When my pop last visited us he bought Porter a rope toy pretty similar to the one pictured here. Porter loves it—it’s the only toy he’ll seek out and bring to me, growling and whipping its knots into my shins to provoke me to play. Porter, being a bulldog, isn’t exactly built for stamina, either, but he’ll snap and pull and growl with the rope until he’s panting and totally worn out before plopping down on his bed to catch part of his 22 hour-a-day nap.
Tennis balls are another favorite around here, but Porter doesn’t quite understand the “give me the ball back” part of the fetch cycle.
I look around the pet stores for interesting new toys with which to torment my dog, but it seems like they are all more or less “chew” or “fetch” oriented devices, and I’ve yet to see any innovations that can beat the basic ball and rope.
What toys drive your pups wild? I’m not into expensive toys for dogs; They’re just going to get slobbered and nasty and need to be replaced.
Kong toys man. Keeps my dog occupied for hours. Food + Toy = GREAT.
Squeaky toys. ANYTHING squeaky. Renzo (my Italian Greyhound) starts chomping down and makes the toys squeak for (what seems) hours. His favorite time and place to do this is on my couch during Lost.
Yup. If it squeaks, it’s a winner. I often pick up a bundle of squeaky toys at the dollar store and fling one in the back yard at play time. The dogs love them and I don’t care if they only last a couple days.
Keep an eye on the rope toys. My last Lab chewed one apart and managed to swallow some of the loosened rope. The rope wreaked havoc on his insides resulting in a trip to the Vet.
My current Lab loves Nylabones.
I made a toy that dogs seem to love. It was suggested to me by a fellow dog person who says they cost $20+. Take a tennis ball and cut two holes in it, smaller then a dime. Then get long strips of fleece. Thread the strips through the holes and around the ball, overlapping the srips until the ball is covered and you have some fleece coming out of both sides.
Braid the ends up and tie a tight knot at each end.
The dog can’t get a nail or tooth in the hole, and it’s great to throw.
Our Bichon loves Molecuball, which always keeps him occupied until he inevitably knocks it under the bed and starts whining.
I second Kongs too. We stuff our Kongs full of peanut butter, dog food and spray cheese, then freeze them and give them frozen to Harry in the morning. They keep him interested all day. Plus, they last forever. Harry destroyed a Molecuball over the course of six months, but he’s never killed a Kong.
I had an old volleyball that my dog would attack. But he would get his teeth between the panels.
So I took an old Tshirt and cut it down and sewed it over the surface of the ball. The dog couldn’t get through to the panels. It lasted forever. I would just throw it down the hall, dog comes bounding in after it, jumps and unleashes a furious attack on the thing.
Eventually he got through the panels. Since I found a felt covered (leopard print) - basketball sized - ball and he attacks it with similar vigour. 14 or so dollars.
My mutt Rusty loves plush squeak toys, though the ones we get for him that have lasted the longest have been more “grunt” or “honk” toys… So far he’s had a Horse, a Duck and now he’s on a Penguin. It’s good for fetch, it’s not the greatest for chewing but they seem to last the better part of 5 months a piece. They’ve all had long necks too so it’s good for tug as well. Whatever animal he’s on, it’s the only thing he’ll get when you tell him to bring you a toy.
He’s also had a squeeky football that’s got these nubs all over it like a sea urchin. He loves that because it massages his teeth and he can catch it in his mouth if i throw it.
Squeakies have two alternate uses: one (as described above) careful repeated squeaks until your human is driven insane or two gleeful evisceration. Depends on the dog’s personality.
I don’t know if they qualify as toys but…Our dog loves the Ikea tent and tunnel (koja and speja) that we bought for the human child. Sits and sleeps in either, runs through the tunnel. Cozy play-dens. The tent is like $8.
Cheeky Squeaky soft toys are the greatest. They are made by Nylabone, but for some reason they are really hard to find. Get them online, if you have to. They are the most durable soft toys I’ve ever encountered!
http://www.nylabone.com/cheekysqueakypets
I have seen them at Petsmart in the clearance bin. No idea why they didn’t take off.
i’ll second, or third, the kong ball. martha is a serious toy destroyer, and she can’t seem to dent the kong ball. also, since it is oddly shaped, it bounces at funny angles, which drives her mad.
Hmm. My dog must be stronger than I thought. I’m on my third Kong in as many years. Still, they are tough little toys. I’ve tried both the “ball” (really an odd octagonal shape) and the original, but my dog seems to prefer the original.
I have to agree with Matt. Our chocolate/Chesapeake lab mix earned herself a trip to the vet after eating enough strands from a rope toy to create some pretty good intestinal blockage.
The only toys she’s never completely obliterated have been her nylabones. She loves things that squeak, too, so we go the cheap route on squeaky toys.
We have a Boston Terrier and a BT/French Bulldog mix. The BT is extremely energetic and loves to destroy toys. Both of them dig Nylabones. My sister swears by what she calls Frankentoy: a Nyla shoved into a Kong.
Our BT really digs what we call the Whap-Whap Game, which sounds similar to what your dog does with the rope toy: he loves a toy that he can whip back and forth (I imagine he loves it because it is a lot like breaking the neck of a small animal) really, really hard. In our experience the Fat Cat toys are best for this, especially the Incredible Strapping Tail Yankers. It takes a really long time for him to get through the fabric (usually only accomplished after he’s suckled on a strategic end bit for quite awhile). All of the toys we’ve gotten from Fat Cat last the longest and seem to be really enjoyable to the dog. Target carries them, and I’m sure a lot of other stores do, too.
The Everlasting Fun Ball is, in fact, everlasting. It’s survived 11 months with a pit bull mix, a boxer, and a beagle-greyhound - all adolescents, all Destroyers of All Toys. It’s the only toy we’ve had this long, though the Kong would probably still be around if the kennel hadn’t lost it. The large one is less prone to rolling underneath furniture.
We also have a Y-shaped rope bone where the legs are each about a foot long. The three of them run around the yard together carrying it.
Please don’t get dogs those damned rope toys.
Like Matt and The Kerb, my sister’s year-old yellow lab developed a nasty blockage in her small intestines; unlike their happy endings, my sister had to have the poor dog put down because it was suffering an inoperable condition at that point.
Went home, looked at the toys that have survived.
Good Cuz and Bad Cuz are great. Hard squeaky rubber balls with feet.
They have lasted great. He eventually chewed the feet off one of them, but when the feet chew off, the rest is still usable. (When I say eventual I mean like a couple months.)
http://www.cleanrun.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=1423