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Food Toys for Your Dog – Video

It’s dinner time for your dog.

You put the bowl down and before you stand up again, your dog is done. Done! In a matter of seconds! Don’t you wish you could stretch your dog’s dinner time a little?

Wouldn’t it be nice if it took your dog 15 – 20 minutes to actually eat his meal?

There’s a way to do it — food dispensing toys. Basically, instead of putting the food in a bowl, where it’s inhaled in 30 seconds, you instead put the food into one of these food dispensing toys. There are a multitude of toys on the market, here are three that I use in my household.

Kong Satellite

This toy has four different openings where your dog’s kibble can escape. The dog needs to bat the toy around quite a bit to get all the pieces out. I like this toy for it’s toughness — it’s made of tough, translucent material. Your dog can see, hear, and smell the food inside and with a few bats of his paw or nudges with his nose, he can coax a few pieces of food out of the toy each time.

Kong Quest Wishbone

This toy is made of lightweight, colorful material for light to moderate chewers. This flexible toy dispenses your dog’s favorite treats or kibble. You can even slather it with peanut butter (and freeze for added difficulty) for a longer lasting adventure. The Wishbone comes in two sizes, small or large, and multiple colors. This is a great toy for a dog who is new to puzzle toys or for a puppy who needs a relatively easy first experience with food dispensing toys.

Busy Buddy Barnacle

The multi-chambered Barnacle features three spots where treats can fall out (called Treat Meters®) to randomly dispense treats while your dog plays. You can trim the Treat Meter prongs with scissors to increase the rate at which treats come out. The bone-shaped grooves can be smeared with treats like cheese or peanut butter for even more playtime options.

You may have to help your dog figure out that the toys contain food, and maybe even help them get the food out the first time, but once they know that the toys contain food, you’ll just need to fill the toy, then sit back and enjoy the show!

There are lots of other uses for food toys, too. Here are other ways I use the food toys…

Teach Your Dog to Love It’s Crate

Another way to use these toys is to teach your dog that his crate is great. In our house, the only place these food toys show up are in the crate! All terrific things appear in the crate. Putting these toys in the crate for your dog can help contain the toy (and the food) which makes it easier for the dog — and you. In the crate, the toy can’t get stuck under the sofa. The food can’t go under the tv. The crate helps contain both the toy and the food that comes out, making it easy for your dog to collect the food while also making the crate a great place to be!

Keep ’em Busy

If you’ve got visitors, or  a project that has to get done right now, and you don’t have time to watch or manage your dog, these food dispensing toys are a great way to occupy your dog while the other stuff is going on. After you teach your dog how to use the toys, just pop them into the dog’s crate and let the dog have a great time emptying the toy while you get your chores done or entertain your guests.

Your turn: what would YOU put in your dog’s food dispensing toy? Leave a comment and let us know!

Teach Your Dog to Eat from a Kong – Video

dog training, dog obedience, labrador, lab training, black lab, yellow lab, kong, kong recipe, stuff Kong, Frederick, clickerWant to know what I can’t live without? Kongs.

Kongs, a staple in our house, help teach puppies to love their crate, keep our dogs occupied when we have visitors, give them something to do when I need to get work done (like write this, for instance), provide an alternative to a feeding bowl, and are an entertaining food delivery system.

Dogs don’t automatically understand how to use a Kong, however, and this article (and video) gives you step-by-step, easy to follow instructions on how to do just that.

Where to start.

  1. First, get several appropriately sized Kongs. For our Labradors, we use the Large size Kongs. There are different sizes specifically for puppies.
  2. Next, get something delicious and sticky. We love peanut butter, but you can use cottage cheese, yogurt, or you can even buy Kong Stuff’n.
  3. Cover the large opening on the bottom with the delicious goop (we use peanut butter in the video). You may need to hold the Kong for the puppy or dog if it rolls around too much. Your goal: the dog is very interested in the Kong and stays engaged to get all the goodie goopy stuff out. It may take several experiences with the Kong for your pup or dog to become proficient. You’ll know you’re ready to move to the next step when the dog is finished in under a minute.
  4. After your pup is good at Step 3, begin to smear the rim of the Kong with the goop. It should still be easy for the dog to get to all the good stuff.
  5. Once the dog is easily getting all the goodies, begin to stuff the Kong and push the goop up to the first third, making sure there is still plenty of peanut butter (or whatever you’re using) on the edge of the Kong.
  6. Gradually begin to push the peanut butter up a little further into the Kong until the entire inside of the Kong is coated with peanut butter.

Alternative to sticky food.

If you’d rather use your dog’s regular meals in the Kong, here’s how to do that. Measure your dog’s normal kibble ration and instead of putting it in the bowl, put the food into the Kong. Let him roll the Kong around (pushing it a bit with your hand at first, to show him that there’s food inside).

To increase the difficulty. 

When your dog is quickly and easily cleaning the entire Kong, it’s time to add a little bit of fun (difficulty) for your dog. You can stuff the Kong with the goopy mixture, then put it in the freezer to make an iced Kong! This frozen version will take your dog longer to eat and will keep your dog occupied longer.

Alternatively, you can stuff the Kong with the goopy mixture, then pour in part of his kibble meal. Shake the kibble around in the Kong so it sticks to the sides. Now the dog has to work a bit harder to get his meals, as the food is stuck to the peanut butter in the Kong.

Talk back! We love hearing from you — tell us how you use Kongs for your dog and what you stuff in your dog’s Kongs!

 

The Organized Dog Trainer: How to Efficiently Store and Freeze Stuffed Kongs

Kong, dog training, stuff Kong, Kong recipe, Frederick, Smart Dog
It’s a new year, we’re smack in the middle of Train Your Dog Month (TYDM), and food stuffed toys are one of my most valuable dog training tools.

I stuff and freeze about 40 food stuffed toys, like Kongs, every week. I’m frequently asked how and where I keep 40 Kongs, so I made this video to show you a system that works to keep the clutter and mess minimal, while also keeping my freezer clean and organized.

Wondering what to put in your Kongs?

Check out this low-fat recipe!

Your turn: Do you have an organization system to help keep things neat and organized? Please share in a comment below, I’d love to hear about it!

How to Stuff a Kong (or MANY Kongs!)

When you’re stuffing Kongs for 4 dogs, it’s helpful to pre-stuff a bunch, freeze ’em, then you’ve got them ready to go whenever you need them. I use the Kongs to buy me some time if I’m working on a project — occupied dogs are good dogs. Also, every dog in my house gets a stuffed, frozen Kong as I’m walking out the door. They love to see me leave (and don’t, therefore, stress about my leaving or being gone) — it’s a preventative measure to avoid separation anxiety.

Kongs in a basket

Our basket of empty Kongs.

Today as I stuffed Kongs, I took pictures, too, so you can see the process from beginning to end. We start with a basket of empty Kongs. I will run these through the dishwasher about once a month (top rack, no heat) just to clean all the spooge off. It’s for my sanity only — the dogs do not mind the spooge, believe me.

Jif peanut butter

We stuff our Kongs with peanut butter.

So we start with peanut butter — you can put almost anything in that your dog likes. Some ideas: cream cheese, canned pumpkin, leftover mashed potatoes, plain yogurt, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese — pretty much anything that’s gooey. You don’t have to stop there — if you really want to keep your dog busy, toss in a few kibbles and shake the Kong around so the kibbles stick to the sides. Or, add some apple or banana pieces (no grapes or raisins — these are toxic).

Peanut butter on knife.

PB is ready to go into the Kongs.

So. Now you’ve got your filling and your Kongs. Now just slide that knife into your filling, then put that filling all over the inside of the Kong. So the peanut butter’s on the knife, now just run the knife along the inside of the Kong. I try to evenly distribute the peanut butter, but that’s because I’m a control freak and like to have everything just so. The dogs don’t care how the PB is distributed just so long as there’s PB in that Kong!

Kong stuffed with peanut butter.

PB stuffed inside the Kong.

After the Kong is stuffed, I drop it into a big plastic bag. Why the plastic bag? We put our stuffed Kongs in the freezer. Frozen peanut butter takes longer for the dogs to get out, so it keeps them occupied for longer.

IMG_0931

Kongs get dropped into a plastic bag.

This plastic bag also keeps all the Kongs together so I can find them easily. And it keeps my freezer a little cleaner.

 

Kongs in a bag.

The Kongs are ready for the freezer.

 

All that’s left now is popping the entire bag of peanut butter filled Kongs into the freezer and letting them get frozen. Now I’m ready for the week ahead! Or at least ready for the next few days, that is.

 

IMG_0933

 

Baby Steps

Teddy with KongThere are lots of ways a pup can get his food. He can work for it. He can eat it out of a food stuffed toy. He can find it scattered about the patio. One thing this little guy won't be doing is eating food out of a bowl. That's way too easy.

Teddy needs to keep busy, he needs to problem solve, he needs to take more than 30 seconds to eat his meal.

Food stuffed toys, like the red Kong in the picture, are great food-delivery systems. You stuff your dog's dry food (kibble) into the Kong, drop the Kong on the floor (so some of the kibble drops out and grabs the dog's interest) and let the dog figure out the rest.

To make this task fun and interesting, we make it really easy at first. We put the food into a large Kong – the kibble will fall out easier this way. After a week of feeding Teddy this way, he'll get really good at getting the food out quickly and efficiently.

The next step is to add a little bit of difficulty – enough to challenge his problem solving skills, but not too much that he gives up. Peanut butter or nonfat yogurt is a great "stuffer." Simply line the inside of the toy with the peanut butter (or yogurt), fill with kibble leaving a little room for some more of the goopy stuff. The peanut butter or yogurt is really enticing for the dog, and also slows him down a bit.

The middle portion is relatively easy – it's just kibble, and the hardest part to get out is the part where the food is stuck to the peanut butter way deep into the Kong. If you spent enough time letting the dog learn how to get plain kibble out of the toy, I'll be he'll remain committed to getting the last little bit, especially if there's some gooey goodies in there, too!

After another week of gooping up the contents of the toy, you can make the game even more challenging by gooping the Kong with peanut butter and kibble, described above, and then freeze the whole thing!

The frozen Kong  seems to be a favorite of Teddy's. He seems to really enjoy the challenge of getting the frozen peanut butter and kibble out. He's good at using his paws to help hold the Kong so it doesn't move around. 

Why do we care about stuff like this? The whole idea of "working for dinner" is a nice one – why waste the opportunity to train by simply putting the bowl of food on the floor for the dog to eat? Use your dog's dinner as treats to reward good behavior! Or, teach your dog how to become a problem solver by letting him figure out how to get the kibble out of the food-stuffed toy. The longer it takes the dog to eat his dinner, the more time you'll have to get stuff done without your dog sticking his nose into whatever it is you're doing! You'll keep your dog mentally challenged. You'll tire your dog out. All these things are GOOD things and can help a manic, overactive dog become calmer.

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