How to choose the right toy for your dog

How to choose the right toy for your dog

~ written by Rita Viel, West Paw Export Manager & Dog Behaviorist

Playing with your dog has a lot of benefits. Both for your dog and yourself.

Dogs love to be with their owners, but they also can play on their own.

Playing helps:

• Interactive toy play creates a stronger bond with your dog
• Safe and interactive toys help to stimulate the dogs’ brains to support healthy grow
• Using toys to play with your dog can help teach manners and obedience
• Mentally stimulating play with toys requires more energy than walking for an hour in the park (depending on the difficulty of the treat/puzzle toy)

How to choose toy accordance with the playing habit of your dog

First of all it is important what is your purpose or what type of play do you want to do with your dog. Or are you looking for a toy by which a dog can play on its own. Or maybe you want to teach your dog how to play tugging without biting in your hands.

This shows immediately that it would be the best to have a selection of toys available that you or your dog can choose the right toy for the right purpose at that single moment.

All dogs are unique and they also have unique playing behavior. Some dogs like to cuddle a plush toy or sleep with it, but you also have dogs that immediately start chewing on a plush toy. Some dogs like to chew on a toy or play tugging together with their owner or another dog.

There are many different play types.
It also depends on their mood at that moment; are they relaxed or more stressed, are they outside or inside the house and so on. In general most dogs like to play, but not all dogs like to play in the same way. This can depend on their age, but also if they are relaxed or not or if they have pain somewhere.

So the first step to make to determine what toy you choose is to look to the following:

• Do I want to give a “play”, “chew” or “puzzle/treat” toy to my dog? Of course all toys are to play, but it is important to make a differentiation in the type of play toys.

• Do I want to play together with my dog or is it to play on its’ own? If the dog is playing on its’ own you need to be sure that it is strong enough and maybe you should then choose a “chew” toy instead of a “play” toy.

• What kind of game do I want to play?: tugging, throw away and retrieve, puzzle and so on.

• Is my dog a tough chewer or not?

• Is it a puppy, adolescent, adult or senior dog?

Even a dog that is a tough chewer can play with a play toy that isn’t made for strong chewers. If you stop playing together you take that toy away, so he cannot destroy it when playing on its’ own. And you can give maybe a stronger chew toy so he can continue playing on its’own if he wants.

Above explanation also shows that a dog do need different toys for different purposes. This means that it is good to have different toys available and not just one toy West Paw toys are developed also to solve solutions.

An example: avoiding biting in your hands during play time: if you like to play tugging with your dog, but your dog often starts to snap near your fingers, you could use the Bumi, Sailz, Zwig or Skamp to play in a safe way. The distance between your hand and the dogs’ mouth is far enough to play safe and avoid biting in your fingers. Your dog also learns in this way not to bite in your fingers during the tugging game. Does he still get near to your fingers, you simply stop the play (without getting angry) and ignore the dog. He learns that playing to rough will end the play time with you and that is something he doesn’t like. The next time you start the tugging play again, but stop the play a little earlier, before he is getting so excited that he should start to try to bite in your fingers. In this way he learns that if he doesn’t bite in your fingers you continue to play and that is what he wants. In this way you used the toy to teach manners and obedience while you have a great time to play with your dog.

West Paw play toys:
Bumi, Zisc and Tizzi (all for gentle chewers)
Skamp, Zwig, Drifty, Sailz and Snorkl (all for moderate chewers)

West Paw Chew toys:
Hurley, Jive and Rumpus (all for tough chewers)

Puzzle /treat toys:
Tizzi (for gentle chewers)
Toppl and Rumbl (for moderate chewers)
Tux and Qwizl (for tough chewers)

How to choose toy accordance with the chewing level of your dog

After you have chosen what type of play you want to do with your dog, the next step is to think about the chewing behavior of your dog in order to choose the right toy.

Every single dog has its own chewing behavior. No dog is the same. And it also depends on the situation. Is your dog relaxed or a little stressed.

If your dog is a tough chewer you can certainly choose for a Bumi to play together, but don’t leave it on the floor after playing with your dog if you know he will start chewing on the Bumi. Take it away and use it only for playing together. Give your dog another chew toy if the dog is on its own.

It is important to realize that all dog breeds can be tough chewers. Many people think that medium and large breeds are the tough chewers, but also a mini poodle or chihuahua can be a tough chewer. Of course the medium and large breeds do have stronger jaws, but they can be very gentle with toys.

Age is also important to take into consideration. A puppy of around 14 – 15 weeks starts to change teeth. Normally these young puppies start to chew more than because chewing on a toy or a snack releases the hormone endorphin in the brains of a dog and that helps to release the pain from changing the teeth.

For that reason puppies start to chew more during that age. Giving them a West Paw Hurley or Rumpus for instance will not hurt, because the Zogoflex material is still flexible, but also strong enough to chew on for these puppies.

For puppies till around 14-15 weeks it is also important to choose a little bigger toy than you normally should do, because these young puppies need to learn to chew. If you choose a Xsmall or small toy (or snack) you could have the chance that they swallow a piece and that is not what you want. Therefore it is better to choose a little bigger toy to avoid this.

If we are looking to adolescents dogs (between 6 months and 2 years) they can be more stressed, because so many things change for them in their body and mind during this time. They are also in the so called fear phase that they use chew playing to get more relaxed. But that means that they can chew sometimes pretty tough.

For senior dogs it is important to have flexible, but strong toys to chew on, because they can have difficulties with their teeth during the years. Hard material isn’t comfortable then to have in your mouth than. The Zogoflex material is flexible, but still soft enough to chew on for these senior dogs.

There are also many dogs that love to break a plush toy immediately, but aren’t tough chewers if they have the West Paw Zogoflex toy. The material can also be a trigger to start chewing or not.

Every single dog has its’ own character.

Depending on the chewing behavior of your dog you can choose from one of the following:

Gentle chewers: Bumi, Zisc, Tizzi
Moderated chewers: Drifty, Sailz, Snorkl, Zwig, Skamp, Toppl and Rumbl
Tough chewers: Tux, Qwizl, Hurley, Jive and Rumpus.

 

West Paw Love it guarantee: In case your toy is damaged by your dog, return it then to the store (within 6 months' from date of purchase) where you bought the toy to get a one-time free replacement or a refund. The one-time free replacement should be then another shape that fits better for the chewing behaviour of your dog. In this way you can always choose the right toy for your dog!