My little guy just LOVES plastic bottles above any other toy, even Kongs. His excitement goes through the roof whenever he sees a new plastic bottle to destroy. So today I combined his first 2 loves of food and plastic bottles and put all of his lunch kibble inside an empty plastic bottle. What a HIT! He had a BLAST trying to figure out how to get the kibble out of the bottle and it kept him entertained for at least a half hour. That is much better than the 45 seconds he usually takes to inhale his lunch without breathing. I kept my eye on him to make sure he wasn't eating the bottle too, but he was too concerned about getting the kibble out to worry about chewing the bottle. So this is how we're going to do lunch from now on! Just thought I'd share it for anyone else who is looking to fight puppy boredom. My boy can get so restless even with tons of attention, exercise, training, rotating toys and play time. So this is great mental stimulation for him while mommy gets some down time.
Oh yes, I did that with Molly too as she was never that interested in kongs. Now she's an adult I no longer put food inside, but she still loves plastic bottles and is a real little womble on walks, looking for one to pick up and carry.
I think I tried that once too but it back-fired. Lilly likes to "uncap" plastic bottles - whether or not the actually have the cap on. So you see, the top of the bottle ends up being chewed and stops the kibble falling out and frustration reigns! Daft dog I can't see your photo @Halo - not quite sure what is there.
I'm curious if you just let the cap off or made some hole for the kibble to get out from? Sounds like something I would like to try since Millie is hooked on stealing my bottles.
What a good idea My friend recently made me a snuffle mat.......it's amazing. It took Harley between 5-10 minutes to eat her tea
That's funny about her chewing the top and preventing the kibble from coming out. Some people put holes in the side of bottle that are a bit bigger than the kibble. Sounds like a lot of work though. The pix was Halo pawing at the bottle full of kibble. I can see it but not sure why you can't. Wonder if no one else can either.
I took the cap off after I discovered he loves to destroy those into bite size pieces so I don't trust him with it anymore. I have to take the little plastic ring off too (the one that remains after you break the seal on the bottle) and strip off any packaging on the outside too since he will also try to swallow that too. Sometimes I wonder why I spent to much money on toys when he would really just play with bottles.
My boy loves plastic bottles, one of his best toys is an empty and washed lucozade bottle inside of a sock...it keeps him entertained for ages! I love the idea a putting his kibble in it and will give it a go!
I would love to hear how it goes. Yesterday I had to help my boy get the last little bit out cuz he seemed to be getting a bit frustrated. But today I let him struggle a bit longer and he got it and was so proud of himself he just pranced around with the empty bottle in his mouth. It was so cute!
I would only pass on some advice that I was once given; if you don't want your dog picking up plastic bottles when he's an adult, don't let him play with them now. I didn't worry about it, because I don't leave plastic bottles on the floor as a matter of course, and we don't have litter problems in our streets, so I let them play with them (supervised, be careful of lids and take them away when they start chewing the plastic. All was fine until I tried to use some water bottles attached to mini irrigation tubes for new plants in my garden. Shadow keeps retrieving them, tubes and all
Well, I tried to put kibble in a bottle today... While Millie was inspecting it my daughter comes in and takes the bottle and poor the kibble in Millie's food bowl. After that she just sat waiting for me to do what my daughter did
Oh my....well maybe you can try again tomorrow? If your daughter is too young to understand the plan with keeping the kibble in the bottle, maybe you can keep them separated at lunch time? Millie might like the game if she had time to play it.
