Barbara Nixon said:
...Having read of others' experinces and observed how Teddy can easily pull threads from a rope toy, I wouldn't leave a dog with these either, considering them even more of a risk. A breeder, on another list, was devasteated to hear that a puppy she sold to good owners, only weeks before, had died after swallowing part of the rope from one of those ball on a rope toys. The fibres tangled in his gut and cut into it. Other people have reported needing ops or having dogs gag becuse of swallowed fibre, too...
that's awful--and an important caution. dogs chew and eat things, theoretically it could be anything, something unexpected too. some dogs even eat kongs. zack hardly chews any toy to the point of destroying it, much less eating it, but he can bite off and eat pieces of durable nylabones that are the one thing many dogs can safely chew. It's wise to not leave a dog alone with anything unless you know they won't chew it, from experience.
With puppies, i think they should be supervised with toys and treats for many months, for their safety and to protect household items they might mistake for toys and chews. Some dogs will always need to be supervised.
Some, including me, leave dogs free in the home by themselves during the night or day, rather than confining them, knowing the dog doesn't chew things. There is certainly a vast array of things such a dog might chew in a typical living room, including toys, but people learn whether there is a risk or not. i do put certain things out of reach when i'm not there, just in case, including things he has never chewed. I don't have to worry about shoes, even when zack was a little puppy (sara once noted there are almost always various shoes in my photos lol). He took a shoe in his mouth one time when he was little and i went "nhaaaah!" and he never did it again. It's funny how they learn to distinguish things. But once in a while he would chew a pen, so i put those away when i'm not here. i get reading glasses at the 99 cent store and keep a bunch of them laying around so i can always find them, but i can't leave them out when i'm not here because zack will chew on those. Go figure.
He was about 8 months old when i started leaving him free in the apartment when i'm not here, after learning about his behavior and working up gradually to increasing amounts of time. I still don't leave toys i consider risky out where he can get them when i'm not here. but there are lots of things he clearly doesn't chew and eat that he can have access to.