Kong Toy

[d.lam311]

I just got my 8 week old labrador puppy Coby last week and have noticed that he doesnt really get into Kong. Like when we put a bit of peanut butter around the edges or a treat into the kong he wouldnt really chew or lick it until we hold it in front of him and when we drop it, he wouldnt continue playing with it. Just looking for new ideas to make it more interesting and exciting for him.

[Stitch]

To a lot of dogs toys are not exciting until you play with the toy with the dog on a regular and continuous basis.

You have to continue to play with the toy and the dog every day.

You can make the kong your toy which you bring out to play with the dog and take away when you are finished.

Dogs don't initially always know what is a toy and what isn't - you have to get their interest by playing with it with them and doing this once or twice sometimes just doesn't get the message across.

If you initiated play with the dog and the toy twice a day for 7 days I am sure you would see a result at the end of this time.

[Red Fox]

Playing with the Kong with your pupis a good idea.

Another thing you can do to make it more fun for him is to make it really easy to start with. Put some dry food in there (his whole meal if you like) and roll it around a bit. The dry will fall out easily so he will only have to nudge it to get a reward. He will work it out eventually.

The other thing you may find is that he might not like peanut butter Like people, dogs have different tastes. My boy isn't at all interested in peanut butter or honey but will go mad for a bit of cheese spread. I found that the Kong puppy paste was good for getting him interested too. I only ever bought one container of it and then moved on to other things (dry food, cheese spread, mince, chicken necks, yogurt etc.) but he LOVED the puppy paste while it lasted and it certainly got him interested! I also had the fresh breath paste (I think it may be chicken flavour?) which he didn't like at all, so again it depends on the tastes of the dog.

Good luck

[persephone]

He's only a baby- he doesn't know about these things yet

Instead of peanut butter- use mince

poke a chicken wing in the kong

Don't expect him to sit & play with it for more than a few minutes tho- he just can't focus for too long

[luffy4688]

Bailey can never focus long on his kong. He'll be at it for a few minutes before he's off exploring something else. It does keep him occupied when he's in the crate and has nothing else to do though. Besides that, like the others have said, all dogs have different taste. Bailey doesn't like peanut butter. I placed some on my finger and put it in front of his nose an he wouldn't even give it a lick.

What really gets him going is an empty plastic/soft drink bottle with the cap, plastic papers removed, then filled with some treats. It keeps him going for ages, he then falls asleep and gets up and start going at it again. Try to use harder plastic bottles as Bailey has just learnt with the softer 1s he can slowly chew through them to get to the treats.

Edited September 7, 2009 by luffy4688

[Kokoro]

I got Winston, my 8 week old Cocker, a puppy Kong too and was a little disappointed that he didn’t take much interest in it; he only seemed to like the soft fluffy toys with squeakers inside. As he got older though (i think it coincided with when his adult teeth started to come through) he came to love the Kong and now it is one of his favorites, he'll chew it for hours even if there is nothing yummy inside and he brings it to you when he wants to play (because of the odd shape they bounce unpredictably and he just loves chasing it).

So I would suggest don't give up on the Kong, just try again when he is a few weeks older. They are great toys. Winston is 6 months now and even though he has all his adult teeth and chews the Kong mercilessly it hasn't got so much as a puncture! None of his other toys have lasted so well and all the soft fluffy ones have been disemboweled and de-squeaked!

[W Sibs]

Charlie doesn't play with the kong either. He likes his stuff toys much better.

[wagsalot]

Dogs like different things.

Riley wasn't keen on his kong as a puppy - he much preferred ropes and balls, however now he loves his Kong.

Riley has a bucket full of toys inside - there will be toys in there that he won't touch for months and months, then suddenly they are his absolute favourite and he plays with them non stop.

Just leave it around and in a few weeks he might start using it.

[black sooty]

Charli didnt think much of her kong when she first got it but instead of feeding her dinner in a bowl sometimes we would put it in her kong toy and she would roll around with it and soon caught on (esp because the pathway to her heart in via her stomach!). We also semi taught her how to play fetch with her kong and gave her a lot of encouragement and reward when she played with a kong. We did that with all her toys and now she barely gives anything other than her toys attention. In fact when she enters the house she has to find one of her toys (many of which are laying about in the house somewhere!) before she will contemplate sitting on her mat. but every dog if different. Charli is also a huge fan of stuff toys and still has the ones from when he was a pup in mint condition. but my friend has a dog whom stuffed toys would like 10 minutes without being ripped a part!