Chewing is an instinctive dog behavior. From puppies chewing on everything in sight to older dogs settling down with a good stick, dogs love to chew. Chewing is a self-soothing activity, and dog-safe chews are good for stress release, teething, and can even help with teeth cleaning.
However, chewing inappropriate items poses health and safety issues for our four-legged friends. From gastrointestinal upset to obstruction risk, finding the best and safest chew bones to keep your dog occupied can seem like a daunting task.
Which Dog Chews are Safe?
The safest chew bones for dogs are made of digestible materials. This means that the ingredients are easy for dogs to digest and won’t cause stomach upset or potential blockages. Rawhide is a type of chew that isn’t always easily digestible because of how it’s processed. Large pieces of rawhide that are swallowed could be a potential intestinal obstruction risk.
Relatedly, safe dog chews are made of materials that don’t easily splinter or break off into large chunks. If a chew splinters, sharp pieces can get lodged in your dog’s throat or intestinal tract and cause damage. If a chew breaks into large pieces, dogs can swallow them whole and it’s both a choking and obstruction hazard.
Choosing a safe dog chew comes down to knowing your dog. A “safe” dog chew for a toy-sized dog or a light chewer may not be safe for a power chewer or a large dog who tends to break chews up and swallow big pieces. Once a chew gets shorter than the length of your dog’s snout, it becomes a potential choking hazard.
No dog chew is 100% safe, and you should always monitor your dog when you give them a chew bone. There are also handy products like bully stick holders that can make some chews less of a choking risk as your dog chews them down.
Traits We Want in a Dog Chew
The best dog chew bones should be easily digestible, non-splintering and should last long enough to make the price worth it. Here’s what to look for when buying a dog chew bone:
Digestible ingredients: Look for simple, digestible ingredients—single ingredient chews are the best. Avoid rawhide chews unless you’re sourcing from a responsible, safe source.
Safe materials and size: Whether something is safe or not may depend on your dog’s chewing style. Choose chew bones that are large enough that they’re not an immediate choking hazard. Also select chews that get softer as the dog chews, don’t splinter, and are unlikely to break into big pieces. Be mindful of hardness as well, as chews that are incredibly hard (like antlers) can potentially chip or break dogs’ teeth.
Long-lasting chews: Some chews get expensive at $10+ per chew. A long-lasting chew will be much more worth the cost and will keep your furry best friend entertained for longer.
Though raw bones can have dental and other benefits, I decided not to include them in this list. Not only do many vets advocate against raw bones due to obstruction risk, but raw bones can also carry bacteria and make dogs and humans in a household sick if not handled properly.
I tested each of the chew bones on this list with my two dogs, Miso, a Border Collie-American Staffordshire Terrier mix and Dashi, a Rough Collie. Miso is a super chewer. She’s been known to finish bully sticks in five minutes flat and she’s the kind of dog who will break something into large pieces and swallow it whole. I’ve fished many chews and pieces of toys out of her throat to save her from choking. She’s an excellent tester of a chew bone’s safety for strong chewers.
Dashi, on the other hand, is a delicate chewer. She’s the kind of dog that would take multiple sessions over multiple days to finish a small bully stick. Beef cheek rolls last her weeks at a time, even if she chews on them for an hour a day. Dashi also has a sensitive stomach, so she’s a good tester for how easy-on-the-tummy chews are.
I tested all the chews on this list with both of my dogs to determine the safety, longevity, and cost-effectiveness of each chew. I timed how long each dog took to finish each chew and noted the chews that were broken into unsafe pieces or caused digestive upset. I also noted chews that my dogs didn’t like or didn’t find very high value.
Note that the recommendations on this list aren’t exhaustive. There are plenty of brands of beef cheek rolls, tendons, bully sticks, and more to choose from. Let this list serve as a guide for which type of chews to select, then you can try different brands to see which ones work best for you and your dog.
Read on for the best dog chew bones I tested for Whole Dog Journal:
Best and Safest Chew Bones for Dogs
| WDJ Rating | Product and Maker | Price | Quantity | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Amazing Dog Treats Beef Cheek Rolls | $24.99 | 4 count 5-6” mega thick rolls | These chews last a ridiculously long time even for heavy chewers, are an easily digestible rawhide alternative, and are extremely reasonably priced for how thick they are. These are one of the only chews that don't give my Collie tummy troubles. |
 | Good Lovin' Traditional Beef Bully Sticks | $29.99 | 6 count | Bully sticks are a classic chew for a reason. They’re a single ingredient chew, don’t break or splinter, and many dogs find them very high value. The only downside is the price in most cases. |
| Pupford Collagen Sticks | $24.99 | 10 count | Collagen sticks are a bit cheaper than bully sticks, and in my experience, are a little easier on the stomach. They’re also a bit easier for power chewers to break into pieces, but they do get softer as medium and light chewers chew them, similar to bully sticks. |
| Pupford Turbo Tendon Chews | $39.99 | 5 count | Tendons are a great low-fat treat that clean dog teeth well. The ones from Pupford are extra thick, and last a decently long time, even for powerful chewers. |
| Good Lovin' Dehydrated Beef Trachea Dog Chews | $7.49 | 3 count | If you’re looking for a natural, edible enrichment toy, beef trachea is the way to go. You can stuff them with soaked kibble or other food, then freeze them for an extra challenge. Unstuffed, they’re not very durable, but they’re a great alternative to stuffable enrichment toys. |
| Pupford Coffee Wood Chew | $19.90 | 1 count | Coffee wood chews are all the rage lately, but I found this option to be quite messy. It sheds small pieces of wood as dogs chew, even with light chewers. |
| Good Lovin' Pig Ears | $11.49 | 7 count | For extra-small dogs or light chewers, pig ears could be an okay option. My power-chewer tester dog was able to break one pig ear up into large pieces almost immediately. She got a piece lodged in her throat that I had to fish out by hand. |
Best Overall Dog Chew Bone:
Amazing Dog Treats Beef Cheek Rolls
As a dog trainer I hear the same lament constantly: Your puppy is chewing everything but has a sensitive tummy and can’t have most chews. Fear not: The Amazing Dog Treats Beef Cheek Rolls (and beef cheek rolls in general) are often the solution to this classic problem.
Though they look like rawhide, beef cheek rolls are made from one piece of beef cheek and are not a byproduct of the leather industry like rawhide. This means they’re much more easily digestible in comparison to rawhide.
Beef cheek rolls (especially thick ones like the ones from Amazing Dog Treats) last the longest of any chew I’ve ever given my dogs. The 5–6-inch beef cheek rolls regularly last my super chewer dog up to a week with about 30 minutes to an hour of chewing each day. They last my soft-mouthed Rough Collie even longer. At around $4 per chew, they’re easily some of the most cost-effective chews on this list.
I like that these rolls don’t break into big chunks. As the dog chews, they get soft, and the dogs are able to nibble tiny pieces off of them. I’ve never had a choking incident with a beef cheek roll, and I’ve been giving them to my dogs regularly for over two years. Because they’re so sturdy, I also find that they don’t upset my Collie’s sensitive stomach—likely because she’s not consuming much during each session.
Beef cheek rolls are fantastic boredom busters and though they don’t smell. The only real downside of them is that they leave some sticky residue as the dog chews. It’s best to lay down a towel or have your dog chew these bones on a washable dog bed to make cleanup a bit easier.
Runner Up Dog Chew Bone:
Good Lovin’ Traditional Beef Bully Sticks
Bully sticks are a classic single ingredient chew that work for even the heaviest of chewers. Bully sticks come in a variety of sizes (up to gigantic 24-inch-long ones), so you can opt for the size that best suits your dog. These chews are also incredibly high value in many cases and most dogs love them.
Bully sticks are made of beef pizzle, which while somewhat gross, is actually a great ingredient for a dog chew. They’re hard enough to offer some challenge but get soft as the dog chews. You’re unlikely to have any splintering or big pieces breaking off with a high-quality bully stick.
Most dogs can safely chew bully sticks, but super chewers will likely go through them pretty quickly. Miso can finish a 12-inch bully stick in about 10-15 minutes, while Dashi will take multiple 30-minute sessions to finish one. Bully sticks can be quite expensive, sitting at up to $10 per stick depending on the size and brand, so it may feel like a waste of money if your dog chews through a $10 stick in less than 10 minutes.
As for the downsides, some bully sticks have a terrible odor. The ones I tested didn’t have much odor before chewing and had some odor after my dogs started chewing. If the smell bothers you, you can opt for “odorless” versions, though these do sometimes still have a scent in my experience.
In terms of safety, choose a bully stick that’s oversized for your dog to ensure the longest amount of chew time. Buying a bully stick holder isn’t a bad idea either. As dogs chew down bully sticks, they may choke on the small piece left at the end of the chew, but bully stick holders help prevent that.
Best Dog Chew for Light Chewers:
Collagen sticks are very similar to bully sticks, but they’re slightly cheaper and tend to be a bit easier on the GI system for pups with sensitive tummies. In comparison to the bully sticks I tested, the Pupford Collagen Sticks are about half the price at $2.50 per stick.
They are, however, a bit easier to break into chunks, so they aren’t the best option for strong chewers. If you have a light to medium chewer, the Pupford collagen sticks act very similarly to bully sticks in that they soften as the dog chews on them. It’s still a good idea to put these in a bully stick holder since they can become a choking hazard as your dog chews them down.
Best Dog Chew for Enrichment:
Good Lovin’ Dehydrated Beef Trachea Dog Chews
No dog toy is truly indestructible. If you have a strong chewer who will demolish stuffable enrichment toys like Kongs and Toppls, trachea chews are a good stuffable (and edible) alternative. I like to fill these with soaked kibble and freeze them for a fun enrichment challenge.
Note that these chews are not nearly as durable unstuffed/unfrozen and many power chewers will eat an entire trachea in a few minutes. Aside from the lack of durability on their own, the main downside of beef tracheas is that they tend to be high in fat, which can cause gastrointestinal upset in some dogs.
Best Chew for Teeth Cleaning:
Chicken and duck feet are often lauded for their teeth cleaning abilities due to the scraping action of chewing on thin, crunchy bones. I found that the Pupford tendon chews offered a similar scraping action for my dogs, minus the crunch. Though these chews didn’t last the longest of the bunch, they were definitely the chewiest—and my dogs worked hard to get through them.’
Tendon chews are great because they’re low-fat and are essentially just muscle meat. That means less digestive upset for dogs than fattier options (like trachea).
If you have a very small dog or a very light chewer, Pupford has less durable (and cheaper) tendon chews and thick tendon chews. The Turbo Tendons are the thickest and priciest of the three tendon options from Pupford, but I found them to be long-lasting enough to recommend them. Miso the power chewer ate her Turbo Tendon in about 10 minutes, but she worked extremely hard and I could tell that due to the texture and size that it cleaned her teeth more than some of the other chews on this list. For a soft chewer like Dashi, one of these high-value chews could last multiple sessions over a few days.
Other Chews We Tested
I also tested the Pupford coffee wood chew and the Good Lovin’ pig ear chews. Coffee wood chews are a recent trend and though they’re non-splintering and seem like a good natural alternative to nylon chews, I wouldn’t recommend the one from Pupford. My Collie is a very soft chewer and even then there were a lot of crumbly pieces shed from this chew within the first few minutes. I also saw Dashi licking her mouth frequently while chewing on this, and it seemed like tiny pieces of wood were getting stuck in her mouth and annoying her. Miso didn’t care about this chew at all.
The Good Lovin’ pig ear chews and pig ears in general could be an okay option for a very small dog or an extremely light chewer, but these were the only chews on the list that caused a genuine choking hazard to my dogs. Miso was able to break the pig ear up almost immediately, and though it softens as the dog chews, she still managed to get a piece caught in her throat that I had to fish out.
