Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Homemade Dog Toys!

After spending hours staring at all the different products in Petco and boutique dog stores, I decided that I was not willing to spend gobs of money on products that may get destroyed in minutes and also had cheap, synthetic stuffing material.  Okay, so I wound up spending hours making a dog bed and two toys, but at least I saved some dough and also have piece of mind...at least for the few hours these things last! (Well, hopefully they last more than that, but I'm not holding my breath!).  I spent a total of $7 making this stuff....$3 for the bag of shirt pieces from Home Depot and $4 on the zipper.  Compare that to $50-$100 that I would have spent on a pre-fab bed and some toys.  I definitely purchased some safe chew toys as well...like Nyla bones, a Tricky Treat ball.

Rope toys and toys stuffed with synthetic filling can be dangerous to puppies and older dogs.  If they eat the rope strands they can get caught in the throat and intestines.  The synthetic stuffing can choke or poison a dog.  Puppies should only play with these types of toys when supervised.  Puppies should also have a snuggle buddy(s) to compensate for no longer having their litter mates to sleep next to.  Also, having something that smells like you to comfort them is good as well. I made these homemade toys/snuggle buddies for Indie using old clothes stuffed with ripped up shirts.  You can buy bags of shirt pieces at Home Depot in the paint section for $3.  They make a great stuffing that you don't have to worry about your dog choking on.


I also made a dog bed using old clothes and zipper I bought at the craft store.  It's stuffed with a junky old pillow I didn't want anymore.
Dog bed side 1
Dog bed side 2
Potential Drawbacks
Yes, they are some things to consider here.  First and foremost is that if you make a toy out of clothing material you are essentially teaching your dog that it's okay to chew on clothing! But they'll probably want to do that anyways.

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