Toys for dogs inside

[drharps]

What toys do people leave around the house for their dog to play with when they are inside? For instance, if you are inside reading or watching tv, what toys does the dog have access to? 

I am trying to update/upgrade the toys available for the dog to allow her to entertain herself. 

[SS Cressa]

 Inside toys? We have an indoor toy bin but typically we have soft/cloth squeaky toys, ropes for tugging, tennis balls, and random bones. We also have puzzle toys (wobblers, Kong’s, dumbbells, Nina ottomans, etc...) but those require effort and observation from the human. 

[drharps]

Thanks. Yeah, we have frisbees and balls for outside, but she comes in and we're trying to think through some good toys to keep her occupied if she's still loaded with energy. We had some squeaky toys but she was completely uninterested. Maybe we'll do more tug of war. We also have bones but she plows through those. 

We have some of the puzzle toys but as you mention those can be time consuming to put together, and have a shelf-life (once the treats are obtained, she is done with it). Have you found any that are especially time consuming and good? We have Kongs and the puzzle game (8 compartments with treats inside). 

[SS Cressa]

I love the wobblers and the egg. My sister swears by those monster mouths.

Val will make up his own solo game with tennis balls and sometimes he just loves laying on his back squeaking them ... other times he hides it under a blanket so he has to find it again.  One game Val enjoys is me getting his toy and putting it under a solid object(bowl, tubberwear, etc) and letting him figure out how to get the toy. Or I put a couple treats in an empty cool whip or oatmeal container and let him figure out how to open and get the treats. 

The bones are antlers or marrow bones. Something that takes a minute to gnaw on.

I love doing find the treats games. Where you hide the treat and progress to them being out of sight and aging the smell for them to find but that is definitely interactive. 

[SS Cressa]

Oh and I also give Val a chore. It’s his job to find his toys, pick them up, and bring them to me for me to put away.

[GentleLake]

Be wary of marrow bones. They can break teeth on them.

[D'Elle]

14 hours ago, GentleLake said:

Be wary of marrow bones. They can break teeth on them.

Ditto antlers.

[alligande]

We have a toy basket full of random toys, none have the squeakers left, most are partially dissembowled. Over the years I have bought random toys and gradually discovered what they like best. My oldest one likes to pick his toys, on a visit to the vet he always gets to choose a new toy and that his his favorite for awhile, he has also got to choose a new soft toy in charity shops, it’s fun watching him decide which one is best! Pet stores are two overwhelming to many choices and he doesn’t have as much fun picking one. 

In the basket are also random rubber toys, tennis balls etc, and when they are in the mood they pick what they want, mostly they just work top down but some days they will keep looking and randomly pull something out we haven’t seen in ages. 
 

when my oldest was a young I used to rotate toys to keep them fresh, but my youngster is not so toy focused so I never bothered with him, he gets more joy just stealing what ever his older brother wants to play with. 

[esantorella]

I no longer give mine soft toys unless I'm watching her like an eagle. Parts of them can easily be ingested, and foreign body surgery is expensive and dangerous. A friend of mine has a dog who nearly died from it. No tennis balls either, since those wear down the teeth. Check out this photo: https://whitebearanimalhospital.com/something-to-chew-on/ Sorry to be the fun police!

If I'm not there to supervise, I'll let her have Kongs, Chuck-It balls, and a spherical puzzle toy that she rolls around. The "Pet Zone IQ" treat ball toy has stood up to over a year of regular use. When I am around, we use some toys from Clean Run for training and they have all been very fun and high-quality.