I'd take it up as soon as a piece came off. Those pieces get in the right configuration in the GI tract and could cause a block.

Why just not leave him in the yard alone?

 

I don't think I'd leave him with a Kong if he's able to chew hunks of it off.

Does he like ice? (My two are nuts about ice.) It wouldn't last all day, but a big hunk of ice (maybe with a little chicken flavor in it?) might keep him occupied and out of danger for an hour or two.

 

My girls love ice too!!

Good idea Tracy! I never thought about adding flavoring

A bigger piece would take some chewing to get thru...

We use ice cubes in place of treats for our oldest (she's prone to getting a bit.... plump!)

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I'll give ice a try....I've used ice cubes before in the summer. I think I had stopped that for a little while because of something I read about either bloat (but I guess only if he's very hot) or chipping teeth.

I try to get the kong pieces from him right away. He just swallows some before I can get them out of his mouth. And he's never left alone with one. In fact, if he's out of his kennel, I'm outside with him. If I give him nothing though, he'll go for sticks and eat small pieces of those....and I can't possibly get all of the sticks/branches out of our yard. He just seeks out things he can destroy.

And I don't want to make it seem as if I don't interact with him. He's a working dog, so we train during our workday and are constantly interacting for full days. But at home that means giving us both some down time for just hanging out. And he's the type of dog that in his downtime would rather just lay chewing on something rather than bringing something to me to throw.

I'll give some ice cubes a try again though and see how it goes....I think he'll love a little flavoring.

 

Try teaching a command like "spit it out" and have treats with you at all times and reward the spitting out with a treat. I wouldn't use the drop or out command for this. I know there are certain things my dogs will not eat, so I would give them one of those and say "spit it out" when they did then I would give a really good treat.

 

You can teach "trade", too - trade whatever for a treat. If Misha or Chaos get a chunk of Kong (or something they are not supposed to have in their mouth) I ask them to "trade it" - they immediatly drop whatever is in their mouth, and run for a treat.

I have also frozen water bottles, removed the plastic and given them outside. It takes them quite a while to melt.

 

Great ideas! It never occurred to me to have him spit out pieces for treats. I think he kind of knows the "spit it out" thing (as that's exactly what I say), but he also knows that nothing bad happens when he doesn't spit it out (unless I'm in the process of shoving my hand in his mouth to fish out the piece). So it should be quite easy to add in the treats. He's very easy with food, so I can even use kibble pieces for the reward. Thanks

 

Well he obviously completely understands the "spit it out" command and has simply been giving me the finger lately. The first piece he got off was very small and he swallowed it before I could do much, but I had already told him to spit it out and moved forward so he could tell i had some kibble. After he realized he wasn't getting the kibble and an "ah-ah," he spit out every piece after.....and has kept spitting them out for me, no matter the size. Guess he just needed payment for the work he was doing

 

None of us like to work for free

 

They also now make a Blue Kong that is sold at vet stores....its suppose to have more tensile strength than even the black ones and its made of a special radiopaque rubber that shows up in x-rays....much easier to diagnose a blockage that way!