Reasonably Price Puppy Toys?

[Wolfhound Lover]

HI,

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question.

I've got a wolfhound puppy and am trying to get him toys that will keep him occupied. When he was first introduced to Tennis balls they used to last him for a little while, but since then he has managed to demolish a tennis ball in less than 5 mins time.

Rawhide chews kept him busy all night, but I'm not 100% sure I want to give him things that he will eat. I just want to give him a toy that he can play with but are fairly indestructible.

I've seen him play around a little with a string toy but it doesn't seem to interest him all that much. i bought a squeaky plastic bone toy that again only lasted abt 5 mins before he managed to chew into it. And I felt compelled to take it off him because I didn't want him to eat plastic.

I've heard about Kongs, and these specialty tyre toys, but they were all priced at exorbitant prices of $50+. I've seen a few on ebay for $30 but I'm still hesitant.

I'm your $20 or less kinda gal. Is this asking for too much? Are there any particular places you would recommend for good quality low budget toys for big dogs? Or do I just have to suck it in and spend that $50-$70?

Any suggestions/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Miss Monster]

I saw some solid rubber bone shape toys at Kmart for about $10 last weekend....? Being solid rather than hollow they might last longer than the squeaky ones?

I'm picking up my puppy in a couple of weeks and was thinking about getting a Kong - but i'm not sure if I should just get him the adult one - wonder if it will be bad for puppy teeth? At least then he wouldn't grow out of it in a few months at $40!

[Mystiqview]

you could try a leather soccor ball. cheap one from Kmart or somewhere similar. Slightly deflate it..and see how you go. they are about $10

[♥Bruno♥]

Buy the large puppy kong Russ Ren. I bought it for my Ridgeback boy, and at 9 months old he still hasnt managed to destroy it! It isnt too small for him to play with either, and he still loves it when I stuff it.

I wouldnt buy the adult one, as they are made of a different material that isnt good for puppy teeth.

[fifi]

we use the two or three litre plastic milk bottles, rinse them & take of the plastic ring from around the top, and peel the sticker off - the dogs love to kill them, push them and run with them ! sometimes I'll pour in a handfull of kibble, that doubles the fun as they try & get it out the little hole !

also old towels with several knots tied in them are good tug/chew toys.

we chuck the milk bottles in the recylcing after a day or two, and keep an eye on the old towels for frayed threads.

cardboard boxes are great BIG fun toys too - very messy, but again lots of fun for no cost, and can be recycled !!

And nothing beats a nice big knuckle bone for sheer joy !!

fifi (who has seen the quick demise of even the most expensive dog toy in minutes with wolfhounds !!)

Edited August 11, 2007 by fifi

[griff]

we use the two or three litre plastic milk bottles, rinse them & take of the plastic ring from around the top, and peel the sticker off - the dogs love to kill them, push them and run with them ! sometimes I'll pour in a handfull of kibble, that doubles the fun as they try & get it out the little hole !

also old towels with several knots tied in them are good tug/chew toys.

we chuck the milk bottles in the recylcing after a day or two, and keep an eye on the old towels for frayed threads.

cardboard boxes are great BIG fun toys too - very messy, but again lots of fun for no cost, and can be recycled !!

And nothing beats a nice big knuckle bone for sheer joy !!

fifi (who has seen the quick demise of even the most expensive dog toy in minutes with wolfhounds !!)

Have to agree with Fifi ... :cool:

I use old coke, soft drinks bottles but only for a day or two

then replace with fresh ones.

Try to get a Kong if you can but dont go the cheap nasties from The warehouse .Go lo

[Bubitty]

Will your dog chew and then swallow the bits or does he spit them out?

I have a golden that likes to chew and spit out paper so I buy these long hard paper rolls from fabric store retailers (they sell me 1 roll for $1, the rolls are about 1.5 m long).

Cut these rolls into 30 cm tubes. Stuff things into the tubes or give him the empty tube to chew. Mine loves it and goes bonkers when he sees me carry a tube in my hand!

[Wolfhound Lover]

thanks guys for all your creative suggestions! I will definately try them all out.

bub - i think my fred swallows the plastic. I've noticed bits and pieces of things around his toy, but in general, whenever i look over, he's chewing... so i'd assume he has, rather than hasn't. and i don't really like the idea of him eating plastic.

it's amazing how i have to keep an eye on everything in the garden. i'm not at home during the day, so only get a real chance to look through the garden on the weekend, and it's amazing the stuff i find. tops of socks (that somehow magically appear out of nowhere - when you've sworn you've collected ALL the washing), chewed up garden tools, and remnants of plastic bags.

i had some netting that i originally ahd to cover some plants, which my wolfhound and great dane cross managed to turn into a tug toy. come to think of it, i haven't seen it for a while. i wonder what they did with it =/ LOL

atm the two dogs are also slowly tearing up the back door mat. good thing it only cost me $4 or I'd be pretty peeved. lol. the garden's also looking a bit of a shambles. but that's to be expected. we've only just moved into this new house, and their digging sure helps me decide what i want to keep and what's not worth saving.

Fifi and riff - the bottles sound like a great idea. a good way to help the recycling process along. *grin*

[ashan]

I found a largeish tyre squeaky toy in Big W for under $7 that my pup adores. IGA sells them too for $6.98 they are made by pet life. It is his favorite and he has not yet made a mark in it and has had it for about 8 weeks. He chews it every day and night and hasn't got a bit off it yet. It is quite big for him but would be great for your 2. It was in the pet section . I also got a great selection of squeaky toys reduced at woolworths for only $3 each and he hasn't managed to destory these yet either. I wouldn't suggest junk shop toys either as my boy rips them up in 5 mins too :cool:

Big W is the best for me though (no I don't work there ) as I have found them cheap and good.

Edited August 12, 2007 by ashan

[laffi]

I got my L size Kong in Big W for $15. It's going to last for years so it's definitely a good investment :cool:

[Poodle wrangler]

My dogs chew up the squeaky dogs really quickly. They both like the cotton "rope" toys from Woolies/ Big W for <$5. I also have those "nylabone" type bones for indoor chewing; real raw bones for outside.

[Miss Monster]

I went and picked up toys this afternoon for my soon to be pup - a $5 rope chew toy (about 40cm long) and $27 for a Large puppy Kong...

[arawnhaus]

We do the empty plastic bottle/container thing and whatever is on special like rope tugs or we use old towels.Toilet roll holders are good, kong style products are good too. All are reasonable in price but the household stuff is best and cheapest because in most cases,it is stuff you had to buy anyway.

[fifi]

And one of the bonuses of the used milk ect bottles, is they are made from FOOD grade plastic, unlike some of the cheap dog toys wich are sometimes made of toxic vinyl products.

ours also love 'dead' ugg boots !!! (although they have been known NOT to wait until the boots were officially discarded )

fifi

[Wolfhound Lover]

I got my L size Kong in Big W for $15. It's going to last for years so it's definitely a good investment :rolleyes:

$15 is a great price for a kong!! i ended up giving in and bought a L sized puppy kong. cost me $21 incl shipping from ebay.

and just in time too, he's starting to gnaw on the furniture!!!

i gave it to him this evening, and he was happily engrossed for a while. hasn't made a dent in it, although has given the food inside a good licking. he seems to play for a little while and then let it go. what was even funnier was when he came inside and i gave the kong to him, and he carried it into the study, before coming back out again. *guffaws* i think he thinks the study is like his secret hidey place.

i will need to go and check out big w one weekend and see what other variety of toys they have.

thanks for all your continued suggestions guys!! much appreciated.

[BenjiMom]

I found a largeish tyre squeaky toy in Big W for under $7 that my pup adores. IGA sells them too for $6.98 they are made by pet life. It is his favorite and he has not yet made a mark in it and has had it for about 8 weeks. He chews it every day and night and hasn't got a bit off it yet. It is quite big for him but would be great for your 2. It was in the pet section . I also got a great selection of squeaky toys reduced at woolworths for only $3 each and he hasn't managed to destory these yet either. I wouldn't suggest junk shop toys either as my boy rips them up in 5 mins too

Big W is the best for me though (no I don't work there ) as I have found them cheap and good.

I dont work at BigW either, but do like their toys from there. I cant really say which ones would be good though for a wolfhound. The advice so far is good. Just wanted to say BigW is good.

[Kissindra]

after reading this I just had to go to big W yesterday, I have to say they had some good stuff and the prices weren't bad, I saw a couple of things that are also sold in Kmart but they were less $ at Big W :D

I was very restrained and only bought 2 things, we don't even HAVE our puppy yet but I can't seem to stop buying toys and accesories!!! :D

[Dachsbracke]

The solid rubber replacement wheel barrow tyre that a few people mentioned, is definitely the go for a bigger dog.

You can throw em, roll em, tug'o'war em, pooch can chew away to his hearts content, and all for less than most purpose built pet toys cost. The one drawback I've seen is my mates GSP got sick of it after 3 months or so cause he couldn't "kill" it.

First post BTW.... Hello everyone!

[Wolfhound Lover]

LOL. Hi Dachsbracke. Cute banana =)

I'll have to see abt the rubber replacement tyre. i ended up finding a place that sold a reasonably priced kong ($20). boy was that a mistake. LOL. he spent the first few minutes (say 15) gnawing at it. Then realised it was really hard to get the food out.

These days it just sits in the corner =/

do'h!

guess it just goes to show. you really should never spend that much money..... LOL. thank goodness i didn't spend more than $20.

[ShellyBeggs]

My old lab when he was a pup he killed everything.......within seconds, actually all the way up until he was about 7yo! And yep even his 'king' kong, I took it back in pieces for my money back the very next day!

In the yard I gave him a small old car tyre (no rim of course).....like from an old datsun or something. He sat in it, chewed it, dragged it about.....I could roll it for him to chase and could hide stuff inside it. I got it from the wreckers for like $5 and is still around now and he just passed away at 12.

The milk/soft drink bottles are great......in summer I used to 3/4 fill a 1.25 bottle with water and freeze it. He had a great time playing with it and loved the icy cold water that came out of the many holes he put in it. This is a non-carpet area toy though.......

For balls I got him solid plastic softballs or hockey balls, he could never kill them! It also took a long time for him to kill a cricket ball....although they have cork inside so once dead there was a lot of little bits of cork to vacuum.

Sometimes I would get some C grade apples (often sold as horse apples), we could play fetch with them on the grass for ages and then when finished instead of killing it he just ate it. He also liked lemons too (tennis ball size and almost colour.....yummo)

And I too donate to my dogs old retired uggs (although I am a northern burbs chick so its my moccos) and even old leather work boots (ya blundestones)....there is something about the leather they love to chew. And they do know what is their "boot" and what are yours. My kelpie pup tries every now and then to pinch my boots and a simple "that is not your boot" is enough to send him to find his own, more chewed on ones. I just usually cut the elastic sides out of them and the soles are such hard plastic not a single dog eat has managed to chew off a chunk to eat.

A good size tree limb is a great chew toy too.....I always got the biggest I could find (go searching around the parks).....the thicker the better....the branches get chewed off into little pieces and the leaves shredded and then the bark ripped off and then the wood chewed. I always went for a wattle or gum limb and I know they are not poisonous. In the end it goes into the green waste bin and the smaller bits into the compost.