Making the most of your puppy's toybox

Adem Fehmi from Dog-ease joins us for part two in his Puppy Training video series, which focuses on how play can be about more than just having fun. “We all love playing with our dogs,” says Adem, “but we must make sure that we use our toybox constructively.” By selecting certain toys from the toybox, we can enrich our dog’s day mentally and physically whilst also having fun! To get the most out of playing with your pup, Adem recommends you use toys from three main groups: exploring, food, and chase.

Explore toys are really important to help your puppy learn new things; these toys can be made of different materials, have different textures, or make noises. The aim of playing with these sorts of toys is to enrich your puppy’s life and get them used to a wide variety of stimuli.

There are loads of different types of food dispensing toys. These are great for using with puppies, especially to reduce behaviours such as mouthing and combat boredom. There are so many different shapes and sizes of food dispensing toys, it is easy to find one to suit your breed.

As Adem explains, chase toys are used best when dogs “mentally mature and hunting becomes a more prominent behaviour.” These toys are good for all dogs but are especially good for enriching the lives of working breeds such as cocker spaniels and collies.

When you next play with your puppy, take a moment to think about the toys you are playing with. Be sure to use toys from all three categories to keep your puppy’s mind as active as their bodies. Remember, there is a lot of potential in your puppy’s toybox!

By Helena Young, DogFest Team

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