meredian

We want to get Wade some puzzle toys and I'd love some advice on good ones for Spoos! We want something that will be safe for him at his age (3 mos.) and won't bore him. Any advice? We already give him Kong "puzzle" toys that you stuff with treats.

Looking at stuff like this...
Zanies Interactive Puzzles Dog Toys | PetEdge.com

Thanks!

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fjm

My two have several Ottosson toys - they love the Spinnies, and really enjoy the Dog Brick and Casino (although I don't put the pegs in on the Casino board, as neither of them could get them out). Tornado was less successful for two - Poppy spun it round and it whacked Sophy on the nose, so now she is rather wary of it!Nina Ottosson Interactive Toys

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To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

julietcr1

We have the Nina Ottosson Tornado and Brick puzzles but both my dogs figured them out in about 2 minutes. They are expensive and don't keep my dogs busy for long so I decided to create my own puzzle. I recycle any type of plastic containers like cat litter box, garbage can, peanut butter jars etc. Here is a picture of one the food dispenser toy I made with a peanut butter jar and a rope. The hole is at the bottom so the dog needs to lift the container with the rope to get kibbles. Sushi loves it but Aki prefers the Kong wobbler, all dogs are different!

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julietcr1

This is another one Sushi loves, he has to make the plastic container turn to get what is inside, Sushi is not food oriented so a big opening is great because I can put squeakers or small toys in there instead of treats or kibbles. If you want to use kibbles or treats use a container with a smaller opening.

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Harrymummy

I like the kong wobbler thing. I bought the big version as thought it the only size available but I found out yesterday it comes in small size too. It's great for feeding....but Harry took 24 hrs to work it out


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julietcr1

This one is my best one to date, it will keep Sushi busy for 15 to 20 minutes. I use a rope, 2 different size litter boxes and is favorite squeaky toy like the Kong squeezz ring in this picture. When he was a puppy I started with only one litter box and a small rope attached to one side. I hided the toy under the box and let him figure out how to get it. He would push the litter box all arroung the place, it was so funny! It took him a while to figure out he needed to use the rope to lift the box and get the toy. When he was good at it I hided the toy between two litter boxes. When he was good at removing one box to get the toy I hided the toy between the two litter boxes again but tied the box together with a rope using an easy to untie loop knot. He is now at the stage where he knows he first needs to untie the rope, you can see him trying on the second picture, I now need to find another difficulty level.

I find home made interactive toys easy and fun to do but I am running out of ideas so if anybody have more please post them

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julietcr1

I guess my dogs are both puzzles and treat dispenser genius because they both figured out the Kong Wobbler in a couple of minutes. I still use it because Aki my lab likes it but it won't keep her busy for more than 5 minutes.

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fjm

I find it fascinating how dogs learn different methods to solve puzzle toys. Sophy quickly learned that throwing a Kong - or dropping it down the staris - made it easier to get the stuffing out, so she tried that with the spinny (very effectively, too). Poppy has a longer tongue and stronger teeth, and manages a Kong between her paws, but her first attempt to get at anything is to scrabble at it - and scrabbling at the spinny workd for her!

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To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

Rusty

Begley is 4 months old now, and we've tried a few puzzle toys:
- the Kong Wobbler is a favourite, It dispenses enough kibble easily enough to keep him engaged, but not so easily that he gets all the kibble too quickly. Plus it's difficult to chew on (a plus).
- the Tricky Treat ball (Tricky Treat Ball | Dog Treat Ball) is not a hit yet. It doesn't dispense enough kibble to keep Begley interested. I'm thinking that as his attention span gets longer as he gets older, he may yet find it interesting, but for now, it's not interesting enough and just sits in the corner if I bring it out (despite working pretty hard at making it exciting).
- the Kibble Drop Dog Toy Puzzle ( ). I had high hopes for this one, but Begley quickly figured out (like, about 30 seconds), that it was way easier to pick up the whole toy and flip it over to get the kibble out, than it was to sniff around and flip up the little covers. Plus, the legs seem to be just the right size that it's more fun to chew them than it is to use the toy the way he's supposed to. We get a bit more entertainment out of this if I hold it on the floor with my foot or hand so he can't flip it over, but overall I don't think I'd recommend this one.

Love seeing the recommendations here for other puzzle toys!

meredian

These are such great suggestions! Thank you!

julietcr1 - your inventions are amazing. I'm going to start thinking about getting creative on this venture...

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