2010-08-20

Food Toys aka Enrichment

I'll be doing my continuing education "talk" at work about Enrichment Toys.  I'm pretty excited, but wanted to get some input on non-store-bought enrichment/food toys that people have used.  We use boxes and paper bags and that's about it.  What else do you use around the house to hide food in and provide enrichment?

Then...
I'll be bringing our Tug A Jug, Kong Genius, Kongs, and the Atomic Treat Ball.  There are so many food toys out there, and I'll bring a list of others, but I'm curious... what is your dog's favorite food toy and what is yours?  Pros and cons of it if you please!

And... kitties!
Our good friend Kristen sent the kitties a Funkitty Twist 'n Treat.  Rascal thinks it's pretty darn awesome, Rasza and I are working on it.  We also have a treat ball and a "fish sticks" treat dispensing toy.  Neither one seems to like the fish sticks toy yet.  I think I need different kibbles for it though.

6 comments:

Crystal (Thompson) Barrera said...

I wrote a whole post on this, ha!

Maisy's favorite is the tug-a-jug. We also have the Nina Ottoson Pyramid and the Bobs-a-lot (both are like the kong wobbler)... Also a buster cube, and a variety of round treat balls.

Laura and The Corgi, Toller, & Duck said...

I really don't use them a whole lot. I'm in a hurry in the morning and I train with dinner most days.

They do love the tricky treat ball and I have a tug of jug but neither one has figured out how to use it.

elegy said...

I don't use them a whole lot with the exception of Kongs, but with Steve on crate rest we've been using more. I have two A-Maze-a-Balls that somebody sent me years ago that have become Steve's mealtime mainstay. I also bought him a Twist-n-treat (Steve's already done significant damage to it), and a Tug-a-Jug, which he's afraid of.

I would like to try a Buster Cube.

Kristen said...

I hate the buster cube! Too noisy! The above mentioned twisttreat thing is very easily destroyed...

I like the ease-of-cleaning for the kibble nibble and tug a jug. I hate the hard to clean ones like the squirrels and the linkables.

The dogs like the linkables. A lot. A VERY much lot. And I like that they're quieter than the other toys.

andrea said...

we have tricky treat balls around - I mostly use them with a small handful of kibble if I go out at a weird time ..

Sam gets part of his breakfast in a blue thing that has a twist off top - he often opens the top instead of shaking the food out but it slows him down - which is my goal with him

Brody eats his breakfast out of a Nina Ottosson Tornado which slows him down enough the other small dogs cna eat in peace

Sally gets her breakfast in a blue foot like thing with lots of slidy doors and a round push thing .. (Sam gets his dinner in the same thing)

i like them as prevent wolfing of food and make them think a little

i used to use kongs quite a lot but Sam is OBSESSED with kongs at the moment - teeth chattering mania actually so we are tyring to wean everybody off kongs ..

Eliz said...

I'm a big fan of kibble dispensing toys. Though Beckett loves his food, not enough to work really hard for it, he is after all a couch potato and one can only ask so much.

His favorite are the ball shaped ones, they are pretty easy to get kibble out of. His favorite are the tricky treat and the atomic ball (the atomic ball is easier to clean and easier to get the kibble out of). We just got the kong wobbler (on sale) and its a hard plastic but also easy to clean its harder for him to pick up and move around (he still prefers the balls).

I do like the linkables but he won't work hard enough to get all the kibble out and they are pain to get the kibble into. However they work pretty well in a crate where the some of the other don't.

Beckett lost interest in his tug a jug and after a couple months we gave it to a food obsessed lab who figured it out in a day or two.

Beckett isn't a chewer though, I'm not sure how these toys hold up with dogs who love to chew.