How To Get The Most Value Out Of Your Dog Chew

If your dog is a power chewer, the costs of keeping them entertained can add up. While we try to provide affordable dog chews, it’s still important to get the most bang for your buck. Here are some tips to get the most use and the best experience from your dog chews.

Limit Chew Sessions

Instead of letting your dog chew for hours at a time, consider providing a chew for 15-30 minutes. This will help them get the calming dopamine and serotonin that relaxes them, while also extending the life of the chew. Not every chew works exactly the same, but Ugly Chew’s hide rolls soften as the dog chews on them. If you take the chew away for a few hours between sessions, it will reharden, which will make it last much longer.

There are a lot of benefits to limited chew sessions beyond just the life of the chew. It makes it easier for you to monitor your dog, which makes chewing safer. Every chew comes with some amount of choking risk, so it’s important to keep an eye on your dog while they’re chewing. That’s easier to do over short sessions. Chew sessions also increase the net benefit for your dog. Dogs get a lot of emotional benefits from chewing, but they don’t need to chew a lot to get them. Usually, 30 minutes of chewing is enough to calm most dogs down and leave them chill and relaxed. They may keep chewing after that, but they aren’t getting as much of the benefit. Think of it like having a cookie. If you eat a cookie, you really enjoy it. You probably enjoy a second cookie. By the seventh cookie, you probably aren’t enjoying the cookie near as much as the first one. It would be better to have one or two cookies, then save the rest for later when you’ll enjoy them more.

If you want to get the most value from your chews, do multiple short chew sessions, not one long one. We often hear from our customers that one Ugly Chew will last their dog several days when spaced out across a few chew sessions per day.

Understand Your Dog’s Emotional State

As we just mentioned, chewing provides anxiety relief for your dog. It’s a destresser that changes their brain chemistry. One Ugly Chews customer described his first experience giving his dog one of our chews. He said she chewed on it for a few minutes, but then just kind of cuddled it for a while. That was just before they left town on a big trip. He gave her the chew again after the long weekend spent with family, toddlers, and other dogs, and she went nuts and chewed it like crazy. This is a great example of the role emotions play in chewing. Think of a chew like your comfort food, caffeine, alcohol, or even some recreational drug. Humans use a lot of coping mechanisms to deal with stress. You may turn to any of those mechanisms when you’re having a hard time. You may like a glass of wine with dinner on many nights, but after a particularly hard day, you may want more than one glass. Your dog is the same way. Most days they’ll enjoy something to chew on for a bit. But when they are stressed, anxious, or have been cooped up, they will really be looking for an outlet. And the dopamine and serotonin that comes from chewing make a huge difference.

Get A Properly Sized Chew

It’s very tempting to fall into the trap of buying a smaller chew for your dog. Maybe it’s because you don’t want them to chew too much. Maybe it’s because smaller chews are cheaper. Regardless of your reason, always make sure that the chew you purchase is appropriately sized for your dog. When in doubt, err on the side of a larger chew. Chews that are too small can increase the risk of choking. If the dog can fit the entire chew in their mouth, they are more likely to choke. The smaller the chew, the sooner it reaches this “high choke risk” size.

In addition to safety, smaller chews simply don’t last as long, especially for larger dogs. You’ll get fewer sessions out of them, if you get multiple sessions at all.

Always Monitor Your Dog

You know your dog. You know how they work. Online advice can only go so far. Keep an eye on them and see how they do with any chew that you give them. You’ll find horror stories for almost every type of chew out there, but most of those horror stories happen because people were careless. Keep an eye on your dog.

Yum

My dogs love them ❣️

So far so good! The pups are loving these chews!

We started out with the Chips, Chunks, & Scraps to try, and the kiddos love! I'm impressed by how long even these smaller pieces take them to get through! <3

My crew of five loves them!

These are long lasting, extremely satisfying, healthy chews for all the crew, from small to large, they can't get enough! I now have a subscription so we don't run out! The box is packed with care plus a really nice little note of thanks! Awesome company! I would give them ten stars 🤩

Tasty Treat

My dog is a big chewer and destroys toys and chews easily but she has to work on these. I give them to her for 10-20 mins. She loves them. Have already recommended them to friends and will buy again

Puppy Paci

This is Gus, the 8 month old Anatolian Shepard and his paci. lol. Seriously the best! It has held up to all the giant puppy chewing and tossing and helps wear him down. He even falls asleep with it in his mouth then wakes up so happy it’s still there. 10/10 will purchase again!

My pup is OBSESSED

Our 25 pound French bulldog is utterly obsessed with her ugly. Choose! I purchased the medium size and she LOVES them!!! To the point when we ask her to go outside and take a walk, which is her favorite thing, she will go and grab her chew and run around the house excitedly and then sit down and munch on it instead of going to the door. She has to have one of them around at all times, in the middle of the night I kicked it off the bed and she woke up, jumped off the bed to get it, and bring it back to the bed, just to have it next to her 🤣 For the chewing part, five + stars! She is a super aggressive chewer and these babies are going to last! Usually at this point she would’ve completely destroyed or eaten the entire thing but she’s barely made a dent so definitely worth the money. I can’t say enough good things about these choose. absolutely love this company, a customer we will forever be!!

My dogs love these!

I have 5 border collies and I love these chews, because I can choose an appropriate size for each one. The older dogs prefer smaller/thinner and the young ones like the larger ones.

Has become her favourite chew

I'm always on the lookout for different chews for my 1 year old 60 lb pit and I've had my eye on these for a while. I got a pack of the large rolls and and they were an instant hit! I give her yak cheese, antlers, collagen chews, and bully sticks on rotation and other than the bully sticks she usually carries the chew around for a while before she settles to eat it but as soon as I handed it to her she started chewing right away so I think that's a resounding endorsement! I did read the instructions about only letting her chew for 20 minutes and letting it harden back up again which is what I do for her collagen rolls and they will last her a couple of sessions. Considering 20 minutes is how long a regular bully stick lasts with her and she'll eat it all, I don't mind doing a little extra work for something that will last me a few more times.

Great stimulation

My pup LOVES her bones! She is a huge fan of the fur on these. She's always hiding it for later 😅

Great chews

My dogs absolutely love these chews

Ugly but lovable

Ok so first-- yes they're ugly but after your dog chews on the ends, they won't look any different than any other rawhide. There's no smell whatsoever, even after they've been chewed. There are four dogs in the house and all of them loved them. The Yorkie claimed all the scraps and did her worst with what teeth she has left. Another has a sick tummy all the time and the roughage on the chews worked better than the fiber supplements I've been giving him. We'll definitely re-purchase soon.

High energy/AGGRESSIVE chewers!!

I have 2 GSPs(high energy, can’t stop won’t stop) and the only thing I’ve found that lasts them more than 20 minutes is a hard to find ostrich bone, then one day they decided to say “challenge accepted” and beat that record lol. First day I opened the box for the Hair on Hide rolls they sniffed and sniffed and then fought over them! I took them away after 30 mins since they have sensitive tummies and my youngest was halfway done. Took them out the next day and even if my youngest is the only one that LOVES them every time it’s worth it!! I appreciate Uglychews for the zero waste, natural content, and the time it takes for my INSANELY aggressive chewers to gnaw on these! Keep in mind I work and train with my babies multiple times a day (short increments) so a pup that doesn’t get a lot of exercise/attention/enrichment might go through them a bit faster. But my pups could be the poster children for our local natural petstore and they actually look to me for recommendations 🤣

My pibbles FAVORITE treats!!!

My pup loves the hide rolls for a longer-lasting enrichment chew so I wanted to give the chips a try. She absolutely goes crazy for the chips and they make a perfect snack sized treat for special occasions. I love supporting family-owned businesses and when a shipping problem occurred with my order they were so kind and helpful in getting my package to me. This is one of my favorite shops and I highly recommend giving them a try!

First time trying Ugly Chews

This was our first time ordering from Ugly Chews and my dogs loved it! They were so excited when I opened the box and let them smell it. We will definitely be repurchasing!

Loved them!

My 4 dogs just loved them! I also liked that these treats didn’t smell bad at all. I would definitely recommend them! I look forward to trying other products too!

Best chew ever

So far he’s gotten 3 30 minute sessions with this. The only caution I’d give is if your dog is very pry driven like mine you need to make sure you trade out when you need to take it away. He’s very possessive of these.

Hide rolls

My dog could not WAIT to get into these. She can be a little selective with fur-on treats but she took to these instantly. Definitely will be ordering more

He loved it!

Our little guy went to town on these chews. True to their name they are VERY ugly, but according to the dog it only makes them taste better.

My pups loved them

My pitty and little mutt loved the chews. My only complaint is the tufts of hair around the house and my pit hacked up a hairball like a cat. Hahaha. That’s the only reason I gave them 4 stars.

Dog loves them, but not “long lasting.”

My German Shepherd/Pitbull mix absolutely destroyed half a chew in about 10 minutes. The rolls also look much thinner than the advertised photos show, even though I ordered the largest size. He sure loved them but for the price I was very disappointed he was able to get through it so fast.

Older dog loves them

I have an older dog that's picky about treats. He sniffed his first Ugly Chew for a few seconds, then started chewing. He really enjoyed it, and had no stomach issues. I highly recommend these!

The Good, the bad, and the Ugly.

The Good:My dog enjoyed these! There was no smell and no upset tummy.
The Bad: They didn't last long. My dog finished one in about an hour.
The Ugly: They definitely live up to their name. Pretty shocking when I first opened the package.

these are gross and my dogs couldn't be happier

My dogs (5 of the 6!) LOVE ugly chews. They don't smell at all. All my friends ask if they smell, NOPE. Bully sticks smell so much but these smell like nothing. How nice is it to use the bits of the cow that would traditionally just be trash. I highly recommend these.

New favorite

My dogs absolutely loved these. They took them everywhere with them and really enjoyed them. I was surprised. Usually they end up just leaving half eaten treats all over. These, they guarded with their lives like they were their personal teddy bears. I'm impressed!

Max liked it!

Indeed he did! Max loves his ugly chews. Expensive but worth it. No stomach issues afterwards which is a much needed surprise. Lasted about 5ish hours under optimal conditions which is a compliment coming from a Black Mouth Cur.