I like to get my dogs puzzle type toys

by Carmen
(USA)

We have two very small dogs, one is a Sheltie cross Chihuahua called Loki and the other is a pedigree Papillon Called Bunny. Bunny is very, very tiny indeed and Loki is like a little fox with a curly tail and a fluffy mane.

While Bunny is not overly fussy with dog toys Loki loves nothing more than to have a dog friendly soft toy to tear to shreds. He especially loves it if they have a little squeaker in them somewhere, but then he will hunt for this squeaker and after finding it and squeaking it till we’ve all gone nuts from the constant sound of it, he will proceed to tear his way into the toy until he can get the squeaker and kill it.





For some reason neither of them have quite grasped the concept of ‘fetch’ yet, they still just run after the thrown toy or stick, pick it up give it a shake then drop it again and run back to us empty mouthed. They really are missing the point entirely it seems.

I did however find one dog toy that they do both really enjoy and that is a Interactive Wooden Dog Toy. The idea of it is that there are 4 holes in one side with sliding covers and we break up treats to hide in each hole and they have to figure out which way to slide the covers with their noses or paws to reveal the treat. On the reverse side then, there are about 7 holes with pegs that cover them and we do the same again with hiding treats and they have to grasp and lift each peg (harder than it sounds for dogs so tiny) and put it to one side to reach each treat.

It really is lovely to see them both fascinated by a good challenge like this and I will certainly continue to look out for further such puzzle type toys in the future, to watch them getting quite confused over before they figure out what they’ve got to do.