What Dog Toys to Buy For Your New Dog – 8 Tips

What Dog Toys to Buy For Your New Dog 8 Tips

You’re about to adopt a new dog. what about dog toys?

What Dog Toys to Buy For Your New Dog - 8 Tips

Dog toys.  You’re about to adopt a new dog. What do you do? What do you get? Obviously you need to get the basic things like food and a leash and a collar, but what about toys? There are a ton of different kinds out there, which one is the best for your dog? Consider the following eight tips when shopping for dog toys.

 

1. Dog Toys for Your Dog’s Breed

 

This may seem like a mute point, but dog breed can help determine what kind of toy your dog might like, or should have. It is important to take jaw strength into account when giving a young dog a toy. If you have adopted a dog whose breed typically has a strong jaw, you may not want to encourage your new dog to develop those muscles. Take a pit bull for example. You most likely do not want your new pit bull to chew on something hard, like a bone, and develop those jaw muscles. You want your dog to have a gentle bite. Remember, if your dog were to attack someone, you are held liable and your dog could, in extreme circumstances, be put down. Just because pit bulls have been bred to have a strong bite and be aggressive, does not mean that your pit bull has to be so. You can train your strong jawed dog to have a gentle bite. You do that by giving her toys that don’t encourage her to bite hard.

What Dog Toys to Buy For Your New Dog - 8 Tips

2. What do you want your dog to do with their dog toys?

Maybe you adopted your dog for a specific reason. Maybe you want your dog to be a Search and Rescue dog, or a hunting dog. Giving your dog toys that encourage those disciplines from a young age will help her train in the long run. If you want to train your dog to catch Frisbees, you want to get your dog a Frisbee at a young age. It is good to note however, that plastic Frisbees can damage dog’s jaws and mouths. If you want to train your dog to catch Frisbees, get her a soft Frisbee that is made for dogs. While these Frisbees are more expensive than traditional plastic Frisbees, they will protect your dog from teeth, gum, tongue and mouth injuries.

3. Regular dog toys

You have no specific training you want to do with your dog, and your dog doesn’t have a disposition for a strong jaw, she is, for all you know, a normal, regular dog. What kind of dog toys should you get her?

It is best to get a smattering of toys for your new dog. You want to expose her to different types of dog toys to find out what kind she likes the best. When I say different kinds, I mean toys that have different textures, and purposes.

4. Rubber dog toys

Get your new dog a rubber toy. Some dogs love the feel of chewing rubber (I know that sounds horrible, but we aren’t dogs). There are many options out there. One benefit to rubber toys is that they can, passively, clean dog’s teeth when they chew on them.

What Dog Toys to Buy For Your New Dog - 8 Tips

5. Bones

Everyone knows that dogs like bones. Some vets advise waiting to get your dog a bone until their adult teeth grow in. You should also be aware that bovine (cow) bones shatter. You need to watch your dog when she chews a cow bone to make sure that she doesn’t swallow any sharp pieces of the bone. One way to avoid this problem is to buy you dog a bison bone. Bison bones, while harder to find, do not shatter, and your dog can chew on them without the worry of potentially swallowing a small sharp piece.

6. Stuffed animals dog toys

Some dogs like to chew on stuffed toys. One thing that is not great about stuffed animal chew toys is the fact that chewing on a stuffed toy feels a lot like chewing a pillow, or a child’s favorite stuffed animal. Your dog may have a stuffed toy that she can chew on, but she may not be able to distinguish the difference between chewing that and your son’s favorite stuffed rabbit.

What Dog Toys to Buy For Your New Dog - 8 Tips

7. Tennis balls

Tennis balls are cheap toys. You can throw them, lose them, break them, and you aren’t out that much money. One thing to be aware of with tennis balls is that some larger dogs (100 pound + dogs) can accidently swallow normal sized tennis balls. If your large dog likes tennis balls, there are dog toy companies that make large tennis balls which cannot be accidentally swallowed.

What Dog Toys to Buy For Your New Dog - 8 Tips

 

8. Tug dog toys

 

Tug is a game which is best played with small dogs. If you have a large dog, you do not want to encourage her to play tug. The reason being is that you do not want her to tug on something you are trying to take from her when you are not playing with her. She can hurt you, albeit accidentally, if she things you are playing tug when you are not.