Feeding dogs bones

Question
Hi, people are always telling that is it bad to give dogs bones. But I recently bought a dog training book and it says that it is fine to give a dog sterilized dog bones.

Please enlighten me here:
Can you give puppies bones and what size?
Should bones only be given to older dogs?

Should bones not be given or just a certain size?

Answer
As you have noted, opinions vary on bones.  One thing I can assure you of is that dogs can do fine without any bones.  Even without problems of splintering, choking, intestinal blockages, etc., bones accelerate the wear of teeth.  

The large, sterilized bones are not as dangerous as many other ones.  Any bone that is small enough for the dog to break up or swallow is dangerous.  Larger ones wear the teeth.  The safest thing to do is no bones at all.