Before you buy a dog antler, know the risks
How a freelancing assignment made me concerned about dog toys
I used to see dog antlers all the time when I’d dog board or dog sit. I’d never paid much attention to them. My own dogs had them once upon a time. But they grew bored with them quickly and left them abandoned in a corner, so our family stopped buying them. That was then. As of February, when I see dogs with these antlers, I try to slyly hide them back in their toy boxes or boarding bags. I am not here to dictate what dog owners should and shouldn’t let their dogs play with, but I don’t feel comfortable with dog antlers around when I’m dogsitting or dogboarding. Here’s what happened.
As a copywriter, I do a lot of top 10/15/20/30 lists for an Upwork client. This kind of work can be very dry, but one of my top three favorite clients lets me pick and choose which topics to write about that I’m already interested in — as opposed to being assigned. And I chose dog antlers, thinking that it’d be an easy list to write up as a way to keep dogs busy while you’re away.
While Amazon affiliates do get a percentage if someone purchases a product through their links, that’s not my goal as a writer. My goal is to tell you everything you need to know about a product — both good and bad. If you decide to buy it anyway, that’s your right. And as I was writing up this top 15 list for dog antlers, I realized that this is a pretty dangerous toy if dog owners do not know what to look out for.
ADVERTISEMENT ~ Amazon
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases with my referral links. I know some consumers are choosing to boycott Amazon for its DEI removal. However, after thinking about this thoroughly, I want to continue promoting cool products from small businesses, women-owned businesses and (specifically) Black-owned businesses who still feature their items on Amazon. As of the first date of Black History Month 2025, each new post will ALWAYS include a MINIMUM of one product sold by a Black-owned business. (I have visited the seller’s official site to verify that Amazon Black-owned logo.) I am (slowly) doing this with older, popular posts too. If you still choose to boycott, I 100% respect that decision.
Here are four things you need to know before you purchase this product.