Chewing is one of the most natural behaviors a dog can perform, and the evidence broadly supports it as beneficial for both dental health and emotional well-being. Dental chews and certain raw bones can remove significant amounts of plaque and calculus, while the act of chewing itself appears to calm dogs and reduce signs of anxiety. But “good for dogs” comes with a significant asterisk: the wrong chew item can fracture teeth, obstruct the gut, or even transmit bacteria to the humans in the household. The question isn’t really whether chewing is good for dogs, but how to get the benefits without the injuries.
What Chewing Does for a Dog’s Teeth
The mechanical scraping action of chewing works roughly the same way brushing does for people. As a dog gnaws on a textured surface, the friction dislodges food debris, disrupts bacterial film, and breaks apart hardened plaque before it mineralizes into calculus (tartar). Dental chews designed with ridges or specific shapes take advantage of this by maximizing the contact between the chew surface and the tooth.
The effect can be surprisingly fast. In a study using autoclaved beef bones in Beagles, calculus was completely removed from the premolars and molars in less than three days, and overall the bones eliminated close to 90 percent of dental calculus across the mouth.1PubMed Central. Evaluation of teeth injuries in Beagle dogs caused by autoclaved beef bones used as a chewing item to remove dental calculus That’s a dramatic result, though the same study also documented tooth injuries, a trade-off we’ll get to shortly.
Purpose-made dental chews show strong outcomes as well. Dogs given daily dental chews in a controlled trial had lower calculus coverage and thickness, lower gingivitis scores, less pocket bleeding, and reduced levels of the volatile sulfur compounds responsible for bad breath, compared to dogs that received no chews.2Journal of Animal Science. Effects of a novel dental chew on oral health outcomes, halitosis, and microbiota of adult dogs A related study found that dogs receiving dental chews showed beneficial shifts in their oral bacteria populations alongside measurable drops in plaque and calculus scores.3Journal of Animal Science. 87 President Oral Presentation Pick: Oral Microbiota Populations of Adult Dogs Consuming Dental Chews Demonstrated to Reduce Dental Plaque and Calculus In other words, chewing doesn’t just scrape off gunk mechanically; it may also change the bacterial environment in the mouth in ways that slow the progression of periodontal disease.4PubMed Central. Effects of novel dental chews on oral health outcomes and halitosis in adult dogs
None of this means chewing replaces professional dental cleanings, especially for dogs that already have advanced periodontal disease. But as a daily habit, it can meaningfully extend the time between those cleanings and keep the gum line healthier in the interim.
The Calming Effect of a Good Chew
Anyone who has handed a bully stick to a restless dog has seen the almost immediate shift from pacing to quiet focus. That observation has research behind it. A study that tested several enrichment strategies during short periods of social isolation found that dogs given a long-lasting chew showed significantly lower stress and anxiety scores compared to dogs given a toy, a puzzle device, or a device combined with a recorded owner voice. The chew also produced higher positive-valence scores, meaning the dogs didn’t just appear less stressed but seemed to be in a genuinely more positive emotional state. And dogs with chews stayed engaged for an average of nearly nine minutes, compared to around five minutes for a toy and about three minutes for the other options.5PubMed Central. Long-Lasting Chews Elicit Positive Emotional States in Dogs during Short Periods of Social Isolation
This matters for practical reasons. Separation anxiety is one of the most common behavioral complaints dog owners bring to veterinarians, and a chew that keeps a dog calmly occupied for ten minutes while you leave the house is doing real emotional work. It also matters for older dogs. Environmental enrichment, including activities like chewing, is considered one tool for slowing the progression of cognitive decline in aging dogs, though the condition often goes undiagnosed because owners don’t recognize the early behavioral changes.6The Veterinary Nurse. Do dog owners recognise behavioural indicators of canine cognitive dysfunction and can environmental enrichment techniques slow its progression?
Chewing also satisfies an instinctive drive. Dogs are descended from predators that needed to crush bone and tear connective tissue to survive. That urge doesn’t disappear because a dog eats kibble from a bowl. Giving it a legitimate outlet reduces the odds that the dog will redirect the behavior toward furniture, shoes, or drywall.
The Real Risk of Broken Teeth
Here’s where the benefits run into a hard wall, sometimes literally. Fractured teeth are one of the most common dental problems veterinarians treat, and chewing hard objects is the leading cause of fractures in the upper fourth premolar, the big shearing tooth at the back of the mouth that dogs rely on most heavily.7Journal of Veterinary Dentistry. Surgical Extraction of the Maxillary Fourth Premolar Tooth in the Dog Antlers, weight-bearing bones from large animals, hard nylon chews, and ice cubes are the usual offenders.
The same Beagle bone study that demonstrated dramatic calculus removal also documented tooth injuries from the autoclaved bones used in the experiment.1PubMed Central. Evaluation of teeth injuries in Beagle dogs caused by autoclaved beef bones used as a chewing item to remove dental calculus This is the central tension of the whole topic: the items that are most effective at scraping away tartar tend to be hard enough to crack enamel. A fractured tooth isn’t just cosmetically unpleasant. It can expose the pulp, lead to a painful root abscess, and ultimately require extraction under general anesthesia, an expensive and stressful procedure for both the dog and the owner.
A useful rule of thumb many veterinary dentists recommend is the “thumbnail test”: if you can’t indent the chew item with your thumbnail, it’s probably hard enough to fracture a tooth. This rules out most antlers, dried hooves, and the thick marrow bones sold in pet stores. It leaves softer options like rubber toys, appropriately sized rawhide alternatives, and purpose-built dental chews that flex under pressure.
Choking and Intestinal Blockages
A broken tooth is painful but localized. A swallowed chunk of chew lodged in the esophagus, stomach, or intestine is a veterinary emergency. Foreign body obstruction in dogs commonly requires surgical intervention, and the recovery process involves anesthesia, abdominal incision, and days of restricted feeding.
The highest-risk items tend to be things that fragment unpredictably. Cooked bones become brittle and can splinter into sharp pieces. Rawhide, while it softens with saliva, can peel off in large sheets that a determined chewer swallows whole. Even bully sticks become a choking hazard once they’re gnawed down to a small nub. Aggressive chewers are disproportionately at risk because they tend to work through material quickly and swallow larger pieces.
A few common-sense steps reduce the danger:
- Size appropriately: The chew should be large enough that the dog can’t fit the whole thing in the back of its mouth. If it can, it’s too small.
- Supervise actively: Watch how your dog chews, especially with a new product. Some dogs gnaw patiently; others try to break pieces off and gulp them.
- Discard the remnant: When any chew item gets small enough to swallow, take it away. The last inch of a bully stick or the softened core of a rawhide roll is where most problems happen.
- Know your dog’s style: If your dog is a “gulper” rather than a “gnawer,” stick to chews that dissolve in the stomach rather than items that stay intact as they pass through.
Bacterial Contamination and Human Health
This is a risk many dog owners don’t think about at all. Raw and minimally processed chew treats can harbor bacteria that pose a real threat not just to the dog but to every person in the household. The most well-documented example involves pig ear treats. An investigation in Canada traced an outbreak of Salmonella Infantis in humans back to commercially sold pig ear dog treats. The researchers found that the contamination wasn’t a one-off event; pig ear products acted as a persistent vehicle for infection, exposing people over an extended period rather than in a single batch recall. Multiple Salmonella serotypes were isolated from the treats, suggesting the problem went beyond one strain.8PubMed Central. Characterization of Salmonella associated with pig ear dog treats in Canada
Follow-up surveillance in Ireland confirmed that Salmonella was present in pig ear treats available for retail sale, reinforcing the concern that these products represent an ongoing public health risk in multiple countries.9Food Research International. Prevalence of Salmonella in pig ear pet treats The bacteria don’t need to infect the dog to reach a person. A child touching a contaminated treat, or an adult handling it and then preparing food without washing their hands, is all it takes.
Raw bones and dehydrated animal parts (pig ears, beef tracheas, bully sticks, dried tendons) all carry some degree of bacterial risk. Immunocompromised individuals, young children, and elderly household members face the highest danger. If raw or minimally processed chews are part of your routine, basic hygiene makes a significant difference: wash hands after handling the treat, don’t let the dog carry it onto kitchen surfaces, and store treats in sealed containers away from human food.
How Skull Shape and Breed Affect Chewing Risk
Not all dogs chew the same way, and the physical structure of the skull has a lot to do with how force is distributed across the teeth. Research examining chewing asymmetry across a wide range of breeds found that flat-faced (brachycephalic) breeds like Bulldogs and Pekingese showed distinctly different chewing patterns compared to long-muzzled working breeds like German Shepherds and Bernese Mountain Dogs.10PubMed Central. Chewing asymmetry in dogs: Exploring the importance of the fossa masseterica and first molar teeth morphology The working breeds, which historically needed strong functional jaws, showed jaw morphology suited to more even, powerful chewing. The flat-faced breeds, shaped by selective breeding for appearance rather than jaw function, showed patterns suggesting their teeth and jaw muscles handle chewing loads differently.
What this means practically is that chew selection isn’t one-size-fits-all. A Labrador Retriever and a French Bulldog have very different bite mechanics, jaw strength, and tooth alignment. The Bulldog’s compressed jaw concentrates force on fewer teeth, which can increase the risk of fractures from hard chews. Toy breeds face a separate problem: their teeth are proportionally smaller, and many toy dogs are prone to dental crowding, which makes both plaque buildup and tooth damage from chewing more likely.
Large, powerful chewers like Pit Bulls, Mastiffs, and Rottweilers can generate enough bite force to destroy almost any commercial chew product in minutes. For these dogs, the risk equation shifts toward gastrointestinal hazards (swallowing big pieces quickly) rather than tooth fracture. Matching the chew to the dog’s size, breed tendencies, and individual chewing style is one of the most practical things you can do to get the benefits and avoid the emergency vet visit.
What Wolf Teeth Can Tell Us About the Limits of Chewing
Dogs are domesticated wolves, so it’s useful to look at what happens when canids chew the way nature intended, without any human selection of safe or appropriate items. A study of gray wolf populations found that on average, about half of all individuals had at least one tooth broken during their lifetime. But the range was enormous: in a well-fed Scandinavian population, less than 38 percent of wolves had a broken tooth, while in the isolated, food-stressed Isle Royale population, the figure hit 72 percent, with a per-tooth fracture rate of 8.6 percent.11eLife. Tooth fracture frequency in gray wolves reflects prey availability
The researchers linked higher fracture rates to greater consumption of bone, which wolves resort to when prey is scarce and every calorie matters. When food is abundant, wolves eat more soft tissue and leave more bone behind, and their teeth stay intact at much higher rates. The lesson translates fairly directly to dogs: chewing on very hard material carries a cumulative fracture risk, and the more a dog chews on bone-like objects, the higher that risk climbs over a lifetime. This doesn’t mean chewing itself is the problem. It means the hardness of the item matters more than the frequency of the behavior.
Choosing Chews That Earn Their Place
The market for dog chews is enormous, and the range of products spans from genuinely useful to outright dangerous, with a lot of mediocrity in between. Here’s how to think about the main categories:
- Dental chews (Greenies, OraVet, etc.): These are designed to flex and crumble rather than resist the bite. Many have the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) seal, meaning they’ve demonstrated plaque or tartar reduction in controlled trials. They’re among the safest options for daily use.
- Rubber toys (Kong, West Paw): These don’t have the same abrasive plaque-removing effect, but they satisfy the urge to chew without fracture risk. They can be stuffed with food to increase engagement time.
- Bully sticks and tendons: Highly palatable and digestible in the stomach, but they shrink as the dog chews, creating a choking hazard once they get small. Supervise and discard the nub.
- Raw bones: Effective for tartar removal, but they carry a real risk of tooth fracture and bacterial contamination. If you use them, choose raw (never cooked) bones that are larger than the dog’s mouth and soft enough to flex slightly.
- Antlers and hooves: Among the hardest items sold for dogs and the most likely to cause tooth fractures. Most veterinary dentists advise against them entirely.
- Rawhide: Contentious. It softens as the dog chews, which is gentle on teeth, but it can peel off in large indigestible sheets. Some dogs handle it fine; others swallow pieces too large to pass safely.
No chew product is completely risk-free. The goal is to pick the option that gives your particular dog the most benefit with the least likely harm, and then to supervise until you understand how that dog handles it. A ten-pound Shih Tzu and a ninety-pound German Shepherd need different products, different sizes, and different levels of supervision.
When Chewing Becomes a Problem Behavior
Healthy chewing directed at an appropriate item is normal canine behavior. But destructive chewing directed at household objects, or obsessive chewing that a dog can’t seem to stop, is a behavioral signal worth paying attention to. Puppies chew more during teething, and that’s developmental and temporary. In adult dogs, sudden increases in destructive chewing usually point to boredom, insufficient exercise, anxiety, or a change in the household environment.
Some dogs develop a compulsive relationship with chewing where they fixate on a specific item or material (fabric, wood, rocks) and won’t voluntarily stop. This can tip into pica, the ingestion of non-food items, which carries serious gastrointestinal risks. If a dog is eating rocks, socks, or pieces of furniture, that’s not a chewing issue that more chews will fix. It’s a behavioral or medical issue that needs professional evaluation.
For dogs that chew destructively out of boredom or mild anxiety, increasing daily exercise, rotating through a variety of appropriate chew items, and using food-dispensing toys typically resolves the problem. The enrichment value of chewing is real, but it works best as part of a broader routine that also includes physical activity, social interaction, and mental stimulation. A dog that gets a long walk and then settles in with a dental chew is using chewing the way it’s meant to be used. A dog that’s been left alone for ten hours with nothing but furniture isn’t chewing for enrichment; it’s chewing because it has nothing else.