Bored Dogs

In addition to many you posted, my dogs love:

Busy Buddy Squirrel Dude

Treatstik

Canine Genius Mike and Leo

Busy Buddy Kibble Nibble

On their Christmas list is a Tricky Treat Ball - a big orange rubber treatball.

Check Petsmart for Dr. Noys stuffies with replaceable squeakers.  I take the sqeakies out and it leaves a nice furry toy with an open middle that closes with velcro.  They're perfect for training in agility when you have a low toy motivation dog or you don't want to carry a treat bag. :)

 These are all good but to be honest Bugsy does them so quickly it doesn't really accomplish much.

I would love to try the Nina Ottosan puzzles, may be I can find one that is discounted - it might be good for now when we are trying to use his mind to keep him calm

 Sunday, I had an hour between class and play group, because I don't have a new class starting in that time slot till next week.  So, I took out the Tug a Jug and gave it to Sequoyah.  OMG, she was so tired by the time play group came that she just sat beside me panting for the first 15 minutes:-)  She played with that thing for the whole hour!

 The trouble I have with Rascal and interactive toys is twofold - 1) he's not at ALL "drivey," and if he deems something is too "hard," he just sits and cries and expects someone to solve him for it (not that I ever do); 2) see #1, he's not super food-motivated, so if it takes too much effort to get the food out, he just won't bother. but if it's too easy, of course, he just gobbles it up immediately and there's no interactive component.

We tried a hide-a-squirrel but he hasn't too keen on the "hiding" part. He never did decide that it was fun/acceptable to pull the squirrels out of their stump.

His twist-and-treat has moderate success in that it's not too hard, but he usually finished it off after less than 10 minutes.

Tug a jug and anything similar are too "scary" to be fun (he's not a big fan of hard, solid objects, or anything that makes a loud noise). He does, however, like to destroy stuffed squeaky toys.

Any particular toy suggestions for us?

 Kivi is a bit like Rascal. He found the Tug-a-jug a bit too difficult. He'll play with it for a while, but he gives up on it quickly. I got him an egg baby toy, and he loves the eggs way more than the turtle, but he expects me to help him get the eggs out. His motivation is not high enough to work on it on his own. He likes any soft toy and is satisfied just carrying the whole thing around in his mouth.

I think I'm going to teach him to hold things for me. He loves holding things, but last time I tried to teach him to do it on command I went backwards because he was so interested in the treats that he kept spitting the toy out quickly so he could eat them. Any suggestions?

Courtney, Schatzi is a lot like Rascal.  She would sell her soul for food of any kind, but she hates hard plastic & she refuses to touch it.  Instead she barks & whines at it.   I've had good luck with the extreme treat ball, and with this little contraption for her. 

One of our local shops had this on sale, so I bought it for Bevo.  If you have a destructive dog, don't waste your money.  He destroyed it during it's first use.

Mel, I use a bridge word to keep them holding on when I am teaching a hold.  It's usually simple like a repetitve hold it, hold it, hold it, then I when I mark it with the clicker, they drop it & the behavior is over.  As they learn what I want, I use my bridge word less frequently & eventually phase it out ccompletely.

 Ena Bean likes both of the "soft dog" treat toys that Amanda pointed out. She also will not touch hard plastic. Emma smacked herself in the head with her Tug A Jug, and never played with it, again, LOL.

Mine also really enjoy a soda bottle, with some kibble in it. Cheap toys, good for destroying and not costing a zillion dollars. Emma (who will be six tomorrow) is still fairly destructive, and really likes to tear stuff up. It helps, that I give her stuff she CAN tear up. 

Im glad you started this thread cause ive been looking for a toy for Bailey to keep him busy while im at school. I was thinking about getting a buster cube for him. I really like that dog pyramid thing, it looks pretty tough which is good cause Bailey loves to wack his toys around with his feet. I watched videos on youtube of dogs playing with the buster cube and the pyramid, and it seems like they get the treats out so easliy. If i filled it before i left for school it looks like he could have all the treats out within 10 minutes, which really defeats the purpose of getting him a toy to keep him busy. Anyone know any treat-dispensing toys that last a while? even if it only lasted an hour or 2 would be fine. 

Emma smacked herself in the head with her Tug A Jug, and never played with it, again, LOL.

Yeah, that is a toy for a really driven dog - you know, the kind who crashes into trash barrels flying after her f-r-i-s-b-e-e and doesn't even blink.  Put it this way, I tried to get Sioux interested in some of the Sequoyah-type toys, and she just looked at me as if to say, "Um, are we going to play the training game where you hand me liver treats, or are you just going to stand around with me all afternoon looking at boring plastic???"  Every dog is different.  Mine hate the toys that make noises like "clackety clack."  Those green and yellow balls send them packing.  Sequoyah STILL likes a good plastic bottle to herd, but I never leave her alone with one;-)  She herds them and sometimes *kills* them.

 LOL, Emma smacked into a tree, after a f-r-i-s-b-e-e, full speed, and as soon as she was able to stand again, wanted to know where it was. She's just a HUGE toy shaker, and I'm thinking that being smacked in the head, repeatedly, with that hard jug hurts. I know it hurt, the one time it hit me in the shin!

That was years ago, though, when they had actual ropes in them. 

 Chelsea Bugsy is a destroyer extraordinaire but the everlasting fun ball and the large orbee globe ball are still intact I put things in there that don't fit the holes, it can be a pain 'loading' them but he has to work to get them out.  To be honest I don't know how he gets some of the stuff out of the large everlasting fun ball.  My guess is those would work for you and how long it takes to get things out will depend on what you put in AND practice makes perfect LOL

B has gotten more proficient at removing everything from them but at times he can still be heard whining while trying to get stuff from the everlasting fun ball - makes me laugh.  The first time I put something in there I did it because I was sure he couldn't get it out - laugh's on me - but it did take a while

The tug-a-jug is way too dangerous for a large excitable dog - just ask Amanda

Oh dear lord, a tug-a-jug is the perfect size/weight/hardness to smash a window with ease!  If the smashed window wasn't bad enough, my smarta$$ dog went to the window & started barking because his new toy was in the yard.  For us, the tug-a-jug is an outside, away from the house, toy!  Recently, Bevo has figured out how to unscrew the bottom, so it's a pretty pointless toy for him.  It does work well for some of our other dogs though.

I think that the one toy that Bevo can't destroy is the everlasting fun ball.  He crunches & crunches on it & it looks no worse for wear.