filled or basted. Not as often as I did when Franklin was a puppy
though. And they have and like Nylabones (and Rudy is a chewing fool
and loves them).

No ingestible chewies.

MauiJNP...

I see. Maui never likes rubber or latex toys (he loves stuffed toys). Cali

bethgsd...

I don't bother with pig ears. They gave Zivia diarrhea so I never got
in the habit of giving them. Trip doesn't like Greenies but Wojo does.
I hadn't heard about the choking but he gets them very rarely. (He has
had two in his life.) Both boys love rawhide but I'll pick them up when
I start seeing small pieces. So I have small, by GSD standards, chunks
of rawhide all over the house, up high.
Off topic, do the attachments on the Dyson vacuum really work with good
suction?

likes latex/rubber toys though so the ones I bought for Maui are finally
getting used. I am kind of having a tough time with Cali's chewing/teething
because she destroys almost everything. I had no idea her little teeth
could be so destructive!

with them.

Kathleen...

In my household, of the three dogs, only Scully, the female BC, will
"start" a rawhide chewie. The other two leave theirs lay, then lurk
around, waiting for the chance to snatch Scully's. Gooey chewies are
the best. Fortunately she's relatively good natured about it, and just
goes and finds one of the untouched treats. I think she actually comes
out ahead in the game, as measured by total chewie consumption.

MauiJNP...

smart girl!

Theresa Willis...

Picture, if you will, a yard littered with sticks. Hundreds of stick,
due to an ice storm.

Add to the picture one ELB (Evil Little Brother) and his ornery Aussie
AJ.

Now picture one goofy Harlan who MUST HAVE the stick that AJ is
playing with, as it is obviously far superior to any other of the
THOUSANDS of sticks littering the ground.

Finally, watch the light bulb flash over AJ's head as he figures out
yet another way to push Harlan's buttons.

AJ: "La la la, wow, this is the best stick in the world, la la la. Get
me, I have the finest stick in the land"

Harlan: "Mine, you know. " (AJ relinquishes stick, picks another).

AJ: "Oh, dear, it seems I was mistaken; THIS is clearly a superior
stick to the one I had before."

Harlan: "That is also mine". (Another stick relinquished).

Scenario is repeated for the NEXT SEVERAL HOURS.

Harlan, while he has his good points, is clearly not the sharpest
knife in the drawer.

Moral of the story: DAWGS IS WEIRD.

ceb...

That's a great story!

shore...

With my dogs, it's not a case of wanting it instead, it's a
case of wanting it also - just plain old greed.

MauiJNP...

Maui is kinda like that. He usually gets some of Cali's and then finishes
it while she is eating some of his. Then, he waits until she ignores it for
a second and he swoops in for the rest.

Rocky...

My perspective is way more anal than others', since I have dogs
in my house that I don't know as well as my own.

I don't give out any valuable toys/treats/chewies unless they
come from my hand and can be consumed immediately. There are
plenty of toys available - mostly tug, some nylabone (AKA, not
*that* valuable). Problems can arise simply because a dog has
possession of something else another dog doesn't - but I can
mitigate it somewhat by using not-overly-valuable stuff that's
not directly under my control. Of course, the definition of
"valuable" changes by the day and by the group of animals.