Today’s tip isn’t just super simple…it’s super cheap.
Do you have an old football (or other firm but inflatable ball) around the house? We had a miniature football…not the hard plastic kind but one of the inflatable ones. We’d purchased it for the dogs at a thrift store…and they showed zero interest in it.
So we poked holes in it.
Using a sharp pocketknife, John cut two, nickel-sized holes in the football. (The first one is easiest to cut; once the air’s out of the football, it gets a little trickier. Be careful!)
NOTE: It’s very important to cut at least two holes in the football, not just one! Your dog’s tongue can be suctioned to the football and injured if you just cut one hole so for safety’s sake but sure to cut at least two holes. As with any dog toy, always supervise your dog when he has it then pick it up when play is over.
When you cut the piece out of the football, check the inside of the ball (just look at the back of the piece) and make sure the football interior looks clean (and give it a sniff to make sure you don’t smell anything chemical).
We soon learned that the holes in the football were too small for anything but cat kibble (which the dogs would have loved) so we enlarged the holes using kitchen scissors so we could put dog kibble inside. Soon the game was on:
The dogs quickly learned to roll the football with their noses, waiting for pieces of kibble to drop out. They played non-stop until the handful of kibble was gone.
Then Irie took the football back to the couch for a nap. The toy was a definite success!
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