Thrifty tips for dog owners
When you add it all up, dogs aren’t cheap. Between food, veterinary visits, and toys, maintaining your dog in happy, healthy bliss can add up. Especially toys. So we’ve developed some thrifty tips for dog owners whose dogs love their toys.
We’ve all seen the cartoon with a woman offering a toy to her dog and saying “Fluffy, I got you a” and the second frame shows a very-happy Fluffy and toy bits strewn all over, with the talk bubble “new toy.”
If that’s how it feels whenever you get your dog something new, we entirely empathize. Before we developed some techniques for thrifty dog-keeping, there was an entire pile of torn toys waiting for mending. And a vast squeaker graveyard.
Cheap towels make great toys
Did you know there’s a major nation-wide retailer who sells bath towels for $3? Hand towels (our favorites) are $2. Washcloths are even less. But wait, you say. A towel isn’t a dog toy! And I can’t let my dog play with towels. How will they know which is a toy and which is mine?
Last question first. Hang up your towels after you use them. Put them away after you launder them. If it’s on the floor or in the toy basket, by definition it belongs to the dog. Same for shoes. If the dog can see it and reach it, it’s theirs. Dog rules.
Towels are excellent dog toys. If they’re 100% cotton, you know it’s non-toxic. We first started using them when we discovered that a dampened, frozen, knotted washcloth was a perfect teething toy for puppies.
Little ones out of big ones
The idea grew from there. It occurred to us that our dogs love shredding their toys. Nothing brings them greater joy than stepping on a toy while they rip its bits off. Some dog toy manufacturers caught on to this idea and produce toys with “rippable,” hook-and-loop-tape bits. We looked into those. It’s much more economical to let the dogs rip towels. It’s no big deal to toss a $3 towel. It hurts to trash an expensive dog toy. Especially if it lasted less than a day.
Speaking of which, we have actually heard tell of dogs who still cherish their very first toys. We’ve never had a dog like that. Toys are for destroying. It’s always been how our dogs roll. And they’re very good at it.
So if the first rule of dog toys is that toys are meant to be disemboweled, the second rule is that new toys are better than toys they already have. The washing machine and the dishwasher have combined to solve this one.
Everything old is new again
Straight out of the washer, smelling all brand new, the only-partially destroyed towel has as many incarnations as parts of it hold together. When there are more holes than solid fabric, but it’s not quite ready for the trash, a lingerie bag is handy. That way you won’t clog your machine with threads.
Likewise, the vinyl, rubber, and latex toys are “good as new” after a cycle in the top rack of the dishwasher. Granted, it does somewhat shorten their lifespan. And we highly recommend squeezing out the water over the sink. But it works. The toys smell new, so your dog thinks they are.
Get creative
We play lots of dog sports and training games with our dogs. But we don’t have tons of money to invest in equipment. For indoor “weave poles,” halved pool noodles shoved onto dollar-store paper towel holders are great. Cardboard tubes from paper towels are great “fetch” objects. And when the dog dashes off to shred it into little bits, it’s the ultimate “renew, reuse, recycle.”
Unlike people who covet the latest gadget with the most bells and whistles, dogs love the most fun things best. If they’re allowed to shred to their heart’s content, that cheap towel just became the best toy ever, ever, ever.