Tips for Choosing the Best Toy for Your Dog
With thousands of squeaky and colorful options, the dog toy aisle quickly overwhelms first-time pet parents! Deciding between a furry duck or a plastic disc, how do you know is best for your furry friend? Luckily, the dog toy industry has five distinct categories to break down the mental benefits of each toy, such as training, treat-dispensing, interactive, comfort, and self-amusement toys. This article will break down the best options for four of the five categories; if you’re looking for training toys, check out this blog post. Use this as a guide for your next pet store trip to navigate the toy aisle effectively!
Chompers
For our over-active chewers, we recommend hard chew toys, like a KONG classic egg or a Nylabone Power Chew, to keep Fido occupied for hours! These chewing toys are durable but soft on teeth, perfect for puppies or pooches who love to chew through everything. Hopefully, this will keep your dog away from the table legs and redirect it to an actual chewing toy!
Chasers
Check out these fun flying toys if your dog loves to fetch and retrieve anything and everything! Ditch the slimy yellow tennis balls and try the ChuckIt! Balls; these rubber balls are much more durable than tennis balls and have an extra bouncing ability to keep the game going even longer! Another option for highly active canines is considering a frisbee, like the KONG frisbee, to acute your dogs catching abilities and wear them out after a long day.
Cuddles
Stuffed animals for dogs can be hit or miss; either your dog will love it, or they’ll shred it to pieces once you turn your back. Some dogs love the furry, squeaker friends to cuddle with, but it is 100% up to your dog’s temperament. We recommend trying a small, inexpensive stuffed animal first to test your dog’s attitude toward plush toys. For those whose pets love having their own plushy friend, pet parents love the Multipet Lamb Chop squeaker toy! Available in three sizes, this lamb toy is adorable and durable for pets of all sizes!
Decoders
Puzzle toys are great for dogs of all ages and sizes; these toys encourage your fur baby to use their mental skills, plus they’ll be occupied for a while! Puzzle toys come in various sizes, set-ups, and difficulty levels. The top seller on Chewy.com is the Outward Hound Brick Puzzle Game because it comes in five variations to find the best one for your pet! Likewise, the Pet Zone IQ Treat Dispenser is another great challenge toy for your pup to solve. Fido will have to figure out how to get to the treats inside the ball without human help!