We own every Kong type ever made. This obsession endeavor started when we’d read about people who would give their dogs frozen Kong’s and the dogs would work on them for so long that they’d be poop’d after. Uh… I have yet to find a Kong or a Kong stuffing recipe that keeps Melvin stumped for more than five to ten minutes. What am I doing wrong? He can melt all frozen matter with his hot breath, it’s like a super hero power. He may be part dragon.
We of course have this Kong. The longest lasting stuffing for this one is sliced, frozen apples jammed in. Ten minute eat time, tops.
We have this Kong which I shove baby carrots into. I shove them so tightly I have jammed fingers in the process. Time to eat: 3 min.
This one has a design flaw… the top, skinny part makes the boys want to chew that area (which is counterproductive since there are no treats in that end). Time to full destruction, 10 min (and the destroyer in this case was Jake, who has teeth like rice …)
This one lasted one minute, the hole on top allows all food (frozen or not) to easily just fall out. I thought I might be on a hidden camera when I bought this, stuffed it, gave it and then picked it up empty one minute later.
Melvin bit a hole in this one in under twenty seconds.
Melvin picked this one up and lobbed it into the wall and it dented drywall. I now only allow it outside and as it turns out, it’s great in the grass. As the treats fall out they still have to search for them a bit longer!
Finally, this weekend we tried this one! I put extra fat baby carrots in it and it had both boys going for about ten to fifteen minutes! Yippeee!!!!! It was also comical to see Jake roll it around like a little mechanic.
LOL oh man you had me laughing so hard at this post. Our boys are expert Kong/frozen treat/antler destruction maniacs as well. I feel your pain!!
I love that we suffer together!
We have a Kong Extreme (black) for each of the dogs; we also have a Kong Wobbler (the big one for dispensing food). Any other Kong toy they’ve killed 😉
For Kong filling have you used softer things like applesauce, peanut butter, or yogurt? I fill ours with a combination of something soft plus something crunchy like kibble or Cheerios. I also make sure to fill completely to the small end (which is actually the top).
There are other treat-dispensing toys I’ve seen recommended by again my dogs destroy them. One thing I also like to do is fill a marrow bone with one of the above combinations and freeze. They don’t last as long as the Kongs but are quick and easy to make!
Good luck 🙂
I think I have tried everything but I’m going to retry it all!
Lol, great post. They are so adorable with that tire.
I use the black kong, and I normally stuff it with raw ground meat, frozen totally solid into the kong. It lasts a good 30 minutes with my dogs. Actually, it lasts so well that Pallo normally gives up on it. My other favorite stuffable toy isn’t made by kong, it is the Orka Jack, with four different parts that you can stuff. I use hard treats in this one, and just jam them in there. Sometimes I’ll do a frozen mix in it too, but Koira’s teeth can make some big dents if she goes to town on chewing it.
Oh, raw meat, that could be the trick! Is it a crazy mess while they are eating it?
We usually always freeze stuff in Athena’s Kongs because otherwise she licks out the goodness pretty quickly. I mix up kibble, yogurt/pumpkin, peanut butter, fish oil, and other delicious things and then jam it into the Kong (I use my fingers to make sure there are no air bubbles). Both ends get sealed with peanut butter. We then freeze them for a loooonnnggg time.
The best Kong we’ve found has been the Stuff-a-Ball. It holds a ton of food and when frozen, takes Athena a really long time to eat.
We’ve tried the sliced apples in a Kong and Athena actually gave up on it because it was too hard for her. Athena’s favorite is when I shove a banana inside the Kong.
More recently we tried freezing a mixture of kibble and yogurt into the Twist and Treat. This was VERY difficult for Athena and I ended up having to untwist the toy for her to get the stuff inside.
Totally trying the banana! Love that idea!
I didn’t realize there was such a selection! We have about 6 that we keep frozen for our 2, and we just got the wobbler, though I think that some of those would make a really good challenge for clever Miss M.
The tire continues to be the winner, and when i studied it at the store, I didn’t believe it would be!
That little tire is adorable! I never gave it a shot because I figured the dogs would get through it super quick, but I might need to give it a shot! I love that Melvin is part dragon… ha ha… hilarious!
We have the same problem!! Good idea with the apples, I will try that!
we have all of those (except the bone)! It’s sad to say, but we usually have 20+ stuffed classic Kongs in our freezer ready to go. They take up precious freezer space, and I HATE the weekly “time to stuff the Kongs” night. But I do it for those 15-30 minutes of Kong zone-out time. Petey lays like a seal/walrus with his Kong in front of him, arms splayed to the side. Somehow the Kong stays in place. Monkey does the more classic “cradle Kong with paw” move where it looks like he’s licking an ice cream cone. Both boys always close their eyes (so funny!) and throw in intermittent chews on the body of the Kong to loosen the good stuff inside. Yes, I’m a dork and have studied their methods.
Poor Maggie used to have Kongs, now we’re Kong-less as Duke ripped them apart! He’d rather rip the rubber apart than lick out the filling. He took the end off an Extreme Kong in a few minutes, it’s completely ridiculous. So glad empty beef marrow bones can be stuffed. 🙂