Any penny-pinching pet tips?

If you do have to get a collar/leash fix - see if there is an Old Navy Outlet nearby. I do like to get Lucy seasonal/cute collars every once in a while but I HATE spending much money on them. The Old Navy at the Outlet mall near me often has pet toys and collars/leases/clothes REALLY cheap. I got Lucy a 4th of July leash for $3 and collar for $2 and matching rope bones and vinyl toys were only 99¢. They usually mark them down dramatically the week of a holiday and REALLY mark them down after a holiday.

i noticed someone buying poop bags... why not just use the bags you get from grocery shopping?  i know they're not biodegradeable but otherwise someone else will just throw them out.... and, if you're like me and you have a few canvas bags for groceries that you re-use, usually neighbors don't mind donating their bags.  or if you buy a single item, you can double bag it[].  walmart can certainly afford to help us pick up our poop.

 
I buy poop bags, TONS of them!  You figure, I use at least 3/day, so that's 21/week, 84/month, and so on..  Oh, and my groceries come in boxes, so no re-usable bags there.  I do re-use my drug store plastic bags, they go over the door handle in the bathroom and become garbage bags!  
 
For people who need to buy them and are looking for ways to cut costs, this is what I've done in the past:  In the grocery store, the big roll of plastic bags in the produce department - the ones  for bagging your fresh fruit and veggies.  These are the perfect poop bags, especially if you have a large dog.  Take the whole thing to the checkout with the rest of your groceries and tell them you'd like to buy it.  Every time I've done this, they've just given it to me and laughed when I told them what it was for.  I did that for years.  Now, I spend some $$ on bags because it's important to me that they be truly biodegradable.

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

wow, if I had to pick up every poop every day I'd get one of those metal poop scoopers instead of buying an endless number of bags.

 
  I guess I could strap one to my back like a bow and arrow and walk around the city like the Robin Hood of dog poop!

We simply don't buy toys that don't last anymore. Stuffies, forget it, not cost-effective. We have Orbee balls and bones (indestructible), those rubber cow tube tugs (indestructible), soft bite frisbees (not indestructible, but last three or four months), a Wubbawubba (so far indestructible) and an assortment of close to indestructible food-delivering toys (kongs, busy buddy, busy ball).
To satisfy the destructive instincts, we use things were were going to throw away anyway-- plastic soda bottles, bird seed bags, bubble wrap, newspapers, magazines. A few minutes of frenzied shredding of a magazine is just as fun as shredding a stuffie and costs nothing extra.

 
We do the same, although I have yet to find any toy that is indestructable for Slick.  He can have an Orbee bone in a pile of bits in about 20 minutes.  Plastic bottles are a big favorite for him as are cardboard toilet rolls and kitchen towel rolls.

Thanks, no more cooking bones. Actually, I used to give them raw but then
I thought it might be better to cook the marrow so now I won;t anymore!

those rubber cow tube tugs (indestructible)

Where do you get those from? That's something I'd like to try. I've been looking for a good tug toy (ya know, that doesn't break at the bite and weight of a 17 pound dog) for rewarding Emma, while we're out and about. Her leash is taking some damage[]

I refuse to add up what  spend...theres just no point! LOL, I did once and immediately burned it before my husband saw it.
Preventative care goes a long way. Thrift stores and garage sales are great for the destructable toys. Witt would be my cheapo boy given that his favorite toys are a stainless steel bowl, a bowling ball and a laser pen. Dooley is thrilled with a squeeker tennis ball. Annie is happy with a balled up piece of paper or a two litre bottle.
I think time spent paying attention to them will always be favored over a $10 toy.
 

those rubber cow tube tugs (indestructible)


Where do you get those from? That's something I'd like to try. I've been looking for a good tug toy (ya know, that doesn't break at the bite and weight of a 17 pound dog) for rewarding Emma, while we're out and about. Her leash is taking some damage

You mean the inflations for milking machines? I've heard those make awesome dog toys! I'll have to see if there's a nearby farm store that sells milking supplies or look online.

in regard to raw bones: can anyone suggest the most durable?  i had some knuckle bones that tek chewed through in about 10 minutes and then had the runs *yuk city*.   and i'm interested in the "cow tug" too.. rosie is a BIG time tugger (you know the type who will actually HANG from a rope for hours?) and she destroys everything that is designed for tugging.

For long lasting bones that you can restuff with other things once the marrow is gone, get the shank bones, they just look like cylanders filled with marrow. Scoop most of the marrow out (it can give dogs the runs just cuz it's so rich) and you can use that marrow to make all sorts of other things (put it in your kong filling, mix it with a little peanut butter and spread on the insides of the hollowed out bones, mix it in with any liver cake you may be making). I'm pretty much drowning in those bones here at this time. They're all over the house. I get rid of them once they start to look brittle of if I see any cracks in them, but they usually last several weeks of filling and refilling with random stuff.

ORIGINAL: badrap
and i'm interested in the "cow tug" too.. rosie is a BIG time tugger (you know the type who will actually HANG from a rope for hours?) and she destroys everything that is designed for tugging.

 
I think this is the link you're looking for [linkhttp://www.helpingudders.com/]http://www.helpingudders.com/[/link]

yeah, helpingudders is the cow tube place. They donate part of the price to rescue, too.

We get good quality dog toys off of ebay. Mostly chew stuff like Orkas, or any thing thats expensive in the stores.

So, it turns out that a little bit of doggy toothpaste rubbed on a rag, tied into a knot, is great entertainment. Lots of licking, chewing, and maneuvering to get at the toothpaste in the middle of the knot!