Fancy A Chew On A Dinosaur Leg? (Nylabone Galileo Bone)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	Nylabone Galileo Bone
Date:	06/06/09 (169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strong and durable enough to withstand powerful chewing

Disadvantages: Very heavy!

*What is the Nylabone Galileo Bone?*
This extremely heavy duty dog chew toy is produced by the Nylabone company, the world famous American based manufacturers of a wide range of dog play and chew toys, with something to suit every dog, regardless of breed, strength, activity level or age.

*The product itself*
Grace and Benson love to chew, there is very few things they'd choose over a good session chomping away at something! Thankfully, they're past the highly annoying puppy stage of chewing everything in sight- coffee tables, couches and cats included, but even so, at 18 months and 4 years respectively, they still have a terribly strong urge to chew, and there are very, very few items that can stand up to them!

As I'm sure you all probably know by now- Benson is a Bernese Mountain Dog, which is an incredibly large and very strong breed of dog and my other fur ball, Grace, is a Rottweiler, which are well known for their extreme strength and tremendous power, especially in the jaw area. So, the gobs of my two inflicted on most ordinary dog toys is quite simply a recipe for disaster! They tend to make light work of chewing up toys which claim to be suitable for even the strongest of dogs, and this therefore results in me practically throwing money in the bin on a very regular basis.

I'm now pretty much at the end of my tether, trying out the very few remaining toys I haven't yet purchased them, in a bid to find something that they will enjoy and have great fun with, and something that'll also last them a reasonable amount of time. Failing that, my next plan will be to give them a brick each I think!

Browsing online, I came across a selection of Nylabone toys that I hadn't seen before. I've purchased some toys from the range before, and been fairly pleased with them, so when I spotted this Galileo Bone, I was delighted at how strong it claimed to be and I ordered one for Grace and Benson straight away.

The Galileo Bone claims to be one of, if not, the, strongest dog chew toy on the market and is made from extremely durable and heavy duty solid nylon, which has been constructed in such as way that it apparently take years to crush, resulting in a toy designed to cope with the chewing habits of even the most aggressive of chewers.

The bone is a very large toy- around 6 or 7 inches long and about 3 inches thick at its widest point, so is only really suitable for large or strong breeds of dog, and is also pretty heavy, so not a toy your dog would really be able to do anything else with other than chew on it!

As well as providing an safe outlet for your dogs chewing, it also has specific dental care benefits- as your dog chews on the toy, small bristle like projections will raise from the nylon bone and create a brushing effect on your dogs teeth, helping to scrape the tooth surface free of plaque, tartar and food debris whilst also helping to keep gums firm and provide essential exercises, which will help to build up muscle in your dogs face, neck, shoulders and jaw.

*Packaging*
The Galileo Bone comes packaged in a clear plastic case with a cardboard insert which houses the Nylabone logo aswell as a small bit of information about the product such as instructions for use, care of the toy and also a couple of minor warnings- mainly just common sense stuff such as not allowing dogs with tooth injuries to use the toy. Contact details for Nylabone are also provided, however these appear to be based in America, so any queries may best be dealt with via the internet. Lastly, the packaging is recycled once no longer required.

*Price & Availability*
Nylabone products are very popular and appear to be stocked in many places, both on and offline, including in most Pets At Home stores, however since Nylabone products are American, and therefore imported, they are slightly costly.

I purchased our Galileo Bone online from www.dog-toy.co.uk for £12.99.

*My opinion*
Grace and Benson, as much as I love them, really are pains in the backside, as far as their chewing habits are concerned. Over the years there has been extremely very few toy products I have found that have been able to cope with their teeth and their power!

Nylabone products however, I must admit, tend to be pretty good, we've had many decent toys from the range and they tend to last fairly well, so when I spotted this Galileo Bone, at a reasonable price and claiming to be as strong as I mentioned earlier, it made its way into my virtual basket immediately and I waited eagerly for its arrival!

A few days later, sure enough, it arrived, and I quite simply thought the website in which I purchased it from had posted me a block of solid cement rather than the toy in question! Before I had even opened the parcel, I was taken back by the weight of it, and opening up the box, I was greeted by something which wouldn't have looked out of place in Jurassic Park! The Galileo Bone was HUGE and could have easily been mistaken for a dinosaur leg or something! Anyway, I unwrapped the toy and had a quick look at it before I gave it to the dogs. It was off white in colour, very smooth and shiny and looked very nice in appearance, it was extremely heavy as I mentioned earlier and it certainly seemed extremely strong too!

I called the terrible twosome through to test out their new toy and I handed it to Grace, who, after an initial struggle of trying to pick the damn thing up, trotted off down the hall with it, to settle by the front door for a good chew. In all honestly, I've never had something that has kept her amused for so long- she was done there chewing and chomping away at it for nigh on three hours before she admitted defeated and Benson swooped into have a go. He, too, spent an awful lot time grinding his teeth away at it, trying to get the best chewing position, before he reluctantly brought the thing back into the lounge, plonked it at my feet and looked at me as if to say ''Ah, very funny, now give me something I can kill!''.

I picked the toy up to have a quick look at the damage they had done and nearly fainted when I discovered not only was the toy still in one peace after over 4 hours of combined chewing from both of my dogs, it barely had a mark on it. There were lots of little scratches from the dogs teeth at the ends of the toy where they had been chewing away at it but there were no loose pieces and the middle of the bone was still in perfect condition- no marks from the dogs claws where they had held it between their front paws whilst chewing and nor were there any scrapes from the dogs teeth, probably because the middle part would have been awkward to chew- either way, I was gob smacked they hadn't managed to really damage it in the slightest.

Like the packaging claimed, small nylon bristles had been raised on the surface of the bone and to me, they felt pretty sharp so I did have a quick check inside the dogs mouths to see if there were any cuts or grazes, but thankfully, there was no damage to their gums or any bleeding, so perhaps I just thought the bristles felt sharper than they actually were. Here, I was convinced the Galileo Bone was doing an awful lot of good for their teeth, giving them a good scrub whilst the dogs chewed away at the bone which was something I liked.

Because of the fact they couldn't really do very much with the toy, the lesser determined one of the two, Benson, did give up after the second day of having the toy, he'd give it an occasional little chew but gave it no where near attention as Grace did, who is still, to this day, hell bent on destroying the thing! It's been around 3 month since I purchased the bone and it is only really Grace who uses it now, but even so, the entertainment it provides her with makes the purchase highly worthwhile. She'll forget about it for a couple of days, and then rediscover it and set about giving it a good chew again- I think her record of non stop chewing stands at about 4 hours! She's happy, getting the satisfaction of a good challenging chew and I'm happy because it's providing her with something entertaining and worthwhile, whilst also being excellent for her teeth.

Chewing however, is about all that can be done with the Galileo Bone- its quite frankly huge, rock solid and incredibly heavy so it certainly cannot be used for fetch or tug games and it's not a toy the dogs can carry about with them, with is something they are fond of doing, yet it is designed as a chew toy, and it serves its purpose extremely well!

Grace will often take it out to the garden to have a chew on in her favourite place, in the shade under the apple tree, so it does unavoidably get quite muddy from time to time, which isn't really ideal as it is something that spends an awful lot of time in her mouth, but it can't really be avoided and it cleans up well every time. I tend to just give it a scrub with warm water and washing up liquid when it looks a bit grubby and then I sterilize it the old fashioned way with tablets in my sterilizer along with the rest of the dog toys every month which kills all the germs and keeps it hygienic for Grace to constantly have in her mouth.

To conclude, if you have a big, strong dog who is a determined and powerful chewer, then the Galileo Bone is a worthwhile investment, I've found it to be safe, incredibly strong, very good for teeth, easy to clean and it is something that Grace loves.

Just make sure you a good 6 feet away from the dog whilst they are chewing the toy! It bloody hurts if it hits you- I've had it dropped on my feet a couple of times and poor old Benson got a nasty bump the other day- Grace was laying on the sofa chewing the Galileo Bone when she knocked it off and it got Benson who was laying on the floor beneath! That dog has few enough brain cells as it is, without Grace destroying the precious few remaining ones!

Summary: If Grace can't kill it, then I'm not sure what canine can!