Thanks. : ) He has really nice breath, too. If you come over, he will prove it to you! Lawl
I feed Raw meaty bones on a daily basis... the only bones they consume for meals are chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, and occasionally rabbit; which do keep teeth clean, but the BEST bone for scraping off plaque from all of the teeth, IMO, are beef knuckle bones. I don't feed any other type of beef bone. Knuckle bones are the joint (knee) of the cow, covered in connective tissue and cartilege. MOST of a knuckle is made up of completely edible cartilege that will not chip teeth or cause obstructions. The dog has to gnaw, pull, and tear at it and it does an amazing job at cleaning their teeth. The trouble with knuckle bones is when one does not supervise their dog, particularly when they don't know their dogs chewing style and/or their dog is not accustomed to raw bones... you want to take the knuckle bone away once the boney center is prominent. A knuckle bone will start out about the size of two fists; usually, once your dog has worn it down to palm-sized, it's time to throw it away. Check the knuckle regularly while your dog is chewing on it for the first time, feel for any boney prominences, and make sure your dog isn't chewing too vigorously. The main dilemma is when dogs are unsupervised and attempt to consume the beef bone; what breed are your dogs? It's usually larger breeds that try to devour hard beef bones. I would not worry about medium/small dogs choking on anything, as long as they are supervised. Dogs can choke on LOTS of things when unsupervised, after all.
I only feed knuckle bones once or twice a month. They are good for dogs, but I don't consider them a meal, just for teeth cleaning. I let my dogs have 15-20 minute, supervised sessions with a knuckle bone... then I take it away, rinse it off and put it back into the freezer until next time. They usually last a couple of sessions, and they cost about as much as a Bright Bite, with VASTLY greater results.
Here's a link:
http://www.sojos.com/giveyourdogabone.html
This is what a knuckle bone looks like. You can get them at butchers, and sometimes in the beef section of the grocery store. They are big, round, whiteish/pink and covered in meat and tissue. They're usually called either "knuckle" or "soup" bones: