Toy Time!!

We love reading our fellow pittie blogs.  We get so many ideas for fun and exciting things to do with our pack. So when Love and a Six Foot Leash posted about making a homemade toy for their super duo, we thought why not give it a shot.  I had extra fleece sitting around from my dog bed project.  A little back story on me, I love crafts and projects but I am horrible at finishing them.  I am what many may call a procrastinator.  I call it just being an artist. So I decided one afternoon to give it a try.  I wanted something a little more durable than just a braid so I thought why not try using those skills I learned in high school making friendship bracelets. 

Just used a simple over under knot

I chose a fun floral pattern I had lying around and cut it up into 6 strips.  They were on the thinner side in order to make the knots successful.  I put all 6 together and made a knot at one end.  Then I used the over under knotting technique to make the rows.  I did forget that you are supposed to double knot on each strand to avoid curling.  I’ll try to remember that for next time.  It did make a fun curl in the toy which I think the dogs liked. 

It makes nice tight rows of knots

I made it pretty long because we have a lot of short, small toys and I wanted something they could really tug at.  I was very impressed with my finished product.  Now to see what the dogs thought.  Buddy was the first test. He LOVES to shake toys around.  Just smacking himself in the face.  This was no exception. 

Getting the official "Buddy seal of approval"

Next was to test it with the Buddy and Bella duo.  The love to pay together but haven’t really had any good long pull toys.  They had been using Buddy’s boomerang but that left very little room to pull.  I thought for sure they’d get the point that they could be far away from each other.  But instead they thought it was great to bite it as close to each other as possible.  Even thought that didn’t go as planned they still LOVED their toy. 

This is how they thought it should be used

Devo isn’t much of a toy player.  He prefers to coddle his toys and love on them.  By the time it was his turn for the new toy he just grabbed it and walked around the house with it.  He’s such a shorty that it would trail behind him or between his legs.  But he walked so happily with his head held high.  I haven’t gotten a photo of him with it yet but trust me, it’s adorable.

So, all in all, homemade toys are very successful.  I probably used a couple bucks worth of left over fabric.  Now a few weeks later it’s still in 1 piece and is played with daily.  M loved to play tug with Buddy. It’s long enough that we can use the couch arm as leverage and actually win the game!! Next craft project… making something with a squeaker for Devo. 

The final product