Dog ownership is warm and wonderful and rewarding – but it comes with a responsibility to keep your best friend happy and healthy. And along with a healthy diet and lots of love – exercise and stimulation are part of that equation. A few great dog toys go a long way in achieving happy apartment living for you and your dog.
Enjoy this selection of suggestions to keep your pup sated during the times he or she is home alone, or even when you’re around, but just too busy to play tug-of-war.
Gamble With This One!
The Nina Ottoson DogCasino Interactive Game is a quiet option. Place treats inside its little compartments and when Fido figures out how to open them, he gets a treat. Once he does figure that out, make it harder by locking the drawers. This leveled-up version will likely take him a while to master. Probably best to use this when you’re home, though. Once those keys are removed, your pup may take it upon himself to chew them up.
Hot Tip: If you live on the ground floor or have a tiny dog, your toy box options are a little more flexible in that there won’t be a lot of thumping going on to potentially disturb neighbors on the lower floors.
Road Kill You Can Keep
Dogs love stuffed animals, including un-stuffing them. Dogs who live with kids typically learn, more or less, which animals are theirs and which are off-limits. But a dog’s love of disemboweling even his own toys is, at best, disturbing, and at worst, really, really messy.
Related: Should you hire a dog walker?
Skinneez Stuffing-Free Dog Toys are an ideal solution. These smashed-flat plushies have double the squeak and none of the stuffing, and are wonderfully floppy, thereby satisfying his predatory predilection for “shaking it dead.” Around our apartment, we just call them “carcasses.” The dog calls them fun. Win-win.
There’s An App for That
Have screen protector, will play! Aside from the potential scratching of your tablet (you might consider a pedi along with that screen protector) there are a host of entertaining games for your pooch, whether iPad or Android. Games for Dogs lets them chase digital squirrels and virtual insects, while iSqueek turns your pup’s favorite toy digital with a range of noises to satisfy.
Not only are these games entertaining for Rover, watching them play is pretty hilarious. One thing to consider, though, is your dog’s weight and strength. Little pups are no problem, but the big guys might just crack your screen.
Hot Tip: There are lots of dog-friendly apartments out there, but the dog-friendliest will have its very own walking or nature trails, or even a fenced, purpose-built dog park. These areas a great way to meet like-minded neighbors and their pets (with whom you can even plan doggie playdates at the “bark park!”).
