Daisy has a ridiculous amount of dog toys. No, really – it’s actually ridiculous. I’ve had to separate her toys into 3 categories: 1) Daisy’s Favourites, 2) My Favourites (aka too pretty to be a real toy), and 3) Everything Else, which has since been shipped off to my mother’s house so Daisy even has toys there!
What makes this even more ridiculous is that Daisy’s favourites can easily be summed down to only 5 dog toys! These top 5 dog toys are what I’ll be sharing with you today as my first post since this blog’s rebranding.
1. Balls, balls, and MORE BALLS!
Have you watched Secret Life of Pets 2? Remember that scene where Max asks Gidget to watch over his Busy Bee dog toy? And she continues for the rest of the movie to guard that toy with her life, like it’s their baby? Well, that’s Daisy and her Busy Ball!
But yes, Daisy’s #1 toy is definitely balls and she loves them in all colours, shapes, and sizes (get that head out of the gutter, you!). She’s actually pretty obsessed with them – she can detect a ball in the room within minutes and you can bet she won’t give up until she gets her paws on it.
Her absolute favourites though are the smaller tennis balls – especially the smaller Kong one as you can tell by how disgusting it now looks hahaha. She also loves her small Chuck-It ball, but at the time of this photo we had lost them all. We mainly use the Chuck-It balls for outdoors because we can easily wash it and detect it in the grass or mud. It would also be a better option for a dog that likes to chew on or pull the fuzz off of tennis balls.
2. Omega Tricky Treat Ball (Large)
Daisy loves this dog toy so much that if you ask her if she wants a “Tricky Treat Ball“, she’ll know EXACTLY what you’re talking about and her answer is always YES!
It’s a pretty simple puzzle game for dogs and is one of the 1st toys we got her (the classic Kong was another one, but we rarely use it). Just throw in some treats (we like dried beef liver) and Daisy will roll the ball around until treats come out – like I said, a really simple puzzle game.
Puzzle games are great for dogs and if you don’t already have one, I wouldn’t say it’s necessary but I’d highly encourage it. It’s a great way to stimulate and exercise their mind, encouraging them to use their senses and essentially problem-solve. Plus, it’s a great way to tire them out if they’re high energy or if you just need to actually W when WFH.
There are a bunch of other great puzzle toys out there of various difficulties too; Outward Hound makes a bunch and if you’re looking for something less advanced, you could always buy or DIY a snuffle mat.
3. Stuffed Unicorns, Llamas, Elephants, or any Animal in a Similar Shape
Now here’s the tricky part because Daisy’s not into just any stuffed animal – she’s always drawn towards ones with all 4 legs on the ground, like a horse, llama, elephant, etc. She’s not into 2-legged stuffed animals oddly, like squirrels – not her jam.
This is totally just a Daisy quirk though and is certainly not indicative of preferences for all dogs, so just get whatever your dog is into so long as it’s safe – that’s all that really matters after all.
4. Burrow Dog Toys
This is another puzzle toy actually, and there are so many cute variations out there. The idea is to stuff the burrow with all the little stuffed animals for your pup to dig and pull out – we change this up a bit by adding a small ball or two into the burrow with the toys for Daisy to search for the “chosen” ball inside.
Zippy Paws make so many cute ones (hedge hogs pictured above) and so does Outward Hound (squirrels pictured above). They’re sold in a number of different pet stores and are often on sale in places like Winners or Homesense.
5. No-Stuffing Crinkle Dog Toys
As the title says, these toys don’t have any stuffing in them, so if your dog really likes to destroy their stuffed animals and you worry about them eating the stuffing, these would be a great alternative. These no-stuffing toys also tend to have this material inside that makes crinkly, paper-like noises when moved around, so it’s a fun and different noise that’s interesting for them.
Daisy likes playing tug-o-war with these and likes to whip them around because of the crinkly noises it makes. There are a few brands who make these, but like the burrow toys – you can probably find them on sale at someplace like Winners or Homesense.
Well, that’s a wrap on Daisy’s Top 5 Toys! If you want to read more of Daisy’s other Top 5s, let me know what you’d like to see in the comments below. Until next time, my friends 🙂
