*Odinn Loves his monkey* Toys! Glorious toys!

Odinn loves his new toy.  A baby sock monkey.  Since he has a horrid habit of ripping the sole and heel out of every sock we have within seconds, we thought he may like his own sock to chew on, but he doesn't wanna chew on it, he's rather snuggle with it.  So, whatever, guess we just have to keep all socks picked up.

Odinn and Rocko his sock monkey.  The kids named the sock monkey after a character in a book series called Rocko and Socko, about two sock monkey brothers.  I thought this was cute.  :)

Although he figured out that these tall plastic containers around the house contain these socks and other objects of clothing, so it's like his own personal playground.  At least teaching him to take off my socks will be fairly easy lol.

When choosing a toy for your puppy or dog, it's always important to find something they like.  Not every dog likes squeaky toys, rope toys, rubber, etc..  For example, Odinn is terrified of squeakers.

The key to finding a successful toy that will entertain your dog is to figure out what sort of texture he likes to chew on. 

Odinn loves fabric like socks and towels.  So rope toys, fleece chews, and stuffed animals he loves.  But teaching him to differenciate between his toys and the kids' toys takes a bit of teaching and a lot of patience.

It's all about redirection.  If he's chewing on something he shouldn't, we take that away and offer him his toys.  We don't fuss at him, I want him to think toys are fun not scary.  I like to bring him over to his spot, an area with a blanket by my desk, and have him sit there to play with his toys.  Now he knows that this spot, his spot, is the best place to mellow out and munch and chew on his toys and chews.

Yay dog treats!

Now I have never had a dog before that doesn't like chews, rawhides, etc..  So it was weird trying to figure out how to get him to chew on something.  Why would I care if he eats a chewie or not?  Because having something for him to chew, that he is supposed to chew on, is good not only for his teething but also good for his emotional state and keeps him busy.  But I couldn't get him to chew anything.  Nor could I find anything he liked!  This was weird.

The great people at Wag n Wash spent probably about 30 minutes with him opening every bag of treats they had.  From cow trachea, to leg bones, to lamb lungs, this pup didn't want anything.  It wasn't until we went over to their bakery counter that we finally found something he liked.  Something he really liked.  They had just baked some Turkey Loaf and Liver brownie, so we got one loaf of each and went home.  I want to throw a huge KUDOS to Wag n Wash (woodmen location) for their fabulous customer service!


Smart toys!

Smart toys are great.  They were mostly made to entertain those dogs that have severe seperation anxiety in hopes of entertaining a dog long enough to make them forget why they were freaking out in the first place.  But then we figured out it's very important to provide enrichment for a dog, whether or not they had separation anxiety because toys are fun!  Sometimes they work and other times they don't.  Some dogs are crazy smart and do very well with these toys, and other dogs are..well...dumb as a tack or something because they can never quite get the point of these toys.  Maybe they are too smart to be bothered with these toys because they insult their intelligence lol, I have no clue, just throwing that theory out there.

I got one of those "thinking" toys where you stuff treats in and he has to learn to move it around to get the treats to come out of the spaces in the toy.  This took him a total of 1/2 a day to figure out.  I give him the toy now and he kicks it across the house knocking all the treats out along the way in a tidy little path of yummies.  Lol, cheater!  He also is very vocal when he plays with it becoming very whiney and loud when it doesn't dispense treats anymore.  Kind of an annoying habit of his.

He is too good at this game, time for a tougher "smart toy."

The kind of toy I got has a top and bottom and it screws together so you can determine how big or small the space is, and it's easy to clean since you can take it apart.  I love it.  I was able to start it rather large so he could figure it out and slowly close up the spaces as he got smarter.  Now I have it completely closed with a tiny gap and he still manages to get out all the treats in less than 2 minutes.  Dang, now i have to figure something else out lol.

I would love to smear some peanut butter in his toy so it would last longer, but Odinn doesn't like peanut butter!  I know he's a freak.  I don't know any dog that doesn't like peanut butter.  I bet if I smeared liver in there he'd love it, liver and turkey to him are like crack.  But ew, I don't wanna smear liver in there.  Although I'm determined to learn how to bake my own turkey and liver loaf for him.  They make great training treats as well.

The other thing I had to figure out was rawhides.  Some people think rawhides are bad and others think they are ok.  I think they are ok in moderation.  Dogs that tend to die from ingestion of rawhides are the ones where their owners give them an entire bag in a day to entertain them because they don't want to deal with them otherwise.  Odinn didn't like rawhides because he couldn't figure out what to do with them.  My solution?  I boiled all my plain rawhides in chicken broth. (all organic and free range thank you very much)  All of a sudden it's a delicious treat and something nice to gnaw on and makes his mouth feel so much better.  Darn those puppy teeth!  Problem solved.  Now he knows what they are for.

Chicken Broth Rawhide:

• Bring chicken broth to a boil.
• Throw in enough rawhides for the broth to cover them
• Let them boil in the broth for 20 minutes.  
• Take them out to cool on a rack or some paper towels.  They will curl and soften up a lot.
• Keep refrigerated.

Odinn is doing a lot better with the biting.  I have been using redirecting touch with a " Tssh" sound to tell him to stop and it has been working like a charm.  The biting and mouthing has pretty much completely stopped.

Although I have been learning a lot about positive training which doesn't involve any sort of correction at all, but not sure if it works for me or not since Odinn is so stubborn.

Odinn says "Look over there!  Is that a great website!?"

Here are some links for this blogging day:

Some great toys for "smart thinking"

Busy Buddy Twist and Treat
This is the toy Odinn has right now, it's a great beginner think toy.

Busy Buddy Tug a Jug toy
This is a very tough thinking toy, the next one we'll most likely going to get.

The infamous Kong
The all purpose think toy.  My favorite thing to do with these is to smear peanut butter inside and freeze it.  Provides a great time for your dog.

Dog Training!  Some good links for dog training I like:

When it comes to dog training, I like to find methods of training that work for me.  This normally involves incorporating several techniques into one big slew of random techniques.  I never, ever use negative punishment or force when it comes to training or everyday teaching.  A scared dog is not a trained dog.


Kiko Pup!
This woman is awesome!  I love her method of positive training and clicker techniques.  She also does a lot of things for fun. And it helps that her dogs are cute too.

Ceasar Milan, The Dog Whisperer
Love him!  Great trainer and dog behaviorist.