The one I am looking for doesn’t seem to be made any longer. It was a knobbly ball which would jump around and make funny noises every couple of hours if you left it on during the day. It also had a treat holder which would fall open if the dog played with it for a few minutes straight and dispense a treat or piece of kibble.
If anybody knows how/where to find that one, I’d be thrilled. But otherwise, what’s out there that helps you keep your dog busy and amused during the day? We know all about Kongs, but he doesn’t like the rubbery smell, so never goes near it. I have to say I agree!
Extra points for something with batteries that actually draws attention to itself on occasion.
The best toy in the world: a second dog! Otherwise, there aren’t any toys I trust enough to leave alone that wouldn’t get chewed up into a breathing obstruction.
St Pauler - I have always given the same advice. However, We ned to get this dog fully trained before we start in on Dog 2.
Nina Ottosson - These look fantastic, but they all say “Don’t let the dog bite or chew on the toy” and “Only under supervision.” I’m looking for something I can leave with him during the day while I’m at work to keep him from sleeping all day and bugging me all night. LOL!
ETA: He is a 20-odd pound poodle mix. Not an especially destuctive chewer but very smart.
My dog would happily roll his Kong toy around on the floor, trying to get treats out of it (which weren’t really treats but regular food, but he preferred eating that way over just using the bowl).
I got one of these for my dope. He is normally quite a shredder, it took him all of five minutes to kill a Kong Wubba, but this seems to be holding up.
The best things we have are a collection of bones - the type you buy in the pet store with peanut butter inside - which she likes to chew, and an open window that lets her look at what is going on at the school across the street. We’ve never found a toy that held up.
Stuff an old sock with a rag or two. Dogs I’ve had have spent many happy hours trying to get the rag out of the hole that they inevitably chewed. Also doubles as fetch and pulling toy.
If you decide to go with a Kong (also a good choice), fill it with peanut butter.
ETA: fun story. When I was filling out the final two years of my service in the navy, my wife preceded me back to the mainland, and while there, she got a new guide dog. The dog found one of my old Dixie Cups (sailor hat), and had several months to get used to my scent before she ever met me. It became one of her very favorite toys for the rest of her life.
He’d be through that in a second. Our house is littered with stuffed animal skins, and we regularly come home to find one of our bedrooms looks like it snowed in there. (white fluffy stuffing flung in every direction.)
I’m trying to stay away from those because I’m afraid he will swallow too much stuffing one of these times; and I’d have the same fear with the rags.
All: to reiterate - he hates his Kong. Never touches it. And we are looking for a toy that will draw his attention in the course of the day. Like something with a timer that will makes it pop up or rattle or something every so often. He has pressed rawhide sticks in every room, and these serve all his chewing needs nicely. (well, with the occasional addition of a barbie doll head, but we have wayyyy too many barbie’s anyway*.)
*And BONUS! Celtling is learning to put away her toys for reasons other than “Mommy is a grouch if I don’t.”!!
If he doesn’t like the rubbery smell, this may not be for him, but I’ve had great experiences with the durability of JW Pet Company’s dog toys, especially the Ruffians line. They are squeaky, and you’d think at first glance that a strong chewer could rip the feet right off the toy, but my Weim that shreds red Kongs, hasn’t been able to destroy her’s yet. Or even come close.
If my dog is any judge, you will get tired of the squeaking long before the dog will. (I hope you don’t have close neighbors.) They’re usually hanging on pegboards at places like Petco/PetSmart, so you might want to see if your dog likes that sort of thing.
If you look further down the page at the Customers Also Purchased part, they have a whole bunch of stuff that appears interactive. There’s also a motion sensitive babbling ball thingy.
Thank you Missy! That Bumble Ball is very, very close to what I was looking for. The one I saw had more nubs and had setting for (I think) 1, 2, or 3 hour intervals at which it would just start jiggling.
Anyway, I nabbed a bumble ball and a motion-activated one. Those should help immensely. Much less expensive than I expected as well!
Thanks to everyone! I really appreciate your input, and will look for some of these others over the course of the year to provide enw challenges. (And I’ll try running the Kong through the dishwasher too.)
I’d be worried about that Bumble Ball based on the reviews that the nubs last extremely short. (And maybe I’m being biased because in the last two weeks our bulldog got a hold of a baseball and chewed that down to the cork and then opened two Christmas presents and was chewing on a bottle of cologne when she was out of sight for 5 minutes).
Hail the mighty hunter.