dog toys Archives - We live in a flat

Tag: dog toys

A torture rack of toys :O

On July 9, 2013

If you visit now and then, you may have met Donna’s pink hippo and blue dog soft toys. Donna generally amuses herself with them by spreading them all over the floor or giving them love bites and shaking them into submission. So yes, the human is very much relieved that dogs do not show their love for their humans in the same way. *phew*

Over the weekend I needed something calming to do so I started mending her many grimy plush toys before washing them. So here are the cuddly toys hanging out to dry.

Blue dog: You can torture me all you like, my lips are sealed!!

Toys hanging outside on the balcony to dry

In the flat, a couple of her stuffed toys escaped the wash for her amusement.

Toying with some less used apps and filters and serendipity found me creating a mutant of a cuddly toy bear butterfly with clothes peg feelers, that has caught a duo of evil-doer defaced teddies! Can you see it? :P

Picking cuddly toys for dogs

Avoid choking hazard
1. toy should be bigger than the dog’s head
2. toy should not be filled with small pallets or beanies
3. always mend rips or remove damaged toys to avoid dog swallowing toy stuffing
4. dog-proof by removing all loose/attached decorative details like buttons, ribbons and other small detachable pieces that can be chewed off
5. supervise the dog’s play with any cuddly toy containing a squeaker, remove damaged toys with squeaker exposed
Maximum fun!
1. small/light enough for dog to carry around
2. consider providing a variety of cuddly toys – one to carry, one to kill, one to baby
3. run second-hand toys through a wash so that any smells unattractive to the dog is removed
4. choose cuddly toys made with fleece or plush material which retain the dog’s smell and is more attractive to the dog
5. dog toys not childrens’ toys (tougher and safer materials for dogs; dependent on manufacturer)

To be honest, we don’t practise all of the above. We have bought a couple of $2 stuffed dog toys with squeakers or bells within from Daiso. But all of Donna’s cuddly toys in the photos above are hand-me-downs, regular stuffed toys from home/office spring cleaning and also $1 second-hand soft toy listings from classified ads. But I made sure to dog-proof them and only buy stuffed toys that are not filled with beanie pallets. They don’t look too shabby do they? I do confess I am particular when it comes to toys that I have to see spread across the floor everyday, so no hideous toys for me! :P

Dogs aren’t particular and they are happy to reuse toys, so good for wallet, good for earth :D

Sources:
– http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/dog_toys.html
– http://www.safemadepet.com/what_is_safe.html

In which the dog amuses herself…

By weliveinaflat

On May 30, 2013

In Behaviour

What do you mean you’d rather sit there and drink coffee?

Well then, I SHALL amuse myself!

… amuse myself…amuse myself…amuse myself…amuse myself……amuse myself…

… there… I’m AMUSED.

It took me a while to clue into what she was doing sticking her nose into her toy bin, so the pictures started mid-way of her spreading her toys on the floor.

We didn’t measure when we bought the bin. So when we got home and compared, we worried that the bin was perhaps too high for her to comfortably get at her toys in the bin. Obviously a groundless worry.

She probably wanted to share her toys and play with me, except that I really needed to have my breakfast caffeine yesterday morning before I do anything else, heh~ :P Don’t worry, she got her fun after that :P

By the way, I discovered snoopygrams today.

Give yourselves a pat on the back people! :D

A dog and her bones

By weliveinaflat

On April 5, 2013

In Behaviour

The first thing I ever bought for Donna was a nylon bone which frayed within seconds of Donna laying her paws on it. I went, “Oh shoot! There’s goes this expensive bone! I should have bought the Nylabone instead!” I had already read good reviews of the Nylabone online but when I went to the pet store, I somehow picked another bone instead. Yikes!

It wasn’t long that I ended up buying the Nylabone for Donna, but you know what. After a while, it seemed Donna settled in her new environment and she didn’t chew on her toys as much, and spent more time sleeping instead.

As for the first bone I bought for her? It’s still around, its ends frayed more than the hardy Nylabone. I later bought a rawhide milkbone for Donna so that we have a few bones that we can rotate and keep her boredom at bay.

But before we started rationing them, when Donna still had all her bones at her disposal, it almost seemed like Donna prefer the first bone more than her Nylabone. Or maybe its just me convincing myself that she was having more satisfaction ripping bigger bits out of the yellow bone than small slivers out of her Nylabone.

I’m writing about bones today because Mr P’s cousin’s dog Doudou is certainly having fun with her new Nylabone that we got for her. The talented Doudou has to date ripped all her toys, often within minutes, and our cousin out of desperation keeps making trips to the pet store to replenish. Doudou finished her milkbone in minutes, while Donna took weeks to work on her milkbone. So we immediately thought that we needed to get a Nylabone for Doudou.

And Doudou loved the bone. Chewed it for a long time and was so fixated that she went right back to the bone after her dinner and ignored her family the whole time!

Make no bones about it, this is one toy that should last that dog for some time at least.

Note: I did read that rawhide bones are not only harder to digest, they can also be choking risks. The packaging on the nylon bones did advised supervised play. But the whole point of getting these bones are to ensure Donna has things to occupy her time with when we are out of the house. We usually supervise her use of any new toy for a couple of rounds so we can observe and only let her continue when we see that the way she plays with the toy is safe. Then we leave her alone with it once we find it safe for her. In Donna’s case, we observe that she will usually flick her tongue repeatedly to get the chewed bits out and onto the floor before going back to work on the bone. She doesn’t swallow them. We also ensure all bones are larger than her head, and in the case of edible rawhide bones, we remove them from her once they become soft or have been chewed down to a small size that can become a chocking hazard.

Donna nibbles and grooms her soft toys

By weliveinaflat

On March 9, 2013

In Behaviour

Donna is naturally curious and gets easily bored when there’s no one in the house.

Especially in the evenings, that’s when we may expect to come home from dinner to some form of destruction. She has murdered a beanie panda (travel souvenir) before, swallowed the beanie pallets and pooped beanie pallets for days. She has chewed into pieces the mini plastic sweeper and dustpan. She has chewed aluminium foil that we keep on the sofa to keep her off it. And she has eaten ginger and lemon grass teabags that are our lizard repellent All very dangerous things for her actually if you think of the splinters and possible choking risks.

We were told that toys are important to keep the dog from mischief when we had a house visit from Florence and her team.

Donna with the white bear and toy taxi from Florence.

Florence gifted us two soft toys before, one which she ripped after trying to play tug with it. We thought we would solve the problem by buying her a more durable stuffed toy that she would have difficulty ripping.

Enter the Chomper duck.

Oh sure, she played with it for a while, but with significantly less enthusiasm or interest compared to her more wimpy soft toys. = = I guess dogs just have this need to destroy?

That’s when we started asking friends for their old stuffed toys that they are looking to dispose. My friend Dot generously lugged all the unwanted toys from her office spring cleaning to our house for Donna.

The soft toys found favour with Donna, the rubber squeaky toys not so much. Donna wasn’t really interested in them but got so excited when we make them squeak that she started barking at home and we had to hastily keep it away. Maybe when we want to teach her to “speak” we’ll take them out again.

picture: Toys from Dot.
picture: Donna decided her bear needed grooming on its nose.

Meanwhile, we had stopped playing tug with Donna but we still didn’t have enough toys to ration and rotate and keep our dog from getting bored with her toys!

So for a while I was in the market for second-hand soft toys going for cheap in the online classifieds. We didn’t mind paying for quality toys for the dog but not for soft toys that we know would eventually be ripped apart. I did struck gold when there was an ad selling $1 soft toys. Turns out, the nice old lady was selling her collection of toys she had amassed for the SPCA jumble sale, which was cancelled. So lucky Donna added two new puppies, a bear and a rabbit in her collection waiting for her to hug, cuddle, nibble and eventually disfigure and dismember to her heart’s content.