We use Fat cat toys for our boxer. They’re canvas and double stictched and he loves to play tug with them. He eventually gets into the stuffing, but they last at least a month before that happens.
My 2 year old lab has gone through everything, but we have found that Kongs (she’s had the same one since 13 weeks old, still intact) and Nylabones (same as Kong, but not in as good of shape - we’ve bought several since) held up the best.
For stuffed toys, the Tuffies lasted an amazing two or three days, depending on the toy. The fish and tube ones went within two days, the ring lasted as long as four days. She slices an edge open with her back teeth and pulls the stuffing out. She’ll still quite happily play with the de-stuffed toy.
We’ve bought the fat cat ones, in fact there’s a deflated Real Mad Kitty at my feet right now. There are also cat burglar, real mad cow, jingle kitty, and big mean kitty corpses spread around the house. They’re destuffed in less than 20 minutes, but again, the corpses are still good toys.
I tend to stay away from rope toys, they don’t come out as cleanly as they go in, if you catch my drift.
Yeah, I guess my boxer is more of a tugger than a chewer, so Real Mad Kitty lasted a good long while for us. But once there was the tiniest hole in that bad boy, he was unstuffed in under a minute.
Our 2-yr-old, 80-pound Golden is a legendary chewer.
Tuffies? Ha! Eviscerated in 1 to 3 days, tops.
Kongs are good, Nylabones almost so. There’s a defunct Nylabone toy, a soft rubbery frisbee (not the firm plastic one with the bone shaped handle - she literally swallowed that one) that came packaged with some sort of snack bone. That thing is very flexible, and seemingly indesctructible. I toss it for her dozens of times a week, and let her have at it between fetches, and it barely has a tooth mark on it
Tirebiters seem sturdier than they are, although while they last, sliding a tennis ball into the groove provides hours of fun. And cheap practice tennis balls from Big Five Sporting Goods last a lot longer than the multi-colored ones at the pet store - the fuzz is not so easily ripped off.
Her most indestructible toys to date are the stuff from Jolly Pets. Why are they indestructible? Because they are also manufactured to be, and are marketed as, horse toys . We have the large Jolly Ball with Handle (handle’s toast, ball is fully intact after more than a year. We also have the Teaser Ball, which is so strong we can just leave it out in the yard with her, and have for over a year. Not a scratch on it, and she loves trying to get the soft rubber inner ball out.
Yes! Hedgie is a favorite of my two greys, and they haven’t destroyed him yet. It’s like he’s magic! He withstands tug of war, fetch, concentrated chewing and lord knows what else. I’ve seen other hedgehog toys, but definitely get the Plush Puppies one!
My wife just did some poking around, and you might wish to keep an eye on this site:
My old dog Bear (a largeish lab mix) used to shred everything, but for well over a decade, his favorite toy was a Nylabone. He never lost interest in it, and even at the end, it was only a little worn on one end. It may be that when we got it for him just happened to coincide with when he outgrew his shredding-everything-to-bits stage, but no other toy before that had ever lasted longer than three days, or more commonly three hours.
Of course, another option is to just get disposable toys. Some dogs, for instance, love chewing up corn cobs, and I’ve never heard that those can be bad for them. It only lasts one chewing session, but so what? Corn cobs are cheap. Or, if you want to go even simpler, there’s always the good ol’ stick.
Or you could just go the opposite route. Although Bear would swallow a chunk of meat whole, and rapidly shred rawhide, he sometimes took a full hour to eat a banana or a slice of bread. Go figure.
Thanks for all the new replies. To clarify further, I’m looking for toys for a strong chewer that is left unsupervised all day in the house. Even though I have a strong suspicion that he sleeps the whole time we’re at work, we still leave him toys.
KCB615 and scotandrsn, thanks for the info on the ‘lifetime’ of Tuffies. It sounds like they’re more durable then other stuffed toys, at least. When will someone develop a Kevlar dog toy? … Just did a google search on that and only found a Kevlar Frisbee, which doesn’t seem indestructible either. Oh well.
Anyone have more data on Orbee Tuff balls?
The lab-tested site looks great and has lots of toys listed but hasn’t been updated in over a year…
Chronos, Herbie loves sticks too, but we don’t let him bring them in the house.
His favorite game as a puppy was (is) back-yard baseball with dad, featuring cheapo 20-pack Target tennis balls and a suitable bat / stick. Herbie likes the Air-dog tennis ring, too, but I’m thinking unsupervised inside chew toys in this thread.
Corncobs might be okay, as long as the dog doesn’t swallow chunks of them. Sticks aren’t good because splinters can puncture their intestines.
Since my mom works in the pet store, I get 50% off of all dog toys. Occasionally, she’ll have a clearance bin of $1.99 stuffed toys. I know they’ll only last five minutes, but hey, it’s only a buck for me, and they get such joy out of killing the stuffed animal.
I have also bought them stuffed toys at the dollar stores-- the ones designed for infants are the best, because they don’t have button eyes, or anything else the dog could make the dog choke, or get stuck in his innards.
Once you determine your dog’s chewing style, you can give them all sorts of things. I have one light-chewer. I sometimes give him empty 20-oz soda bottles with a bit of food inside to make it rattle. He’ll play with it for hours before he starts gnawing it seriously (then I have to take it away, in case he eats any of the plastic.)
My other two dogs are heavy-chewers. I get creative with them. In the summer, when they’re out in the yard, and it’s bath-time anyway, I’ll sometimes take a can of chicken chunks and a can of broth (diluted with water). Put them into a large plasic baggie, or a metal bowl and freeze overnight. In the morning, peel away the baggie, or warm the outside of the metal bowl so that the ice chunk will come free. Voila! Hours of yummy gnawing fun. (It works best if you freeze an inch or two of the flavored water and then put the chicken on top and pour water on that— that way the chicken is well-buried in the ice.) DO NOT GIVE THEM ONE OF THESE IN ANY AREA WHERE YOU DON’T WANT LOTS OF MUD.
I give my dogs lost of variety, even though I know the stuff won’t last. Whenever I get an order from Amazon, I give them the box. They spend about a half an hour destroying it, and having what appears to be a wonderful time doing it. I give them the cardboard from papertowel rolls, and I’ll also take old cleaning rags which are about to be thrown away and tie them in knots for the dogs to shred. (Make sure you wash them twice first, to make sure all traces of chemicals are gone.)
Dogs need mental stimulation just like humans do. I make up “problems” for them, like putting a yummy treat inside a toy and let them figure out how to get it out.
Things I’ve given my strong-chewers:
– An “indestructable” rubber-covered flashlight with the innards removed.
– A pair of rubber horse shoes I found at a hardware store.
– A pair of leather work-gloves I picked up for a buck at a farm supply store. Those things lasted ages.
– Various baby toys I see at yard sales (usually made of solid plastic, washed in disinfectant just-in-case)
Another good one in this vein (supervised, though) is an empty 16-oz spring water bottle. They love it cuz it’s noisy.
Hmm… Another thing Bear loved to chew on was empty milk jugs, but we had to stop him on that once we noticed that the shredded edges were bloodying up his mouth. Is this less of an issue with plastic pop/water bottles?
No-- if you have a strong chewer, you can’t give them plastic bottles. The dog I give them to is a very small dog which is not a strong chewer, and even then, I have to take them away once he starts breaking into the plastic.