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Cheap & Easy DIY Dog Treat Toy: the Gift Bag Edition

Cheap & Easy DIY Dog Treat Toy: the Gift Bag Edition

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The puggle really is too smart for his own good.

I mean, really, you guy, I do my best to keep that machiavellian mind of his busy, but he doesn’t make it easy. Most of the year, I’m lucky, his beagle-genes mean he’s happiest following his nose, so all he really needs to keep from going off the deep end is frequent walks in new locations with lots of smells and the freedom to track them.

It’s been snowing at Casa de Kolchak

I honestly don’t know why. We live in Vancouver because we are not equipped in any way to handle the snow, so it seems particularly cruel that we have had multiple snow storms over the last month. The problem with the snow is that Kolchak hates it. He hates it so much that he doesn’t want to be out there. How do I keep him from going mental if he can’t smell things?! It’s been a real long month at our house and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better. We got 5″ of snow this weekend and they’re calling for another storm this weekend. Thanks a heap, Mother Nature. I’ve kind of had enough of your crap.

Puzzles are expensive, yo!

We are huge advocates of puzzle games. We have a bunch of different ones and they’re our go to when we need to stay busy indoors. The trouble with puzzles is that Kol solves them SO DARN FAST. For Christmas, the Daddy got the boys a new Nina Ottosan puzzle: The Dog Brick (affiliate link) It’s a level 2 puzzle, so I didn’t expect it to take all day to solve, but even I wasn’t prepared for how quickly Kolchak solved that sucker. 

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30 seconds. Not even half a minute, if we’re being honest.

 He is a menace. I’m pretty sure he’s onto the whole “Ottosan-system”. He was like “oh, you knock the bones out and slide here. Perfect.” And I’m just like “That was a $50 puzzle, you jerk.” 

Fast forward a few hours and he’s rooting around in a leftover Christmas gift bag for 25 minutes looking for a single kibble and it was like a lightbulb went on above my head.

Money spent on puzzles is not equal to the degree of difficulty.

 For $2 + treats, I’ve got one of the best puzzles we’ve found: a gift bag filled with tissue paper.

gift-bag-dog-toy-pin

Here’s what you need:

  • A gift bag appropriate to your dog’s size (You want it to be big enough to get their snout in and not small enough that it will get stuck on their head)
  • Tissue paper
  • Treats

Step 1: Open gift bag
Step 2: Make “cones” of tissue paper and stuff the bottom of the bag

How to make the cones:
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Grab a piece of tissue by the center and use your other hand to smooth it up into a cone.

Step 3: Toss a handful of treats over the cones.
Step 4: Add another layer of tissue cones
Step 5: Scatter treats over the top layer of cones
Step 6: Stuff with more cones until bag is full.

Safety first, dog lovers.

File this under things I shouldn’t have to stay, but holy woof are there some real IDIOTS out there, so I have to say it so I don’t get my butt sued: this definitely isn’t a great toy for dogs that like to eat paper and that I would only give it to my pets when I could supervise them. YOU KNOW YOUR DOG BETTER THAN I DO. Use good judgement folks. USE IT.

Kol was so happy to play this game and since the treats got all mixed into the folds of the paper, it took quite some time to find all the bits and bobs. 

Have you ever made a DIY Dog Puzzle? We’d love to hear about it!

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Veky

Saturday 13th of October 2018

My Toby absolutely needs supervision since he loves eating paper. But such a great idea, I will definitely try it out!

Monika

Thursday 2nd of November 2017

Sometimes the most simple and cheap toys really are the best :) I love this idea, I'll try it out :)

Beth

Wednesday 18th of January 2017

I love your disclaimer! What a great idea. Nelly eats paper, but this would be perfect for Sophie. I made a puzzle toy out of 2 liter bottles and a nesting box which all my pets like.

Emma

Saturday 14th of January 2017

It's kind of the same concept as our treat pillow where Mom buries the treats in the fluffy fleece piece and we sniff them out. Loads of fun!

Felix

Saturday 14th of January 2017

Ohhhhh that's a great one too! It wouldn't work for my sister's Lu because he thinks fluffing is a great snack, but I bet Koly would love it. I'll have to try that!

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