Sticks and Safestix

For Cheri, there is something thrilling about dragging a big branch around.  She'll break it down while she's running until she's just carrying one small piece.  When she gets a stick that she can sprint with, she will come charging near us and veer away at the last second, probably playing a fun game of chicken with herself.  Unfortunately, there have been several times where she's made it safely past me, but the stick has not and has slammed into my legs.

We typically try to encourage Cheri to carry around toys and discourage her from playing with sticks partially because of that (it's so annoying-and can be extremely painful-especially when wearing shorts!), but more importantly because of a story I heard a few years back.

An acquaintance of mine regularly goes out with his dogs and children to take a walk.  During their typical walks, the dog like to carry around sticks and other pieces of wood.  A few days after one of these walks, the dog started to act strange, not eating and acting like she was in pain.  They kept checking her to see if they could find something wrong, but when they didn't, they finally just took her to the vet.  After an extremely thorough examination, the vet found a splinter the size of a finger in her tongue.  Nobody had noticed it at first because the tongue is one of the fastest healing parts of the body.

Needless to say, I've always been a little freaked out by sticks.  However, when Cheri is off leash and the sticks are conveniently on the ground, it takes some good toys to keep her mind off those tasty, bark-covered 'toys.'

Lately I've heard a lot about 'Safestix,' a toy that is supposed to be just as fun as a stick.  While I don't think there is anyway it would smell as intriguing and taste as good as a real stick, it's still an interesting concept.  I know for Cheri that part of the thrill of the stick is its size-most toys we use are small, but a stick is fun to swing around and drag.

Kong makes one, which can be found online.  The cheapest place I've seen so far is on Ryan's Pets.  There is also this really fun website by Safestix.  And, to be honest, I'm not sure what the difference is between the two brands (they look the same to me, so maybe they are somehow affiliated?), so if somebody finds out, go ahead and post a comment!

I don't know that one of these sticks will ever be able to replace a real one-but I know that this dog sure looks like she's having fun!

Credit for this lovely article goes to: Becca