★★★★★ 4
Doesn't really taste like bacon. I know becaused I chewed it. Great as a slower eating thingy.
Style: Dental Chew, Flavor Name: REAL Bacon, Size: Dental Medium
So my dog has this thing where she does not want to chew on anything that she is supposed to chew on unless it's a knuckle bone that she cannot be trusted with (because she bites off fragments of bone) or one of those flexible, edible nylabones for "gentle" chewers, which she will eat in a single sitting. If I want to get her to chew something that might actually withstand her for more than an hour, I have to pretend it's mine. It's a secret forbidden treat that I love very much and just "accidentally" left within her reach to steal and covet.
So it's pretty much standard practice at this point that, when I get her a new chew toy, I gotta carry it around for a while, pretending to chew on it. I got this bone in the mail and did exactly that, but I noticed right off the bat that, for a bacon-flavored thing, it didn't smell like anything at all. It was just this plain sort of plastic scent. And that's how I ended up actually chewing on it instead of just miming it out because maybe the bacon flavor was under the initial layer? But no, it wasn't. It was just bacon-colored plastic. So if your dog is the type of chewer that will chew regardless of flavor, this should work out fine. If not, go for something else. My dog did not give a heck about this bone, even once the "this is actually mine but you cleverly stole it away" ritual was completed.
After that, I tried putting it in her bowl with her food, thinking maybe the flavor of the food would rub off enough that she'd want to chew it. She didn't, but what did happen is the reason I'm giving this a positive review at all. While it fails utterly as a chew, it makes a really great impromptu "stop eating so fast, you tornado shaped like a dog" mechanism. We've bought actual slower eating bowls for her and never had any success, because she just gives up and cries if she can't get her face into the crevices. But when we put this in her regular round bowl and pour her wet food around it, she's able to nose the benebone around in the bowl as she eats her food, but it does slow her down considerably. She's way less farty and whiny after food time, which anyone who has experienced how specifically racid dog farts can be will know is a blessing. So, thanks, Benebone. For us, your product is worthless as a chew, but invaluable as a makeshift slower eating thingy.
Edit: Benebone got in contact with me about my review and offered to refund my purchase and send me some different products to try. I declined the refund, because I do find the bone I bought useful for the above-described purpose of slowing my dog down when she eats. But I did accept the samples. She's still pretty unimpressed with them, and I will probably end up passing them along to other dog-havers I know, but I myself am pretty impressed with Benebone's customer service and so have changed my review from 3 stars to 4.
It was "suggested" that I mention that other dogs will probably be more satisfied with Benebone's flavors if they are not as picky as my dog is, and that sampling a Benebone yourself is maybe not the most reliable way to test its tastiness, when dogs have much more sensitive noses/tongues than humans. Which is certainly true! But I don't think my dog is a complete alien for wanting something with slightly more discernible flavor and scent. And I do think some of the advertising for Benebone implies more of that than you actually get in the finished product. So I'm gonna have to double down on my previous assessment that, if your dog likes to chew for the sake of chewing, Benebone will probably really appeal to them. But if they're a more food-motivated chewer, you're better off with fully-edible chews like rawhide or bully sticks.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2018
