Dogs love to chew! Chewing relieves stress, cleans teeth, and alleviates boredom. Unless, of course, your dog chooses to chew on your Manolo Blahniks, in which case there will be quite a good amount of accompanying stress (for you; the dog could care less!).

To that end it is important that we give our dogs appropriate things to chew on. Appropriate means (a) that it does not fall into the furniture or footwear categories; and (b) that the items we give our dogs to chew on promote good health and are safe for your pet.

Sounds simple, right? After all, there is an entire industry out there devoted solely to things dogs can chew on. Unfortunately, just because something has made it to the pet store shelf does not ensure its safety. Take Greenies, for example, the top-selling compressed vegetable chew treats shaped like a toothbrush that made CNN headlines when at least 13 different dogs died. But how can a chew treat be dangerous? In the case of Greenies, the treats did not break down and became lodged in the dogs' intestines and esophagi.

A great