The Classic Kong
The Classic Kong is a stuffable, freezable dog toy that will turn meal time into a half hour long highly enjoyable experience for your puppy. We recommend using pumpkin, plain greek yogurt, or peanut butter mixed with your dog's kibble and then stuffing and freezing the kong. Because they're frozen, they stay good for a lot longer than your typical treats. It's great as a meal replacement or as a special treat. Depending on the size you get and the mixture you use, you can even use this to feed your puppy their meals everyday. If you do plan on using this daily, we recommend going with the pumpkin mixture since its a super food for dogs. When going with a peanut butter filling, you'll want to use this as a very high value treat since it's higher in fat content and not at nutritious, although your dog is sure to LOVE it!
The Kong Wobbler
The Kong Wobbler is great for many reasons the first of which is it's convenience. You can simply scoop your puppy's meal from their food container straight into the wobbler and you've now turned meal time into an activity that can last from 15 to 45 minutes depending on your dog's skill level and meal size. This is a food dispensing toy that can be used as frequently as you'd like. It's always better to use your pet's meal as something that can be a game or interactive rather than just given in a boring old bowl. Mainly because using their mind to figure out how to get their meal is mental stimulation for them which is essential to healthy puppy development.
Marrow Bones
Marrow bones are going to be your best friend once your puppy starts teething! They're great for helping to push the new adult teeth threw the gum line and they're also great for redirecting unwanted chewing. For example, if your puppy starts chewing on your coffee table thats a good time to redirect them to a marrow bone instead. This is going to be helpful for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you're avoiding them developing a bad behavior like chewing of furniture. But you're also giving them a positive alternative for that chewing behavior which is going to naturally happen during teething regardless, so it's best if it's happening with something like a bone.
The IQ Treat Ball
The IQ Treat Ball is similar to the Kong Wobbler. It's a wonderfully convenient way to feed a full meal to your dog. During puppy training we highly recommend these types of toys because they have so many benefits and can make a huge difference in your puppy's training. Giving your puppy a puzzle to solve is helping them develop their problem solving skills. But the main reason these toys are the best is because your combining mental stimulation and physical exercise while feeding your meal. As your puppy tries to solve the puzzle, they're pushing the ball around and getting physical exercise in the process. This is a big win for new puppy owners because it helps to tire out your puppy and you only have to fill it with the meal you would have been giving anyway.
Puzzle Toys
Last but not least, we suggest getting lots of puzzle toys like the one shown above! This is a different type of puzzle for your dog to solve where they stay stationary and have to move the puzzle pieces around with their nose and paws. This is another perfect way to turn meal time into play time by simply pouring your puppies food into a game toy. These toys are designed to make sure pup use their problem solving abilities to figure out how to get to the food. Unlike the ones that keep your pup moving, these ones can keep them stationary while happily entertained, making them an amazing choice for crate or pen time. With our Dog Training in Denver we go over all the benefits to providing your dog with plenty of these types of toys.
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