Dog Toys

I have become somewhat of an expert on dog toys.  This has been a direct byproduct of becoming the mother of a Border Collie puppy.  It turns out Trudy is conducting a research project into what constitutes a rugged toy.  I am her research assistant and product procurement director.

She started off like a normal puppy, which is to say she loved to play with toys, especially the plush kinds with little squeakers inside.  We had bunches of these because this is the kind our Westie prefers. Trudy was perfectly content to squeak the little toys, chase after them, and wrestle her older brother for them.

Toys she has destroyed

The kinds of toys she did not favor when she was a wee baby were the chew toys.  This was tragic because she had needle sharp teeth and liked to use them on my arms.  All the dog books say 'Don't let your puppy develop the habit of playing with you with their teeth' but they never exactly explain how to accomplish this.  I would say "No Bite!" as she would sink her little daggers into me and she would pause for just a second before taking another hold.  I would put a toy into her mouth to replace my arm and she would spit the toy out as quickly as possible so she could, once again, latch onto my arm.  I would leave the room when she nashed into me and, although she wouldn't like that I left, it never changed how she dealt with me.  Fixed within her little brain was the absolute conviction that her teeth were meant to be on my arm.  With tremendous persistence I got her to nibble on me less and with less intensity, but she continued to consider me her pacifier.

Trudy's favorite toy.

When she was about six months old, her play with toys changed.  No longer could she tolerate any toy that had any stuffing inside. Her primary objective when she got hold of a toy was to create a hole through which she could completely eviscerate the interior.  To the dismay of our Westie she quickly went through all the old toys.  For a while I would restuff the toys with old socks but she soon became so adept at removing the inside of toys, the socks would only remain for about three seconds.  As a cost saving measure I began to make sock toys for her.  These could be socks stuffed inside other socks or socks stuffed with an empty water bottle.  I even put a penny into a empty vitamin bottle and stuffed that into some socks.  These worked great for a time.

At about seven months Trudy began to use a 'skin the prey' method on these previously sturdy sock toys. She would stand on one end of the toy and, with extreme effort, would pull a strip of fabric from the sock revealing the layer beneath. She would do this with the next layer and the next until she got to the water bottle or the vitamin bottle.  Then she would destroy these as well.

I began a relentless pursuit that I continue to this day.  My pursuit is a search for a toy that will stand up to her for greater than three days. So far, she has gone through rope toys in a single day and rubber toys touted as 'for extreme chewers' in about three days. I scour pet stores in search of the ultimate toy.   I am amazed at the vast array of choices. I am also appalled at the vast amounts of money they want for these toys.  High price does not guarantee the toy will last more than an hour with her. I might as well just roll up a wad of bills and toss it to her because, in the long run, it would be cheaper and last just about the same amount of time.

Of course that would teach her that money was something to destroy. We have already paid the price for making toys out of old socks. Now every sock in the house is in danger of becoming one of her toys. She is quite creative and will make chew toys out of found objects in the yard. She finds limbs quite delightful and will demolish them. She also likes to chew on rocks, especially petrified wood. While she is chewing on something, a look of extreme relaxation comes over her. Chewing seems to be Border Collie Zen.