Our daughter called me, which is becoming a weekly routine that I endorse completely. The topic was something called yak cheese chews for dogs.

She said these things are more like Nylabones and that Frankie would not be able to just crunch them up. She knows about Frankie’s habit of swallowing anything that will fit in her mouth, and noted these were made of cheese and completely digestible. She sent me a link, and Old What’s Her Face soon had them sent directly to the house.

If you’re new to these, this is what they look like:

That’s a brand new one in the foreground. They really are hard as rocks. The bag also said once it has been chewed down to a nub, that you soak it, then microwave it, and it makes a cheese puff your dog can eat. Frankie never chewed hers down, but we had occasion to try it anyway. It made that biscuit looking thing in the middle and she did eat it.

Frankie has her weird habits, and this entirely new concept of a toy baffled her. She needed to practice.

Practice means I have to hold it so she can chew on it. After that she seemed to master the technique.

Her other habit is that we throw all of her toys. It’s like her mission in life to play as much fetch as possible. (I may need Tommy John surgery at some point.)

Nylabone, just give it a toss. Her hard rubber bone, another toss. Her rope toy means tug-of-war (another bulldog favorite) followed by a toss down the hall.

Turns out, yak cheese chews aren’t good for throwing. Probably different if we hadn’t installed hard surface flooring. Anyway, these things break after about a day of throwing.

Sadly, with her bad habit of swallowing whatever fits in her mouth, she couldn’t play with it after it broke in half. This is what led to the cheese puff test.

They come three to a bag, so she still has a couple. She likes them and they seem safer than so many toys for her weird habits.

If my bulldog can’t just crunch them up, your dog probably can’t either. They’re a lot less sloppy than the old rawhide chews my previous dogs enjoyed. Frankie can’t have those either. She is a special child.

If you’re a dog owner, these might be worth checking out. If we can find even bigger ones, maybe we’ll try that size next. The bag says these are for dogs up to 65 pounds, and Frankie isn’t that big, but her mouth and jaws are.