# puppies & bully sticks



## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

I do not give any of my dogs bully sticks. It is a very high value treat. When my Brady was about six months old, we gave him one, my daughter stepped over him, and he growled and bit her in the leg. He has never done that again in the past nine years, but we also never gave him another one again. He is not food or toy aggressive in any way, but the bully stick just did something that some owners probably would have rehomed a dog for doing. I have heard other non-aggressive dogs doing this with bully sticks too.

Now I can give him a raw bone, with blood, and he will let us take it away from him with no issues.


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

There's no technical reason you can't--its not like rawhide, which shouldn't be given to puppies. Some dogs will have diarrhea after eating one, and sometimes they are too high value for puppies. I gave Piper a bully stick at 12 weeks....and she looked so darn cute chowing down on it I sat down next to her to take a picture and she stiffened her whole body and growled at me. She was NOT happy at the idea of me taking it away from her. She'd never resource guarded anything in her life and isn't an aggressive dog. We practiced trades with it, and she got better that day, but I didn't give her another one for another month and a half, maybe two. They are pretty high value, so sometimes puppies don't handle it well. She hasn't had a problem since, and happily can be pet and will drop it now. But some puppies will have issues with them. I avoided giving her a raw bone, in case she had the same problem, but she did fine with the dried out bones you get from the pet store.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Bully sticks may be too rich for your pup, if you decide to give one I'd go with a small one to see if your pup has any stomach upset from it. 

I don't give bully sticks to my adults mainly because they've been too rich for their system.


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## Wolfeye (Sep 15, 2015)

My puppy has had one from his first week with us. He did, on first getting it, give a little puppy growl when we touched it. But I took it away a few times when he did that. He's smart as a whip, this one, because after that bit of negative reinforcement, he never growled again. He lets us take any and all treats away from him. His absolute favorite treat is a rawhide chew stick, and even those we can take away from him. He knows we'll give it back.

We don't call them bully sticks either, we call them penis, which is what they are. Leads to some hilarity around our house.

"Where's your penis?"

"Go get your penis!"

"I got your penis!"


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## G-bear (Oct 6, 2015)

We gave Bailey a bully stick as a puppy. He ended up with diarrhea from it. The smell alone is reason to avoid them imho.


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## Heydear (May 7, 2016)

We gave Molly bully sticks since she was about 10 weeks old. It really helped when she was in the land shark phase and when she was teething. We've never had a problem taking it away from her and she liked it when we held it for her to chew on. You should take away the stick when it gets small or they will swallow it.


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## Figtoria (Apr 19, 2016)

My puppy LOVED bully sticks and he had several of them when he was really young. They would keep him happy for a couple of days.

Then when he was about 3 months old or so, he got WAY too good at eating them and we had to stop giving them to him. They were gone in 20 minutes.


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## Pammie (Jan 22, 2011)

When my dog was a pup I gave him bully sticks. He was a very busy pup and it was the only time I got some peace and quiet and could enjoy my computer time at this forum! LOL! I always tethered him to something because I did not want him to be able to run away when I came to take it away. And I never let it get shorter than 5 inches before I got rid of it, too many stories of dogs swallowing a piece that big. He did not have any digestive problems as a pup from the bully.
It still is a very high value treat for him and he kinda loses his mind when it comes out. Now as an adult he only gets a bully if I am holding it and it is used to get things done he would rather not have done. Like toe nail grooming.


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## Zeke1 (Nov 20, 2015)

Wolfeye said:


> My puppy has had one from his first week with us. He did, on first getting it, give a little puppy growl when we touched it. But I took it away a few times when he did that. He's smart as a whip, this one, because after that bit of negative reinforcement, he never growled again. He lets us take any and all treats away from him. His absolute favorite treat is a rawhide chew stick, and even those we can take away from him. He knows we'll give it back.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Read this old post ROFLMAO!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Maggie'sVoice (Apr 4, 2018)

I recommend Bully Sticks to puppies right from the time you bring them home. They are way to hard for an 8 week old puppy to do very much damage to them (weak jaws and puppy teeth) and are great to teach to give up a high value treat. You teach from day one that it's your house and they live with you by taking and giving their food and taking things our of their mouth and giving back to them. It creates trust early on and just because you take something doesn't mean they won't get it back. That needs to be taught whether it's a bully stick or a sock. The difference is you may not see that behavior with lower value treat/toys untill they are 4 months or older and they nip will be worse. It's best to identify that at 8 weeks or 9 weeks then 16 or 20 weeks.


Maggie nipped at 8 weeks when I tried to take a lambs ear (very small untreated ear) since she had eaten about half of it and that was that... we did nothing but give, let chew for 30 seconds and take and give for 1 min and take, all day and all week. Now you can just open her mouth and put your hand in her mouth and she won't fight to keep it whether its a raw bone, bully stick or anything else. lol she will gaurd it by putting her head over it on the floor sometimes but you can reach under and she will sign , like **** he found it!


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## jdavisryan (Jan 28, 2018)

I'm so on the fence about bully sticks. Woody loves them and so far no resource guarding when he has one. He'll even plop down in my lap with it if I'm on the floor, and allow me to take it. He will eat them however, and he swallowed the last one when it was still about 4" long. It took me by surprise because I thought we had plenty of time before it got too small and needed to be tossed. He showed no ill effects at all, but I'm really reluctant to give him another. Too bad because the bully sticks kept him entertained. When he's older I may try one of the super-sized ones and see how he does.


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