DOG TOYS AND CAT TOYS WE RECOMMEND

DOG TOYS QUESTIONS:

What are the pitfalls in choosing a toy for my dog?

SO MANY TOYS! SO MANY CHOICES!

In the United States the average household with a dog spends $109 per year on toys and accessories. With $48 million households owning dogs in the US that’s over $5 BILLION dollars per year!

Ask any veterinarian about “foreign body” or “obstructions” of the intestine that they have seen, and they’ll launch into the most amazing (and disgusting) tales of things they have removed, and even sadder, tales of removals done too late to save the dog. The average foreign body removal

According to Quote Purple, a site devoted to gathering insurance claim information, on average, removing a foreign object from a dog can cost anywhere between $1,600 to over $10,000 with surgery. Even without surgery, removing a foreign object can still cost owners between $300 to $1,200. While many of these things are related to things they got into, many are from toys.

What is the best toy size?

If it can fit through a paper towel tube it is too small for your small dog (up to 30#)
If it can fit through a jelly jar opening it is too small for you big dog (think bigger than a tennis ball is good)
And remember that if you have cats, your dog doesn’t know that the tiny little cat toys are not for them.

What is the best toy style?

No toy should be harder than something you can dent with your fingernail. If you cannot, it potentially can break teeth. Red flags can be “durable,” “for heavy chewers”. Not all toys labelled with these are bad, but use the fingernail rule.

Stuffie pitfall #1 – plush toys are a favorite at our house, but KNOW YOUR DOG. If you dog is a shredder, then plush toys need supervision when they are used. Big globs in pillow stuffing can clog the intestines too.
Stuffie pitfall #2 – many toys (particularly cheap toys from foreign countries) have all kinds of different “junk” material inside. Feel it all over – if you feel granules or uneven consistency of contents. Skip it.
Squeakers – dogs love squeakers, it appeals to their prey drive. If you have ever watched a dog kill a squeaker, you know how much satisfaction they get by squeaking that sucker until it’s dead! Now ask an ER vet how they feel about squeakers…and how many they have removed from very sick dogs. Think of a squeaker toy as a toy with a vet visit inside. KNOW YOUR DOG – if she is a toy destroyer, this is a supervision only toy!
Rope toys – If the weave of the rope is remotely loose, take a pass.
“Dental” toys – unless it is approved by the Veterinary Oral Health Council, it’s not a dental toy, it’s just a toy. Make sure it passes the fingernail test.

What purpose do you want the toy to serve?

Active toys:

These are toys for playing with a human or other dog.

Wubba
Chuck it
Please remember that tennis balls scratch the enamel of your dog’s teeth, so use sparingly, if at all!

Brain toys/time toys:

Giving you time to get something done while the dog manages the toy. It should be something that does not have parts to remove and swallow and durable enough to not be destroyed. This means, your dog needs a trial run with every toy before she is left alone with it.

Food cube
Orbee
Frozen Kong with low cal fruit, banana, oats inside
Brain games to purchase
Brain games to DIY

CAT TOYS QUESTIONS:

“My cat doesn’t like to play or exercise…..Why don’t cats play with toys like dogs?”

In the United States the average household with a dog spends $109 per year on toys and accessories. For cats it’s $89 per household and $31 million for a total of $3 billion (yes, with a B) dollars. But so many times I hear from my clients “I try to play with him but gets bored so easily!”

Let’s break that down a bit.

How does prey drive affect how a cat plays?

Let’s think about how a cat in the wild catches food. They lie in wait. They watch. They creep. They have one long fight to kill the prey and then they rest. They likely won’t even eat the prey at the time, but drag it home to the family. So now, let’s translate that to playing – they watch a moving thing (or bat it to make it move), they watch, they wait, they wiggle, they pounce. GOT IT! Maybe he’ll do it once or twice but then he’s done. No, they are not bored, they are not programmed for long play sessions – which means we need to be ready to engage for short spurts multiple times. Toys that wriggle on their own can encourage longer periods of play like:

Why do cats scratch up my furniture?

Scratching is also marking behavior and less about sharpening their claws. Cats play on their scratching surfaces when they feel they “own” them. Cats have scent glands in their feet. Have you ever seen their little sweaty prints on a glass table? They are leaving pheromones behind. So that is why they are scratching your chair instead of that *thing* you brought home from the store – because it SMELLS like you and they want to mark you as THEIRS. (Also the reason that making biscuits on your lap is a huge compliment.)

So I’m just supposed to let him tear up my furniture?

No, but you do need to realize that they need to have something to scratch and mark up that is front a center in a room where you spend the most time. Cat scratchers should look USED! If you’re worried about company seeing it, then put it away when company comes. That shredded mess is just the way they like it!

Cats also have surface preferences that vary between cats – some like vertical surfaces and others like horizontal surfaces. Some like cardboard, some like carpet, some like wood so offer them all until you know what your kitty likes and then look for variety in that substrate. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Here are some options to start while you find out what your kitty likes.

Make the right scratching place desirable and the wrong scratching place undesirable

The places that you want to discourage, you can use tin foil or double sided sticky tape to make it a surface they don’t like. Put cat nip, Feliway (cat pheromones) or their food near what you want to scratch.

Hiding places are essential to cat health and weight management

How can giving them a place to be still, also be helpful for exercise!? Perching is a comfort for cats. The more elevated hiding and sleeping places they have the better. Particularly if they are low in your house hierarchy. The cat under the bed is not in charge, he is hiding! The cat in the tube at the top of the cat tree is content, surveying his kingdom and able to rest comfortably.

But my cat sleeps all the time!

Indeed, even wild cats like lions, spend about 18 hours a day sleeping and 3 hours grooming. This is healthy cat behavior. Content housecats should do this too. But if something in the household interrupts that, we see different forms of rest. “Loaf” resting – all 4 feet tucked under them – is not true resting. This is dozing while watching the surroundings. Lying in the middle of the bed sprawled out and sacked out is resting.

Some DIY ideas:

Wand toy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5BwKAUIZpg

Cardboard cat scratcher: https://www.shelterness.com/simple-cardboard-diy-catscraper/

Cardboard tree stump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB-H85ncan4

Tent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPlrvDF7-oU

PET TOYS