Christmas is a time of giving, a time of showing gratitude and celebrating our loved ones, including our four-legged friends.
After your puppy got you through the lockdown and made your work-from-home days a bit more enjoyable, it’s completely understandable that you want to show your love and make sure Santa comes to them too.
There’s no shortage of doggy gifts in stores, and you may have already seen those Christmas stockings for dogs in ads on your newsfeed. But before you get excited and add a bunch of them to your cart, you should know that they can be quite dangerous. As much as your puppy will love the surprise, and they’ll love chewing on the new toys, you should avoid store-bought Christmas stockings.
Pre-filled Christmas stockings for dogs usually contain rawhide chews,
Rawhide chews are popular dog treats, but they’re not the healthiest thing you could get your dog. They can be dangerous. Sold as chewy treats that should help clean the dog’s teeth, rawhide does more harm than good because it’s treated with harmful substances such as arsenic, formaldehyde, butylated hydroxyanisole, and sodium sulphide, which can be toxic and even cause cancer. In the long run, rawhide chews may cause indigestion and damage the teeth. Many dog owners don’t know that rawhide is inedible; dogs are meant to chew on it, not swallow it. And yet, many dogs do swallow it and have trouble digesting it. This leads to vomiting, diarrhoea, and even digestive blockages, which require expensive surgery.
But, above all, rawhide chews pose a choking hazard because they can get stuck in your dog’s throat. Rawhide doesn’t stay as tough as when you buy it. The more your dog chews on it, the softer and stringier it gets, so pieces of it can come off. These chews can be particularly dangerous for breeds such as bulldogs, French bulldogs, and pugs, which have shorter snouts and compromised respiratory systems.
Cheap toys – may look cute, but they can be dangerous.
Christmas stockings for dogs may look cute, but they’re rarely made with quality in mind. Most of the time, they have cheap toys that are made in China, and buying those is like gambling with your puppy’s health. At best, cheap toys of questionable origin will break quickly. At worst, they can be contaminated with toxic chemicals from overseas factories, which are extremely harmful to your dog’s health. Keep in mind that many overseas countries have no safety standards for manufacturing dog toys, so they still use substances such as BPA and phthalate.
So, if you want to get your beloved puppy a present this holiday season, it’s better to stay away from store-bought Stockings for dogs because they’re a disaster waiting to happen. Instead, buy their favourite healthy treats, homemade Christmas cookies, and some high-quality dog toys and put them into a Christmas stocking yourself. It’s a fun DIY gift, and even if it takes longer to put together, at least you know you’re not offering your dog something dangerous.
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