ShellyF Posted January 20, 2019 Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 My 9 month old gets good exercise and naps and play but sometimes he just likes to be busy in his own corner. Since he finished teething he has zero interest in a whole range of chews and bones. He does like more foodie chews like jerky or whimsies but they don’t last five minutes. He loves stuffed kongs so I mix some of his Acana kibble with things like raw egg, chopped carrot, cooked liver and grated cheese with a bit of ground flax to bind it and that takes a good half hour if I really stuff the kong well. He doesn’t like them frozen. For non food treats I have an old sail that I cut into pieces and then sew them into different shapes stuffed with plastic water bottles and stuffing saved from demolished dog toys etc. I also sew on handles and dangly bits so they make tug toys when needed or just to add interest. It takes less than five minutes to run them up on the sewing machine but they are virtually free so it doesn’t matter if he rips them up lol! Would love other ideas for busy pups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abroz Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 I like to get stuffed animals from the thrift store. 99¢ so the relatively short half life is fine. (Just avoid the ones with the little beads inside... ) Wish I had a sewing machine though! Great idea to make toys from scraps! (maybe a new business awaits for you....?) Gani also helps to pre-recycle things like empty toilet paper rolls and junk mail. The shredded bits still go in the recycling bin when she's done. Boxes large and small are fun too. Shoe boxes, Amazon boxes, pasta boxes. Add a few treats or stuff a toy in and "let her rip". She likes to make kindling for the wood stove even smaller too. Again, scraps still go into the stove when she's done. For kongs I've been using good quality canned dog food to stick the kibble together. Seems better for her than peanut butter on a regular basis, though I still mix some in sometimes because she loves it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abroz Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Oh. And raw beef or bison bones straight from the freezer. Very effective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShellyF Posted January 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Great idea re canned food. I over-stuffed a kong today and put too much ground flax in so it went a bit like concrete. I had to help haha! Oh yes - kibble in boxes! Our little guy loves it when we get Amazon deliveries haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentleLake Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 1 hour ago, Abroz said: Oh. And raw beef or bison bones straight from the freezer. Very effective. Weight bearing bones from large ungulates are too hard for dogs and pose a great risk for breaking teeth. Even ribs and necks are often too hard for most dogs. Better to make bone broth from beef/bison bones. Freezing them make them mush more dangerous. Now if you can get tracheas to stuff and freeze, that's a much safer option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrecar Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 I second the warning against weight bearing bones from large ungulates. Root canal therapy performed on a dog’s molar isn’t cheap. Ask me how I know. I think I paid less for my own root canal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hooper2 Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Quote I second the warning against weight bearing bones from large ungulates. Root canal therapy performed on a dog’s molar isn’t cheap. Ask me how I know. I think I paid less for my own root canal. I don't THINK I paid less for my own root canal than I did for my dog's root canal, I KNOW I did. By quite a bit. It turned out my dog had a root canal for a broken canine tooth on Monday, and had my own root canal on the following Wednesday. The receptionist at my dentist's office was sort of apologetic when she presented me with the bill for the portion not covered by my insurance. I laughed and told her that I had just paid $700 more for my dog's root canal than the total bill for my root canal. I could hear my dentist muttering "I'm in the wrong business" as he walked by. To be fair to vet dentists, much of the additional cost for a dog's dentistry is because dogs need to be anaesthetized and humans usually don't. Anyhoo, I whole-heartedly agree with the warnings above: no weight bearing bones, no antlers, no nylabones. Which is a great pity, because my dogs loved them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Elle Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 I would second the warnings about those bones, and add a recommendation that you not permit your pup to chew up wood or paper, either. Paper bits can be swallowed and then form a congealed mass in the stomach that is hard or impossible for the dog to pass. I have known this to happen to a dog I knew. Wood bits are splintery and can lodge in the throat or in the stomach and pierce internal walls and/or cause obstruction. There's a reason that so many hard-to-destroy dog toys are made; because most things that puppies or chewing adult dogs choose to chew up are actually dangerous. Get your puppy a bunch of hard chew toys and don't permit other things to be used. If she ignores them at first, just don't allow her to have alternatives and eventually she will use them. You won't forgive yourself if you permit her to harm herself with those things you are letting her have. (And your checking account might take a while to recover as well!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rush Fan Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Mancer loves the wishbone shaped Benebones with various flavoring infused into them. She also has a couple of the "dental dog chew toy" also made by benebone (and also flavor infused), which supposedly help keep teeth clean and seem to take a bit longer to chew through. Be careful with the jerky treats, especially if they're made in China, as many of them are. I remember a year or two ago several of them were recalled for "making dogs sick". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jami74 Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Oh goodness, I wish I could find something to keep our boy busy when no-one is available to play with him. Kongs are a mixture of kibble and canned food and then frozen. They rarely take as long as half an hour. He usually has two a day, now he's getting bigger and hungrier he also gets a small bowl meal as well. He's got a couple of toys which are rubbery or made of silicone that I'll smear peanut butter on for him to lick and chew when he's being busy and I want a few minutes. Big soft toys (a perk of having quite big children is having a cupboard full of once loved teddies), he loves dragging them around, giving them a good shake or licking and chewing them. Sometimes he has a quick hump too I did the rolling treats in a blanket that was posted in another thread. Excellent game but only takes him 2 minutes, so not really something to keep him busy. Saying that, he seems to be spending more time laying around and sleeping so maybe he is growing up and calming down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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