Cheap homemade dog toys/treats?

poopydogface · 11-04-2009, 03:39 AM

Hi all, I have puppy and he's teething, and I'm poor too poor to buy tons of these crazy toys they have at the store.

I have gotten him lots of great toys so far, but of course, his "favorite" chew items happen to be things he "found" around the house: a plastic disk similar to a small frisbee, an old strip of fabric, a rope with a carrabiner(sp?), and ice cubes.

One thing I've made that turned out well was to take and old pair of shorts (cleaned) and cut it into a strip and then I tied it into big knots and made a nice chewing "thing." He seems to like it as much as any other fabric toy thing I've bought him.

Another thing he loves to chew on is a plastic baby teething toy that has water in the center. You basically freeze it in the fridge and babies sort of suck on it. Well I actually let the puppy have it and he loved it, except he poked a little hole in it

I was wondering, if anybody has any similar ideas of cheap innovate ways to either buy or make little products that dogs would enjoy chewing or playing with along these lines?

mjw6789 · 11-04-2009, 04:43 AM

I once took a bunch of old socks and braided them together...it might not last long, but what else are you going to do with old socks?

railNtrailcowgrl · 11-04-2009, 05:37 AM

Check out the fabric store or Wal-Mart (some of them still have fabric centers) and get polar fleece when it's on sale. I make all sorts of dog toys out of that stuff. A yard or two will make LOADS of toys. You can braid it up and make ropes, tug toys, "spiders" (I take a bunch of pieces and randomly braid and knot them together, Pebbles LOVES to throw these around and chase after them). I've heard of people using old jeans and doing the same thing. Cheap tennis balls, soccer/basket balls, old footballs. Once nice toy to invest in would be a kong there are lots of different foods and treats you can stuff in one to keep a chewy pup occupied. Peanut butter, yogurt, kibble, cheese, canned dog food, banana, cream cheese, lunch meat, you name it, you can stuff it in a kong!

poopydogface · 11-04-2009, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjw6789

I once took a bunch of old socks and braided them together...it might not last long, but what else are you going to do with old socks?

You know what! My puppy won't LEAVE socks alone. He finds a sock around the house and just loves to chew on it. I'm afraid if I use old socks, it will only encourage further fixation on regular socks. Do you guys think that's a good idea?

Otherwise, I would love to give him some old socks, I just can't be sure that he will be happy with one old sock that I give him.

mjw6789 · 11-04-2009, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poopydogface

You know what! My puppy won't LEAVE socks alone. He finds a sock around the house and just loves to chew on it. I'm afraid if I use old socks, it will only encourage further fixation on regular socks. Do you guys think that's a good idea?

Otherwise, I would love to give him some old socks, I just can't be sure that he will be happy with one old sock that I give him.

I didn't really think of that, my boy is a little older and can somehow tell the difference between my socks and his socks. Stuffed animals on the other hand...he seems to think they're all his

poopydogface · 11-04-2009, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by railNtrailcowgrl

Check out the fabric store or Wal-Mart (some of them still have fabric centers) and get polar fleece when it's on sale. I make all sorts of dog toys out of that stuff. A yard or two will make LOADS of toys. You can braid it up and make ropes, tug toys, "spiders" (I take a bunch of pieces and randomly braid and knot them together, Pebbles LOVES to throw these around and chase after them). I've heard of people using old jeans and doing the same thing. Cheap tennis balls, soccer/basket balls, old footballs. Once nice toy to invest in would be a kong there are lots of different foods and treats you can stuff in one to keep a chewy pup occupied. Peanut butter, yogurt, kibble, cheese, canned dog food, banana, cream cheese, lunch meat, you name it, you can stuff it in a kong!

Wow, I've never considered polar fleece... Im curious why did you settle on this particular material? I'm concerned it's too "fluffy"? My dog seems to like to shred things up like napkins and then eat them! So I tend to worry that he'll eat too much of something non digestable. So I try to look for cotton type materials that break apart into small pieces, like jeans which was mentioned seems like a viable option (I don't have any around ATM though).

I do have a kong already... I'm disappointed that he doesn't seem to enjoy chewing on it anymore... he'll only lick it when I put a treat inside, and then once the treat, peanut butter, or whatever is gone, he ignores the kong immediately

I

klaire12 · 11-04-2009, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjw6789

I once took a bunch of old socks and braided them together...it might not last long, but what else are you going to do with old socks?

I second this. I stuffed a sock, knotted the end and my pup chews it forever. I think braiding them are a great idea.

MoosMom · 11-04-2009, 05:30 PM

Something else you can do with a knotted sock is get it wet and freeze it if he's teething. It feels good on their gums. I tie knots in old T-shirts for Yoshi. He has a blast.

Leroy&Lucy'sMom · 11-04-2009, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poopydogface

Wow, I've never considered polar fleece... Im curious why did you settle on this particular material? I'm concerned it's too "fluffy"? My dog seems to like to shred things up like napkins and then eat them! So I tend to worry that he'll eat too much of something non digestable. So I try to look for cotton type materials that break apart into small pieces, like jeans which was mentioned seems like a viable option (I don't have any around ATM though).

I do have a kong already... I'm disappointed that he doesn't seem to enjoy chewing on it anymore... he'll only lick it when I put a treat inside, and then once the treat, peanut butter, or whatever is gone, he ignores the kong immediately

I

I make my own braided fleece tugs/toys too
The material is great because it is soft and stretchy for dogs to tug.
It is not good for medium to heavy chewers though because they can destroy/eat it in seconds. Super easy to make and it only costs around 25-50 cents for one really long braided tug.

They sell fleece tugs in pet stores and are pretty expensive; for example: http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...:referralID=NA

Labsnothers · 11-05-2009, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoosMom

Something else you can do with a knotted sock is get it wet and freeze it if he's teething. It feels good on their gums. I tie knots in old T-shirts for Yoshi. He has a blast.

We have had very good luck with that. Just don't leave the puppy alone with it. They can shred it and choke or something.

railNtrailcowgrl · 11-07-2009, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poopydogface

Wow, I've never considered polar fleece... Im curious why did you settle on this particular material? I'm concerned it's too "fluffy"? My dog seems to like to shred things up like napkins and then eat them! So I tend to worry that he'll eat too much of something non digestable. So I try to look for cotton type materials that break apart into small pieces, like jeans which was mentioned seems like a viable option (I don't have any around ATM though).

I do have a kong already... I'm disappointed that he doesn't seem to enjoy chewing on it anymore... he'll only lick it when I put a treat inside, and then once the treat, peanut butter, or whatever is gone, he ignores the kong immediately

I

I saw some REALLY expensive fleece dog toys at the pet supply store and being the sewer/crafter I am though, hey I can make one! lol, they aren't really good for unsupervised chewing but they make great tug toys and fetching toys. I also like them b/c pebs has worn down/missing teeth and they're easy on her gums.

moots · 11-07-2009, 04:49 AM

Be careful with what you create as some dogs will swallow things they cannot digest and it may cost you. IE if your dog manages to swallow a stringy bit of cloth from a sock it can be bad. Find something that is big enough that it can't be broken/torn/penetrated by k9 teeth or swallowed whole.

winniec777 · 11-07-2009, 03:31 PM

One way to get a "new" toy for your dog is to combine a couple of old ones into a new one. Our dog loves it when I stuff or tie one toy into/to another - seems to make it new for her. And it's free.

Have you tried plastic water or soda bottles? They bounce around unpredictably, which is fun, and make a nice crunchy noise my dog likes. Just supervise and take the bottle away when it gets jagged. You can put an old oven mitt over the bottle if you're worried about sharp edges. And take the cap & the little plastic ring off before giving it to your pup since these can be easily swallowed. It took a little training, but our dog knows which bottles she can have (only the ones we give her) and which ones she can't (ours!).

People might think this next idea is crazy, but again, we trained our dog to know which ones she could have and which she couldn't: rolled up magazines & catalogs. She loves, loves to shred paper. To keep her from going after the things she shouldn't, I rolled mags & catalogs into really tight rolls and tied them with twine - this made them into something different. She loved to pull them apart and then shred the paper.

I also tied twine to her toys and pulled them around the house so she could chase them - she loved that. There are so many things you can use around the house without spending a lot of $$. The key is supervision. The only toy (bought or home-made) I ever leave my dog alone with is a kong.