I've never been a fan of giving dogs stuffed animals to chew on, mostly because the stuffing gets everywhere, and the dogs can eat it, ugh. Well, all my dogs were brought up with stuffed animals, and my MIL doesn't want to change that. Problem is, I collect stuffed animals, and I was wondering it there was any way to distinguish "my toys, your toys". Or should I just try to convince MIL to get non-stuffed toys?
About stuffed animals...
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If I were you I would first of all "puppy proof" my house. That way "my toys" are never accessible. Also I think it is a good idea to only let your dog have one toy at a time and only when you give it to him/her (provided that this is not a teething puppy and this only applies when you are home with the dog, not when the dog is in a kennel by him/herself, ect.) This might help the dog realize that he can chew up stuffed animals THAT YOU GAVE HIM and not just any old stuffed animal he finds.
As of right now, none of my toys are accessible, because (long story short) we haven't gotten our house yet, so all my stuff is still in storage. We have 5 dogs, each one has a toy in their crate, and there are usually 3 toys out in the living room for them to play with. Any less then that and the fight over the toy too much. My collection is pretty huge... Last time I had them displayed on a twin sized bed, and they covered the bed about 3 feet deep... I think I'll try the whole "if I give it to you, you can have it, if I don't give it to you, it's mine" thing. If not, do you think that they could learn "Toys in this room are yours, toys in that room are mine"?
This may sound sad, since I'm 21 and married, but the main stufties I'm worried about are the ones my husband and I sleep with. Since the dogs started sleeping in bed with my us, we've put our two "bed-buddies" up on a shelf. I'd love to be able to bring them down where they belong, but I'd hate to loose them. (One I've had since I was 13, the other was a gift I got for my hubby when we were dating.) So I think I'll start bringing in non-sentimental stuffed animals, and see how they do with them...
This may sound sad, since I'm 21 and married, but the main stufties I'm worried about are the ones my husband and I sleep with. Since the dogs started sleeping in bed with my us, we've put our two "bed-buddies" up on a shelf. I'd love to be able to bring them down where they belong, but I'd hate to loose them. (One I've had since I was 13, the other was a gift I got for my hubby when we were dating.) So I think I'll start bringing in non-sentimental stuffed animals, and see how they do with them...
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A good rule of thumb is to never allow a dog to do anything you don't want him to do. Don't give a dog a worn out work boot to chew and expect him to avoid chewing up your expensive dress shoes. Stuffies are acceptable dog toys, or they are off limits. Dogs can eventually learn to differentiate, but accept that a number of sentimental favorites will be sacrificed to the project before the dog learns discernment. Understand, too, that the ones you have been sleeping with for 10 years will be much more attractive to your dogs than a brand new one from the pet store. Keep the things you don't want destroyed away from the hounds.
I agree with this, but if it gives you a little hope my girls gut their stuffed animals that I give them in about two seconds but my bunny foo foo (my first toy since I was born) has never been ripped up and I keep it on my bed where the girls could have access to it. I have found one of them carrying it around couple of times and I just took it and said "uh uh" and it hasn't been a problem. I guess they have always learned that they can only chew things that I give them to chew and they are pretty much never unsupervised.
I gave stuffies to Tucker when he was younger, and now wished I hadn't. He'll rip one to shreds in about 3 minutes (now), and just this morning, he figured out how to get into my shoe closet, pull all the shoes out and spread them on the floor, found my fluffy dog slippers and chewed one bad enough that the pair went into the trash. I guess the dog slippers were the best (and least expensive to replace) choice to chew, but...
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One thing I have never done is to "give stuffed toys for the dog to chew on"...there are toys made specifically for this purpose; I have always used 'stuffed dog toys' for play time between my dogs and I. My dogs toys are also always in a 'toy box', so their stuffed ones are always safe, as well. They have nylabone toys, rubber kongs, etc, out all the time, so if they want to chew on something, they have safe ones.
As far as the actual 'problem' you have; you need to simply put 'your toys' in a safe place; up high on dressors, in a locked cabinet, or something of the like. Making sure your dogs can only get to 'their toys' will safeguard yours.
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I agree with having the non-dog-toys placed out of reach.
BTW, our 6-year-old dog loves stuffed animals and never chews them (at least to the point of tearing them open)... she uses chew toys for chewing. They seem to be comforting to her... we refer to them as her dollies because it reminds me of a little girl who loves her dolls. During a thunderstorm or if she needs comfort for some other reason, she will grab her favorite one (a pink poodle) and walk around with it in her mouth, use it as a pillow, or lie down and cuddle with it. She's never done that with a Kong. I think stuffed animals are valuable to dogs who know not to destroy them for very different reasons than meeting their chewing needs.
BTW, our 6-year-old dog loves stuffed animals and never chews them (at least to the point of tearing them open)... she uses chew toys for chewing. They seem to be comforting to her... we refer to them as her dollies because it reminds me of a little girl who loves her dolls. During a thunderstorm or if she needs comfort for some other reason, she will grab her favorite one (a pink poodle) and walk around with it in her mouth, use it as a pillow, or lie down and cuddle with it. She's never done that with a Kong. I think stuffed animals are valuable to dogs who know not to destroy them for very different reasons than meeting their chewing needs.
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Well, we don't have nearly as many as you do, but bf has a bear he has had since he was 4. Beary sleeps with us and the dogs every night. Anytime the dogs go near him I tell them to "leave it". After a while they figured that I'm never going to let them have it, so Beary is safe.
When I was younger, my parents built shelves around the entire area of my room. I had a TON of stuffed animals. The shelves we high enough so that they wouldn't get harmed and that I could see them all at once.
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