Any puppy owner knows that it’s easy to spend a lot of money on puppy toys. A ridiculous amount of money, and it all happens so naturally because at least to us people in the pet store, everything looks so cool and all we can imagine is how many fun-filled hours our pet will enjoy playing with their new plaything!
Well, make that minutes because let’s face it, whereas you’re picturing a fun and productive playtime filled with joy and learning, puppies pretty much have one specific need in basically any chew toy that you put in front of them, so instead of asking yourself, “How much fun will my puppy have with this new toy?” you might be better of just asking “How much chewing can this thing withstand???”
Here are some of the best and worst that Cleo has managed to mow through thus far…
Can with a Rope Through It “Thinking Toy”The idea is that you put food in it and then your puppy learns to manipulate the rope so that her food will slip out through the top.
Or in our case, she learned that if she bangs the hard plastic against the patio long enough, the whole thing would just shatter and all of the goodies were hers to enjoy forever…
Hot DogJust a cute, little chew toy – a dog inside a hotdog bun … get it?!
Apparently Cleo felt threatened and didn’t like the imagery that this toy suggested, so she saw fit to make a few aesthetic modifications.
Rasta BallThis one was just a big, stuffed ball for her to bat around – we got it because she really seemed to enjoy playing with the soccer ball that the neighbor kids accidentally kicked over the fence and lost in our yard.
It turns out, though, that the different between a soccer ball and Rasta Ball is that she wasn’t able to gut the inside of the soccer ball, and so now we see Rasta Ball here completely devoid of its original stuffing, a mere shell of what it used to be…
Spikey, Pink Rubber BallOut of everything that we’ve purchased at the store, and believe me when I tell you that this list really only scratches the surface, this simple, rubber ball has somehow managed to hold up the best – as you can see, she loves to latch onto it when retrieving it for fetch and miraculously it has never popped.
We even bought a second one she liked it so much, so now she has her choice of either pink or purple. Yeah, yeah – she’s a princess…
Random Chunk of WoodAnd finally, the only “toy” that I didn’t actually have to pay a dime for – this random chunk of wood that she found out in our backyard one afternoon whilest playing. At first I didn’t want her to bring it inside because it had been outside and was all kinds of dirty, as such, but over time you get to a point where you’re like, “Whatever – at least she’s not chewing on the couch…” and thus Random Chunk of Wood was formally invited into our home for full-time Cleo rotation.
It didn’t seem worth the picture, but it should also be noted that she loves rocks and lizards that aren’t fast enough to get away from her that she comes across outside as well, so the moral of the story is simply this … if you want to waste your money on all of those neat, shiny toys from the pet store, just keep in mind that they’re more for you than they are for the dog. Once given to her, she’ll most likely just tear their noses off and move on to something a bit more durable…