BEHAVIOUR
A Pet Parent’s Guide to Choosing the Best Puppy Toys
The pet care market is flooded with a range of dog toys. Canine expert Shivani K helps you choose the best dog toys for your puppy.
Table of contents
Seasoned pet owners know how valuable their treasure chest of dog toys is to keep their young, energetic puppies entertained. For most puppies, playtime is their favourite activity in the day, maybe second to only mealtimes. However, don't assume that dog toys are solely meant for your puppy’s entertainment. Much like human children, they are not a luxury but rather a necessity for the cognitive development and enrichment of young puppies.
Benefits of Introducing Puppy Toys
Here are just some of the many research-based benefits of providing puppies with enrichment through toys:
- Dog toys provide your puppy with their daily requirement of mental & physical exercise.
- By introducing appropriate chew toys, you can prevent destructive furniture biting while also giving your puppy relief from teething.
- Puppy toys are an ideal way of socialising them to new and different textures and surfaces!
- Interactive, puzzle toys keep your puppy busy while teaching them to enjoy spending time by themselves. This helps keep issues such as separation anxiety or attention-seeking behaviours at bay.
- If you build enough drive, dog toys can be used as rewards during training!
Six Must-have Puppy Toys
The pet market is flooded with a wide range of toys that provide a variety of benefits for your puppy. Here are some basic toys that you can consider for your puppy.
a. Rolling Toys/Balls
Balls are an all-time favourite for dogs. However, make sure that you get not one by two balls of appropriate size and similar textures. You can refer to this article to teach your dog to Fetch!
b. Rope Toy
A rope toy is another must-have for parents of young puppies. Make sure it is wide and long enough to prevent any accidental nipping at your hands when you play tug-of-war with your dog.
c. Chew Toys/Teething Toys
Between two to five months of age, your puppy is likely to go through a teething phase. It is ideal to provide them with good, sturdy chewies or teething toys to channel their chewing instincts and safeguard your furniture and your hands.
d. Squeaky Toys
Several studies have shown that the squeaky sounds these toys make can trigger reward centres in our puppies’ brains to release the feel-good chemical dopamine. Just make sure there are no parts that can tear or break away that your puppy may accidentally swallow.
e. Interactive or Puzzle Toys
Puzzle toys provide the much-needed mental stimulation your puppy’s young brain requires for cognitive development. It is, however, important to start simple and teach your puppy the rules of the game, first. Contrary to popular belief, your puppy’s puzzle toys need not be super expensive, either. Did you know our household scrap items like old towels, and take-out boxes can be made into good toys for dogs? Check out our library of inexpensive, DIY puzzle games you can fashion for your puppy at home.
f. Soft Toys or Plushies
Soft toys can offer a great source of comfort and warmth for your puppy, especially after being separated from its mother and littermates.
Introducing & Using Puppy Toys
Once you start building your puppy’s toy collection, it is also important to introduce and use the toys in the right manner to get the best use out of them & to keep your puppy hooked on to the game longer. Here are some key principles to keep in mind.
Rotate the dog toys to retain their value.
1. Divide the toys into “Engagement” toys such as a rope toy, a ball, or a snuffle mat that require your interaction and their “Me Time” toys such as chew toys & comfort toys, and keep them separate.
2. Bring out the “Engagement toys” during playtime when you can actively interact with your puppy and put them away as soon as playtime is over to increase value.
3. While you can leave a few, low-value “Me Time” toys such as soft toys accessible to them at all times, bring out the higher value chew toys when you want them to spend some time being busy by themselves.
4. Keep rotating the toys that are accessible to your puppy to keep them interested in the toys for longer.
Use size-appropriate toys only.
1. Do not introduce dog toys that are too small for your puppy or may have small, easily detachable parts that can fall off and be swallowed by your puppy.
2. Avoid cheap plastic or rubber toys that may have bits and pieces falling apart which could be toxic if ingested.
3. If the dog toy is bigger than your puppy can handle, your puppy will end up being afraid of it, more than anything else.
Teach your dog the rules of the game.
Our puppies do not come home with the inherent knowledge of how classic dog games are played. So don't be upset if you introduce a brand-new tug toy to your puppy for the first time and he spends his day biting and chewing it off into threads and pieces. When we bring home a new dog toy, we must ensure that we introduce it and teach our puppies how a rope toy can be tugged at, how a ball can be tossed around or played fetch with, and how treats can be sniffed out from a snuffle mat, etc.
Shop according to your dog's tastes, not yours.
When it comes to toys, most dogs prefer a good mix of different textures and shapes. So instead of getting the colourful, animal-shaped toys or worse, children’s toys for your dogs, observe textures or shapes your puppy naturally seems to gravitate towards (soft textures like blankets or sofa cushions or chewy textures such as your chappals) and bring home similarly textured toys.
Teach your dog to share.
1. In a multi-pet household, small fights over dog toys can lead to unnecessary animosity between your two pets, and even serious behavioural issues such as resource guarding. If you have two dogs in the house, ensure that there are at least three or four versions of the same toy.
2. Through games such as Fetch, teach your puppy the importance of sharing things with you, without being possessive.
3. Simultaneously, it is also necessary that you do not snatch toys or other items from your puppy’s mouth or allow the other dog to do so.
Rotate the dog toys to retain their value.
1. Divide the toys into “Engagement” toys such as a rope toy, a ball, or a snuffle mat that require your interaction and their “Me Time” toys such as chew toys & comfort toys, and keep them separate.
2. Bring out the “Engagement toys” during playtime when you can actively interact with your puppy and put them away as soon as playtime is over to increase value.
3. While you can leave a few, low-value “Me Time” toys such as soft toys accessible to them at all times, bring out the higher value chew toys when you want them to spend some time being busy by themselves.
4. Keep rotating the toys that are accessible to your puppy to keep them interested in the toys for longer.
Use size-appropriate toys only.
1. Do not introduce dog toys that are too small for your puppy or may have small, easily detachable parts that can fall off and be swallowed by your puppy.
2. Avoid cheap plastic or rubber toys that may have bits and pieces falling apart which could be toxic if ingested.
3. If the dog toy is bigger than your puppy can handle, your puppy will end up being afraid of it, more than anything else.
Teach your dog the rules of the game.
Our puppies do not come home with the inherent knowledge of how classic dog games are played. So don't be upset if you introduce a brand-new tug toy to your puppy for the first time and he spends his day biting and chewing it off into threads and pieces. When we bring home a new dog toy, we must ensure that we introduce it and teach our puppies how a rope toy can be tugged at, how a ball can be tossed around or played fetch with, and how treats can be sniffed out from a snuffle mat, etc.
Shop according to your dog's tastes, not yours.
When it comes to toys, most dogs prefer a good mix of different textures and shapes. So instead of getting the colourful, animal-shaped toys or worse, children’s toys for your dogs, observe textures or shapes your puppy naturally seems to gravitate towards (soft textures like blankets or sofa cushions or chewy textures such as your chappals) and bring home similarly textured toys.
Teach your dog to share.
1. In a multi-pet household, small fights over dog toys can lead to unnecessary animosity between your two pets, and even serious behavioural issues such as resource guarding. If you have two dogs in the house, ensure that there are at least three or four versions of the same toy.
2. Through games such as Fetch, teach your puppy the importance of sharing things with you, without being possessive.
3. Simultaneously, it is also necessary that you do not snatch toys or other items from your puppy’s mouth or allow the other dog to do so.
We hope this article helps make playtime more fun for you and your dog! Are there any toys that your puppy absolutely adores? Share a video with us @thepack.in on Instagram to be featured on our page!
Happy Puppy Parenting! 🐶
Happy Puppy Parenting! 🐶
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