Auggie plays with Kyjen Paw Hide puzzle

I bought two of the Kyjen puzzles for Auggie for Christmas. It's winter, there's tons of snow on the ground, and we're both bored stupid... so I loaded this one up for him to play with for dinner. This is the Paw Hide:
http://www.kyjen.com/shop/index.php/new-featured/dog-games-puzzle-toys/paw-hi...

The video is sped up to 200% so what you see in five minutes took ten minutes in real time. This is the first time he has played with this toy. My initial thoughts are:
1) If he could manage to get it in a corner, he could flip the whole thing upside down and just dump it. This is why at one point you see me move it back to the middle of the floor... I was afraid he was going to flip it and the game would be over rather quickly.

2) It seems like the cups are almost just a hair too big for his mouth. He struggles to get his mouth around them - but that just makes it a bit more challenging. For a larger dog with a bigger mouth, it would probably make it easier to pick them up. I knew when I opened the package and pulled the toy out that it was much larger than I expected it to be, but I didn't think it would be a big problem. Auggie is 14 inches at the shoulder and weighs 15 pounds and I think if he were much smaller, it would be REALLY hard, so I think this is a toy for medium and large sized dogs. If your dog needs smaller than a regulation sized tennis ball, skip this toy.

3) The cups are light and kind of flimsy. After he removed them, I had to take them away, because I was worried he would break them if he continued to mouth at them. I don't think they would hold up to a dog who really wanted to take a nice chomp on them. They may not last very long as it is, and Auggie isn't what I would call a strong chewer.

Those are my thoughts after letting him play with it once. I'll try it a few more times and see how he continues to do with it, and if my opinions change, I'll update!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• puzzle toys
• sheltie
• dog
• kyjen