PEANUT has arrived and she is amazing!! very good with house training,no, accidents so far. car travel good and has slept next to my bed for two nights with one toilet break at 2am and straight back to sleep. goes in her crate no proble.ms ,but, doesnt seem to know what to do with her kongs also cant seem to amuse herself,only if I play with her all the time. she has.lots of. toys and chews . anyone any. suggestions as to how she might amuse herself for ten mins while I have my cup of tea or my dinner. one tired puppy owner already,but, I thought this would be the case. I love her soo muchxxx ruth.
Great that it’s all going so well! She sounds like a fantastic pup. What are you putting in the Kongs?
When they are tiny just a bit of salmon paste will do the trick in a Kong - not frozen. They need to get used to the idea that Kongs are the Best Thing Ever. When they get used to it I use kibble out of their allowance - soaked and frozen, with a little salmon paste or tuna on top. But I don’t introduce other new foods or treats until they are at leat 16 weeks old. This helps me know a tummy bug is a tummy bug, not something they ate. Welcome to Peanut .
Watching with interest. Caspar, now almost 10 weeks not interested either. He likes his cuddly toys, but has short attention span. Most attractive filling? If feeding Kong in crate don't want it to be too messy. Those little biscuits that they sell to put in them don't amuse him and he can't get them out. Sorry to hijack, genuinely interested.
Some people start by just putting a couple of loose bits of kibble in the kong. Very easy for them to get out, and they get the idea that kongs = food. Then, as @Boogie suggests, a small smear of something like salmon paste, peanut butter (make sure it doesn't contain xylitol which is very bad for dogs, even in small quantities), yoghurt, mashed banana, honey or cheese paste. Someone also once suggested a little bit of cheese melted in the microwave and then allowed to set in the kong, which I thought was a genius idea, but I've not tried because I don't have a microwave You want to convince your puppy that kongs are the best thing ever, so start off making it really high value and really easy until they get the idea - when your puppy shows obvious excitement upon seeing the kong and manages to get the food out without frustration, that's when it's time to make it a little more difficult. Even so, I have two dogs who love kongs and one who is ambivalent. Willow just likes to guard hers from the others and "own" it rather than eating it, at least for an hour or so Well, from my experience, it's not what you put in the kong that makes it messy; the dog does a brilliant job of cleaning that up! What I find the messiest part of the whole procedure is the copious amount of slobber created while they work on them.
Really nice to hear that you are doing so well... and welcome home to Peanut! I've had quite a few foster dogs whose reaction to their first Kong was "Huh?". They really had no idea what to do with it. I found it helped to hold it for them and make sure to put a little something really interesting (salmon paste or liverwurst in my case) right under the lip around the opening. Usually after a few short 'hold it for them' sessions, they're ready to whack it out of your hand and give it a go themselves. Once you're past the 'dodgy puppy tummy' stage, you can also layer to make them more interesting. By that I mean to put some high reward stuff at the very bottom of the Kong, loose kibble or other hard treats in the middle, some chicken breast or other medium reward stuff, then top it off with the high reward item again. Keeps it interesting for more picky dogs and motivates them to keep going down to the last culinary strata.
Any word on size? I got the small one as he is just a pup and it says for dogs up to 20lb/9kg. Is that too small for now? Ours keeps disappearing under the sofa.
For puppies I use medium and then also large once they get the idea. I probably introduced large ones at about 6 months with my older two, but a lot earlier with Luna. I still continue to use the medium ones when they're full grown, they just don't last as long. With three Labs, I have lots of kongs! With my first two dogs, I used the puppy kongs, but I didn't bother with my latest puppy; she was more than capable of using the red ones from the get-go. All the strengths of kongs follow the same size - that is, a puppy "medium" is the same size as an original (red) "medium" and an extreme (black) "medium". The only difference is the strength of the rubber.
I use medium size all the time, Puppy Kongs are only useful for a week or so, so I don’t bother with them.
We (actually "I") went wrong with Nelson's kongs when he was smaller. I soaked the kibble and filled the kongs, but I rammed it in there so tight that he just couldn't get it out, even after it had partially defrosted ... Once I loosely filled a kong, he loved it.
hi rachel, ive used soaked kibble with salmon oil and minced raw chicken and some special liver paste. she loves the taste,but, I havve to get it out for her. shes not chewing the kong. ruthx.
thankyou emily,I think its just shes. not yet got the idea right.we will keep trying,shes not 8wks until middle of this week so she is only ababy.x
The ‘aperture’ of the big one is no bigger than the medium, it just holds more food. They soon learn to lick the stuff out
Put the Kong in a cup, then food in the Kong, then water in the cup. After an hour or so tip out the water and freeze. This way the food is not too closely packed
When mine was a pup, I started with the puppy one and put something smelly in the bottom, a few bits of kibble then something smelly in the top, I didn't freeze them when little.
