Dog Toy - Toys for Dogs

It can sometimes be challenging to keep your dog engaged and well exercised. And we all know that when left to find their own "entertainment", a dog will come up with many ingenious ways to cause great property damage.

Investing in some dog toys will make everyone happier, and ultimately save you a lot more money.

Below are a list of dog toys that my dogs enjoy most. To keep your dog's interest in his toys, you may want to cycle through different toys, each day of the week.

Note that the following descriptions are only based on my experiences with the toys. Different dogs have different temperaments and will have different responses to a dog toy.

Supervise your dog, whenever you give him a new dog toy. Consult your vet if there are safety concerns.

Food toys are great for dogs. The food motivates them to play with the dog toy for longer periods of time. My dog loves figuring out the fastest, most efficient way to get to the food.

Some of my dog's favorite food toys include:

Hol-ee Roller Ball

These balls are great and safe for the teeth. All you have to do is get some hard dog biscuits and put them into the Hol-ee Roller Ball.

The Large Innova Health Bars worked well for me for a long time. I stopped using it recently because my Siberian Husky is allergic to oatmeal. Instead, I am currently using Baa-Baa-Q's lamb lung.

Kong Rubber Toys

Kong rubber toys are tough and safe for most dogs.

You can put canned dog food into the Kong Classic rubber toy and then freeze it. This is a great way to occupy your dog especially when he is in his crate. You could also drop in some cheese or sardines before putting in the canned food to further motivate your dog to work through the Kong.

I also stuff Innova EVO Small Bite kibble into the grooves of the Kong Dental Stick and Kong Jump'n Jack. You can also put kibble into the Kong Treat Dispenser.

I personally do not like using the Kong Stuff 'N Paste because they make a mess all over the floor and I don't particularly like the ingredient list.

Premier Busy Buddy Collection

My dogs like many of the Premier Busy Buddy interactive food toys.

The Twist and Treat toy is a good one to start your dog on. Simply untwist the dog toy, put kibble inside, then twist the cover back on. At first, do not twist the cover on too tightly, so that your dog gets rewarded well for playing with the toy. Once your dog gains some experience you can start tightening the lid more.

CAUTION: My Shiba Inu was able to tear off chunks from this toy when it was left with him unsupervised. Luckily, my dog just likes shredding and does not eat the shredded bits. It is best to take this dog toy away once your dog is done with getting all the kibble out.

The Squirrel Dude is also a fun dog toy that you can fill with kibble or other treats. You may cut off some of the rubber tabs below the Squirrel Dude if your dog is having trouble getting the food out. I have a full 4 tabbed Squirrel Dude which I fill with little pieces of kibble (e.g. Innova EVO Small Bite kibble). I also have a simpler 3 tabbed Squirrel Dude that I fill with kibble and some larger, higher priority treats, e.g. freeze dried liver treats.

The most interesting one in the group is the Tug-a-Jug dog toy. I think it is hardest to get food out of this dog toy so my Shiba Inu will only work on it when he is bored or really hungry and does not have access to other food toys. My Siberian Husky, however, seems to really like this one.

Initially, unscrew the cover from the bottom of the jug, and fill up the jug with a good amount of kibble (over half full). This will ensure that your dog is amply rewarded for playing with the dog toy. Once your dog gains experience you may put less kibble into the jug. It is difficult to get the last bits of kibble out of the jug, so you may want to add more before the jug becomes too empty.

Buster Cube

Initially put the Buster Cube setting to maximum, so that your dog will be motivated to play with the dog toy. Once your dog learns how it works, you may slowly decrease the cube setting to make it more challenging.

Make sure that when you fill the cube, the kibble goes into the holes around the central column. If you do not do this, the kibble will just collect at the bottom of the central column. When the cube gets rolled, it will all come out at once.

Note that the cube does not work well on slippery, hard, surfaces (e.g. tile floors, wooden floors) because it will only slide on the floor rather than roll and no food will come out. The cube is good for carpeted surfaces and for outdoors.

Rhino Stuff & Chew

This is a nice rubber chew ball with chambers where you can put in food. It is most effective to use some kind of wet food. Sardines work really well and my dog is extremely motivated to get it all out.

I normally give him one of these, at night, for going into his crate. I also give him a Greenie to clean his teeth.

Nylabone Crazy Ball

The Crazy Ball has a ball within a ball. It is easy to fill with dry dog treats, and the design is such that the treats don't come out too quickly.

The Crazy Ball comes with a small box of treats that are properly sized for the dog toy, but they are no longer sold. As an alternative, I fill the Crazy Ball with Innova EVO Dog Treats. Just break the EVO treats into two or three pieces and they should be a good size.

Omega Paw Tricky Treat Ball

Nice kibble ball. I fill it with Innova EVO Small Bite kibble.

When presented with a plush toy, my dog will totally shred it, usually in a matter of minutes.

Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to supervise plush toy use, and only allow tug-of-war or fetch games with them. No chewing should be allowed in case your dog swallows the squeaker or other plastic parts in the toy.

My dog prefers to play tug with plush toys compared to tug ropes, and rubber tug toys. Plush toys squeak, rattle, are easy on the mouth, and are easy to grip. His favorite soft toys include Kyjen's Extreme Bungee Duck Toy, Kong's Q-Tease, and Dr. Noy's Dog Toy.

I do not play tug with my Shiba Inu because he gets too excited and reactive, even with stringent tug rules.

My dog is an extremely strong chewer so it is difficult to find good, safe, chew toys for him.

Strong rubber toys, (e.g. Kong Rubber Toys, Nylabone Rhino Rope Toy, TireBiter), seem to be most appropriate. You will still need to check these dog toys from time to time to make sure they maintain structural integrity.

For instance, my Shiba Inu can get fairly large pieces off the TireBiter dog toy, from time to time, but he doesn't show any interest in swallowing them. It is important to supervise when you give a new chew toy to your dog to make sure he is not swallowing the pieces that he chews off.

Shiba Inu Sephy used to love to chew on deer antlers. He found a deer antler, one day, while hiking in the hills around our house. He proudly carried it home and had great fun chewing on it.

Since then, we have always kept our eyes open for new antlers, but have not found too many. We decided to buy some from AntlerZ. My Shiba Inu really loved these antlers but he cracked one of his pre-molars while chewing on this dog toy. It was cracked so badly that we were unable to save the tooth with a root canal and it had to be extracted.

The dental specialist told us not to give any compressed chewing toys (toys that are hard, with no give) to our dog. These include processed antlers, processed bones, compressed rawhide, hooves, and Nylabone non-edible chews. Note that, before this, I have given non-edible Nylabones to my Shiba Inu for about 1 year with no problems. However, I have stopped giving them to him. Why take the chance?

Rawhide, especially, is not a good chew toy for dogs.

Many dogs can tear off fairly large chunks of the rawhide, and if swallowed, these chunks may become a choking hazard. They may also block the digestive system and cause infection. Rawhide pieces may absorb water and expand in your dog's stomach; causing further digestive problems.

My dogs (a Shiba Inu and a Siberian Husky) don't generally do fetch.

They may fetch a couple of balls and actually bring it back to me, but they quickly get bored thereafter. The same goes for frisbees.

In terms of ball games, my dogs seem to enjoy soccer a lot more than fetch. They are most interested in balls that make noise including squeaky balls (Air Kong Dog Squeaker Tennis Ball) and the Multipet Wiggly Giggly Ball.

Cardboard Box

My dog loves cardboard boxes.

He will tear a cardboard box apart to get to the food or toy I put inside it. Then, he will shred the box some more. This simple, and free "dog toy", can be good mental exercise for your dog, because he will be challenged to figure out how to get to the food inside, in the fastest possible way.

Afterward, he can indulge his shredding instinct to his heart's content. The only downside is the little pieces of cardboard pieces around afterwards. But that is a small price to pay.

My dog also loves shredding paper and it is simple to hide some food in a ball of paper, and let him go at it.

Make sure that your dog is not interested in eating the cardboard or paper. If your dog loves the taste of cardboard, then this dog toy is not for you. The cardboard can be a choking hazard, and is bad for the digestive system.

Laundry Basket

This game works with any light (not heavy) basket or container. Just put your dog's favorite toy and some treats under the basket and let him figure out how to get to it.

Make sure there are no sharp edges and the container is non-toxic. If your dog is uninterested, make sure he knows there is good stuff under the basket. It is best to start with a smaller basket that is easier to lift or that may easily be knocked over.

Your dog can then slowly graduate to larger containers.

Kyjen has a line of interesting interactive toys including the I-Qube.

I hide food in soft toys and then put them in the I-Qube for my dog to work on. You can also put some food toys in the I-Qube so that your dog has to fish it out before working on the toy.

When I first got the I-Qube, my Shiba Inu chewed-on and destroyed the soft cube in under 1 minute. As stated above, soft or plush dog toys are not suitable for dogs unless they are closely supervised.

I have since discovered that putting food in the I-Qube dog toy, instead of the squeaky balls that it comes with, helps to refocus my dog. He will work at getting the food first rather than chewing at the I-Qube. I remove the I-Qube once he gets all the food out.

Amazon often has some super discounts on dog toys. These discounts are a great way to save money while buying toys for your dogs.

Toys are unlike food and grooming products, because there are usually a wide range of good quality dog toys to choose from, and they do not need to be bought on a fixed schedule.

For example, here are some 50%-70% dog toys at Amazon. If you want to do this yourself, here are the steps. I have found many good deals this way.

For this to work well, you may want to join Amazon Prime to save on shipping and handling costs.

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