Our Favorite Dog Toys & Puzzles
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There are a variety of great bowls designed to slow down dogs who inhale their food on the market, and here’s a great one from Outward Hound. Slowing down meals helps aid in digestion and prevent gastric issues, not to mention it gives them a little more activity and problem solving while they eat.
West Paw is an excellent brand of super tough and enduring dog toys. The Toppl is one of our favorites, much like the Kong it’s a great toy to stuff with yummy food (and even meals) and pop in the freezer. I like having lots of stuffing toys on hand so I can prep a bunch of them to have available in the freezer for long lasting fun snacks for my pups.
Snuffle mats are an awesome way to give your pups some enrichment and a way to encourage use of their incredible sense of smell! Sprinkle treats on your snuffle mat and bury them into all the crevices, then set down for your dog to sniff and find all the treats within. Note: be sure to supervise use since dogs who like to destroy toys may try and rip these apart! Once most of the food has been found they need to be picked up and put away.
Bow Wow Labs Bully Stick Holder
If you give your dogs bully sticks or other longs chews, getting a bully stick holder is a great idea to prevent them from swallowing the end bit! A lot of dogs get so excited by the chewing process that once they get down to that last piece, they rush and wind up consuming too big a piece, which can become a choking hazard or digestive blockage. There are several devices like this on the market to prevent that from happening!
Snoops are one of our favorite toys! The unique design allows you to drop treats or kibble inside for your dog to spend time licking/rolling/bouncing to get the snacks out. They also can be turned inside out for easy cleaning.
These screw-together food toys are a great option for putting long lasting or frozen treats inside for your dog to be occupied with for some time. You can buy premade treats that fit inside, or you can buy a mold to create your own treats that fit inside.
Some of our favorite puzzles are by Nina Ottosson! She creates a variety of puzzles at different levels for dogs at different stages. These are a great way to keep your dogs mentally stimulated throughout the day!
Any dog toy list would be remiss to not mention one of the most recognizable dog toys around—and a Colorado proud brand—Kong! These toys are fantastic for stuffing with delicious goodies like peanut butter, yogurt, blueberries, pumpkin puree, moistened kibble, canned food, etc! My favorite way to use these is the stuff & freeze, so they become a long lasting treat to keep my pups busy.
Chew King makes some great, more affordable toys for stuffing food and treats into, much like Kong and West Paw toys. I’ve found them to be super durable and popular with the dogs, as well!
Soda Pup is a local Colorado company that makes high a lot of quality rubber enrichment toys, like the lovely soda can food stuffing toys here. They make a lot of beautiful slow feeder bowls, also. Check them out!
Is your pup chewing inappropriate items around your house? Get them some durable chew toys! Benebone offers a good variety of toys that are well liked by many dogs and make a great alternative to your shoes or other unsafe items.
ZippyPaws has a great line of “Burrows” toys, (Ippa’s favorite toy, maybe EVER, is the banana with monkeys in it!). These can be great for pups who like to eviscerate their toys, since you can restuff the smaller toys into their “burrow” again and again.