Picking a Tug Toy

As promised on Monday, here are some questions that can help you pick a better tug toy for your dog. I don’t think I’m capable of writing the “ultimate guide to tug toys,” but there are definitely some common problems that good toy selection can help you with.

First up, let me say, I am neither teaching you how to play tug with your dog nor debating if you should do so. I’m assuming that you have a dog who is a pretty good candidate and that this is a game you want to play. I strongly recommend that you make some rules to govern tug games at your house, but that’s not the point of this post.

Secondly: I will tell you that Silas thinks every toy ever invented is a tug toy. Feel free to be inventive.

Question 1:  Does your dog spit out the toy when you ask for it? If not, you need a toy that you can physically control. You will never get a stretchy toy away from a dog who won’t let go on cue. There are lots of tactics for teaching the dog to give back the toy, but for any of the ones I’ve seen you need a toy that you have full control over. Good options will probably seem very boring to you–rope toys, fake sticks, fire hose bumpers, etc–but dogs who won’t let go already have plenty of value for the toy.

Question 2: Does your dog sometimes grab your hand instead of the toy? I said that technique was outside of my range here, but do be careful with how you are presenting the toy. It’s easy to angle the toy so that your hand is more tempting than the toy is. Also, have some rules about this. Your dog will pick it up quickly. Generally, though, you’ll want a bigger, longer toy. Give the dog lots of room to grab as far away from you as possible. Silas loves to play tug with his huge Hol-ee Roller ball, which I think would be great here.

Question 3: Does your dog clamp down firmly enough on the toy? Some dogs who aren’t really that excited about tugging will just let go of the toy when you pull. That’s a different problem. But it’s also easy to get a toy that’s just challenging or unpleasant for them to hold. The jute toy that I showed on Monday was a lot more fun for Silas before the jute got prickly. I’ve seen a lot of tug toys lately that are going to be too large for most dogs to get a good grip on. If you aren’t getting a solid bite down, try to find something your dog will enjoy having in his mouth. A softer toy that isn’t overly large will probably serve you better. Which leads to:

Question 4: What size toy do you need? There are several angles to this one. A lot of our favorite tug toys are for smaller dogs, because we just don’t have a lot of space. A four foot fleece rope means that Silas backs into the furniture and scares himself. That said, not all smaller toys can handle the force generated by a larger dog. If you have a small dog, a longer toy is easier on your back and can keep you from looming over the dog while you play. A larger dog may get too much leverage with a long toy. Sometimes you need a toy you can hide in your pocket, while sometimes a big toy can help your dog’s attention.

Question 5: Is your dog going to destroy the toy, or play thirty minutes of keep away, if he gets it away from you? You’ll want to address that behavior no matter what (playing tug on leash is a good place to start), but in the meantime look for a toy with a good handle. You want to keep a good grip on the toy. Also, see question one about picking a boring toy.

Most importantly, Question 6: What does your dog love? Toys that you can waggle on the floor for maximum pouncing? Toys that are good for fetch afterwards? Fuzzy things? Are noises awesome, or terrifying? Beyond a certain point, that’s all that matters.

Our Favorite Tug Toys

Last week one of my commenters mentioned being overwhelmed by picking a tug toy for her dog. There are lots of choices out there. Today I’m going to talk about our favorites. Later in the week I’ll be posting some things to consider as you look for your own.

Silas, let me just say, is an equal opportunity tugger, as you’ll see from his bizarre collection of favorites.

(Not pictured: packing tape, preferably just pulled off a box; twisted up bits of brown paper bag; and real sticks, which I only allow in park emergencies.)

I rummaged through our collection and pulled these out as the best of the best:

I thought I would be able to number these. It turns out that I’m not that patient. So, working roughly from top to bottom, left to right:

1. Salty Dog Canvas Raspberry

2 and 3. J.W. Pets Hol-ee Roller, big and little I don’t think these are officially a tug toy, but they’re great for it. I can see them being especially awesome if your dog tends to get your fingers instead of his toy. You’ll notice that we have lots of toys in two different sizes. 30 pound dogs apparently aren’t a marketing niche, so we usually have to pick between too big and too little.

4. Salty Dog Canvas Orbee

5. A random rope toy. This used to have rubber chewy parts on it. I untied the toy years ago and got rid of the rubber bits,  and then used this nice length of skinny rope to teach Silas his “out” cue.

6. A homemade braided fleece tug.

7. (Onto the second row now) Jute Bite Stick with Handle. Silas was mad for this, until the jute started to get a little hairy. Now he’s more so-so. But if you have a dog who seriously bites down, you should give this one a try. Sturdy with a great handle.

8. Another random rope toy; I believe this one is Pet Co’s Organic Cotton line. Looks boring to you; Silas loves it.

9. West Paw Hurley. This one is the large size. We also have the small one, buried in a park bag somewhere. Silas is only okay with the small one because he has excellent mouth placement on the toy. If you have a big, indiscriminate dog, even the bigger one might be a little short. I like these because they have just enough flex.

10 and 11. Kong Wubbas.  A classic for a reason. I can’t remember if our big one is the Large or the X-large. It’s almost too big for Silas to hold. The little one is tiny, and he adores it.

12. Flea Toy, a gift from my mom. I’ve seen these in stores, but I don’t know the brand name to look it up online. I can put Flea Toy on the ground and waggle his legs, and Silas just goes crazy. It’s held up to this surprisingly well, but Silas isn’t that hard on his toys.

13. The Udder Tug. There are not words for how much Silas loves this thing. It’s probably his favorite toy in this pile. Warning: these are recycled from the dairy industry, and they will smell exactly like a cow barn for quite a while. Strongly. But it’s a great toy.

14. This is some kind of real fur (sorry, my vegan friends) on a wee little tug toy. I’m 97% sure I bought it from Clean Run, but now I don’t see it on their site.

15. Kong Tugga Wubba. This one is Tugga Wubba 2.0. I bought the bigger one this time, hoping it would hold up better, but it hasn’t really. It’s also a little too big. I’d say get the small size for dogs Silas’s size and under and save the big one for dogs over 40 pounds.

16 and 17. Tiny Kong plushies. These are really pushing the boundary of tug toy. Silas’s favorite toy on the entire planet was a little beaver from a hide-a-toy. When I went to buy a new version of the hide-a-toy, and thus secure two backup beavers, it had been remodeled to include squeakers. Squeakers meant we couldn’t use them in obedience class. I bought these (with removable squeakers) instead. These are seriously only about two inches long, but they’ve held up pretty well. Silas has a preference for the frog, probably because he has legs to pull on.

18. West Paw Bumi. Another toy that we have in multiple sizes. This is the larger one, which is (again) really a little big for Silas. I’m not sure where the smaller one has gotten off to.

 

What’s your dog’s favorite toy?

 

Product Review: Salty Dog Canvas Toys

I don’t review a lot of products here anymore. We have a pretty comprehensive collection of well-made, long-lasting toys. Silas doesn’t eat a lot of new foods. I try my best not to buy him things just to buy them.

At the beginning of August I ran across an entire new toy company, though, and I couldn’t resist.

Salty Dog Canvas is a small Canadian company. The owner learned industrial sewing making boat sails and awnings, then got sucked into the world of dog sports. Now she makes amazing dog toys, entirely from North American components.

I bought two of them:

(Yes, my photo backdrop is covered in dog hair.)

I love these toys. Both of the ones I bought are a Planet Dog toy attached to a bungee handle. I am a big fan of Planet Dog. Alas, we play all of our fetch indoors, which means that rubber balls either bounce into or roll under something they shouldn’t. Attach that same ball to a bungee handle, though, and it can’t roll under the sofa.

The more tug we play, the more sold I am on the bungee tug. When you have a smaller dog and slippery floors, it’s easy for you to do all of the tugging work, while the dog just holds on and slides around. A tug toy with some stretch not only offers you some shock absorption, but it also guarantees that the dog does his share. You really want that pull back in order to get the strength and balance benefits of playing tug. If you have a larger dog, I suspect that the same dynamic works the opposite way. Unlike some wimpier toys we’ve tried, these have a good, strong stretch.

I should also mention that the nylon handles on these are much more comfortable to hold than our other toys. This is a high quality fabric, with none of those scratchy nylon edges.

I wouldn’t leave these around for the dog to access unsupervised. These particular Planet Dog toys are not rated for extensive chewing, although Salty Dog does use some of their stronger toys in other models, and any determined dog could cut through the nylon handle. I have to be particularly careful with the  raspberry model, because Silas thinks the berries would be a lot more awesome without the handle. That said, they’re showing zero wear so far from vigorous tug games.

For those crunchers out there, Salty Dog also makes great faux-fur pockets for water bottles on a similar stretch handle. In fact, no matter what your dog is obsessed with (tennis balls, squeakers, braided fleece), Salty Dog probably makes a toy they would like. For good or for ill, that includes a small number of real fur toys.

I bought our Raspberry and Orbee toys at a small retail store in Canada, but the website does ship to the US.

Bottom line: a big hit.

My Dog is a Sloth

I bought Silas one of those Whistle dog activity trackers. If you haven’t heard of these, they’re like a dog Fit Bit. They use an accelerometer mounted on your dog’s collar to tell you how much time per day your dog spends moving. (I paid for this myself. Why does nobody ever ask me to review things I actually want?) I think this makes me the biggest yuppie in the history of the world, but whatever.

Any day now, I’m expecting the founders to e-mail me and say “Umm, did you really install that correctly?”

Because Silas doesn’t go on walks of any duration (his grand sidewalk excursions, of which we are mega-proud, last about two minutes, and we’re just now making real headway on the car thing), I set his goal at thirty minutes a day.

In almost a week, he’s hit this goal one time, although in my defense he’s gotten close on a few other days. The app suggested that most dogs his size get at least an hour.

I have a few theories kicking around about what’s going on:

1) Because we’ve been virtually housebound for months now, Silas is out of shape and lazy (like me). Or, he’s just adapted to our easy-does-it lifestyle.

2) When I trained him not to pester me with a toy all the time, I did it too thoroughly. Because he’s not pestering us, we assume he doesn’t want to play. Evidence for this one: he’s quite happy to engage if I get up and grab a toy.

3) Age and wisdom. I think three is a little young to slow down quite this much.

4) Boredom.

5) Summer is brutal.

6) Over-medication. I’m hesitant to blame his medication, not only because he’s been at this dose for a while but also because he is quite perky when he’s not asleep.

7) Last week was atypical. Which it was–I trimmed his nails twice and he went on two car rides, both of which are the kind of mental stress that disproportionately wears him down.

8) Our indoor play is a lot more vigorous than a leisurely trot around the neighborhood. Since, unlike the people trackers, the dog tracker only measures moving time, short bursts of intense exercise aren’t rewarded. I’m not sure what the appropriate conversion metric would be.

I’m going to keep an eye on him for a little longer before I start to get really worried. In the meantime, how active is your dog?

Are dog people saps?

Or am I just broken?

I’ve had to start putting my beverage down before I read Pinterest, after I almost choked myself laughing over sentimental dog memes.

Don’t get me wrong; I love Silas. I also love my husband, even while he’s slamming cabinet doors and leaving the toilet seat up. Real love is not endless adoration.

Here’s a sampling of some of the recent offenders. (I tried my best to find attributions for these. No dice. Note to bloggers: if you want credit, you’d better start watermarking your images, because pinning a permanent link seems to be too complicated for people.)

And if I had to pay someone a dollar every time I wanted aliens to come and take him away, we’d be about even.

 

How about one from the “dog virtues” genre?

When I’m in a bad mood, Silas avoids me. If that counts as patience, I am a zen master.

 

How about this one:

No, when someone says they don’t like my dog, I’m usually sympathetic. Must be the barking and lunging?

 

I could go on all day, but we’ll end with the one that inspired this whole post:

I’m a bad person for laughing at this, aren’t I?

Coexisting on the Multi-Use Trail

In my non-dog life, I do a lot of bicycling. In my dog-life, I spend a lot of time walking on multi-use trails. After I got surprised by a cyclist on Tuesday, I thought I would offer some tips from both sides.

Dog walkers:
–Your leash is a death trap. If your dog goes one way and you go the other, you will cause a nasty crash. Please make sure that you and your dog share the same idea about getting out of the way. If you see that a cyclist is about to hit your leash, drop it.

–A flexi line stretched across a trail is invisible from a bike. Cyclists may assume that your dog is off leash and attempt to ride between you. Alternatively, you may find that cyclists will come to a stop to avoid going between you and your off-leash dog. That’s why. Please try to keep your dog on the same side of the trail.

–If there is any chance that your dog will chase a biker, please find a different place to walk off leash. Herding-type dogs are especially bad to nip at cyclists’ feet and legs, and you really don’t want that. Also, the only thing a cyclist can do is sprint for their life, and you will not be able to keep up to catch your dog.

–Because of this stuff, especially points two and three, a cyclist may panic when they see your dog. Try to be sympathetic.

–In the same vein, it is considered good cycling form to call out about potential problems if you’re riding in a group. Don’t take it personally if you hear a line of cyclists calling out to each other about your dog.

–Don’t wear headphones. I know the multi-use trail seems so safe compared to walking on roads, but you need to be able to hear.

–It is very difficult to completely stop a bike that is going downhill. If you’re walking up hill, keep a good eye out for oncoming traffic. If you’re going downhill, be especially aware of anything coming up behind you.

–Most importantly, get your dog out of the way. Because some dogs chase/nip/lunge/jump/bark, a cyclist will be very hesitant to pass a dog who is on a loose line right in the middle of the trail. Shorten your leash and/or move to the edge.

Cyclists:
–Please call out or ring your bell. Dogs and their gear can easily generate enough noise to drown out a quiet bike. Keep in mind that dog walkers may not know the cycling shorthand we use passing each other.

–Dogs don’t have a great sense of their body being attached to a leash. If you come up on them from the rear, they’re likely to go the opposite direction of their person. See #1.

–Be extremely cautious if you’re going downhill on a narrow path. Even the best intentioned dog-walker can only move their dog so quickly.

–Give a dog as much room as possible. It’s just good manners. (Which, I can tell from the way you bike, some of you are seriously lacking.)

–Avoid riding between a dog and their person. Not only are you likely to have a bad leash-related crash, you also impede the person’s ability to control an off-leash dog.

–Never reach for a dog while you’re on your bike, even if you’re partially dismounted. Friendly dogs can still be freaked out by your bike, or by the bike–>person transition.

Summer Pack

Here in opposite land, it’s summer that requires the most gear for dog walks. If we have an emergency, it’s most likely to be heat stroke related. In general, the word of the season is caution. I avoid the heat of the day or anything with extended sun exposure. I don’t let Silas run unless we’re almost back to the car. I set sensible limits on how long we’re out.

I also carry a different set of gear, which I thought I would share. Keep in mind that it is hot, so our outings are usually short. My list is not intended for serious backpacking or even long hikes.

The pack itself is an Osprey Raptor 10, which I got on a screaming deal when Osprey did their last redesign of the line. It’s designed for mountain biking, but Osprey makes great packs in general. Because this is made for active use, it’s pretty well ventilated in the back, which makes it bearable. Most importantly for my repurposing, it has a hydration bladder that holds three liters of water with a handy drinking tube. I can put out a pretty good stream of water from the tube, but I have thus far been unsuccessful at getting Silas to drink it. That’s why the other main feature is Silas’s beloved Paws for Water bottle. I wish this bottle were smaller, honestly (and that it didn’t randomly leak), but at least I never have to worry seriously about Silas running out of water. Most importantly, he drinks from is more readily than he does from a portable water dish, so I suck it up.

The other things here fall somewhere between generally useful and extremely overcautious. Moving roughly from left to right, we have
1) a 15 foot leash for playing around
2) a very old stuffing-free toy that Silas will play with outside
3) poop bags in a handy clip container
4) Quart sized freezer bags, to make sure that said poop bags don’t leak inside my pack
5) A lotion-style insect repellant. This one has DEET and is NOT dog friendly, but I can use it without risking Silas sticking his head in the over spray. If Silas were more of a licker, or the mosquitoes here were less horrible, I’d switch to something less toxic.
6) Iodine tablets, which are really, really overkill
7) A travel-sized tube of sunscreen. I’m always coated head to toe, so this is just for touchups.
8) A packet of Silas’s stomach medicine
9) His most beloved tiny toy of all time
10) A basic medical kit. This one is mostly bandages and a few medications. For longer expeditions, my husband has a bigger pack and carries more extensive medical supplies.
11) A short back-up leash
12) A ziploc bag of treats. On longer outings I carry more than pictured.
13) A clicker, just in case a good training opportunity arrives. (I rarely use the clicker at home, but it seems to help Silas focus outside.)
14) Zipties. These are left over from the pack’s mountain biking days, but I keep them in case a harness buckle or leash clip breaks.
15) and 16) are not pictured because Silas stole them before I could get the picture–a soft floppy frisbee and the world’s loudest squeaky ball. The world’s loudest squeaky ball is a pretty good emergency recall aid.

As you can see, the emergency I’m most prepared for is being overtaken by the urgent need to play a game of tug. We do a lot of play-sessions at the park as a way to help Silas get over his fear of strange places.

Notable things that are missing include dog sunscreen and insect repellant. Silas is terrified of things that spray, so I’m still looking out for a good solution. My bandana has gone AWOL over the winter, and I’m all out of human trail snacks.

What do you carry in the summer? Is it different from your winter gear? Am I missing something on your essentials list?

Joint Supplements and the Younger Dog

I’ve been doing some research lately about the benefits of joint supplements for dogs who don’t already have problems. Can glucosamine and/or chondroitin prevent joint trouble, rather than just helping the arthritic?

Abby at The Doggerel mentioned that she was interested in this as well, so I thought I would put my research up here.

First up, a few things from the Whole Dog Journal. I personally feel like the WDJ does a good job moderating between the best of good traditional veterinary medicine and the best of good alternative medicine, so they’re a go-to source for me. Apologies if these links are behind the paywall; I’ve tried to include the relevant bits in my summaries.

Before we get on to supplements, a reminder that keeping your dog at a healthy weight is the most important part of joint health. No supplement can compensate for a lifetime of overloaded joints.

A casual google of “preventative glucosamine for dogs” turns up mostly forum posts, especially from forums devoted to dogs with “problem joints” like Shiba Inus and Golden Retrievers. There isn’t a lot of real information out there. Rounding up what I have found:

More concretely, this article from 2004 recommends “taking a proactive approach to joint maintenance and injury prevention starting when an athletic dog is one to two years old” because “athletic dogs have healthy joints that have not sustained damage yet. But, active dogs regularly ‘push the envelope,’ causing some joint inflammation that can develop into early joint breakdown.” The effect of this added glucosamine is to stop “the cycle of net cartilage loss due to overuse, injury, or joint disease.”

Dogs Naturally, whom I trust slightly less, argues that raw-fed dogs get adequate glucosamine from their diets, especially if you include cartilaginous foods. That article also contains some tips about picking a good supplement that my other research validated.

If you want to get your answer straight from the source you should trust the least, manufacturers of joint supplements seem to think they benefit every dog. Nupro claims that their formula “is not just for Senior Dogs or those who may have joint issues! Active athletes . . . show dogs, working dogs . . ., sled dogs, hunting dogs, herding dogs, AND large breed dogs, as well, will benefit from the addition of Glucosamine to their daily regimen.” Wapiti Labs sells a mobility supplement especially for dogs “in the first stages of life” (as opposed to their senior formula).

On the other hand, from a less-research-more-pragmatics angle: while glucosamine is reported to have almost no incidence of side effects, most of the manufacturers also have a lot of fine print about “stomach upset” and/or bragging that their formula is “easier to digest.” Dogs with diabetes or blood clotting problems should not take glucosamine. Also, my food allergy friends, WATCH OUT for sneaky animal-derived ingredients. The most common source of glucosamine is shellfish, which your dog may not be able to handle. I also saw at least one supplement that clearly listed its chondroitin as “porcine.” This is above and beyond the usual allergy cautions, namely that most dog pills have added meat flavors.

Also on the anti-side, joint supplements are expensive and the research on their preventative value is, at best, inconclusive. Combined with the fact that pet supplements are not extremely well regulated, that could easily mean you spend years and years giving what is little better than a placebo.

Hey, I promised to show you the research I have so far. I didn’t promise to make a conclusion.

Have any of you researched this?

Dog Books

I recently fixed my blog’s backlog of “Uncategorized” posts (why does the categories thing have to be so out of the way, wordpress?), and it reminded me that I used to review a lot of books.

Honestly, I haven’t read a dog book in a very long time.

I don’t like stories about dogs, because the dog usually dies in the end. It is the most concrete end to a dog tale, I guess. But I can’t handle it. I see a dog in a movie, and I’m immediately clicking over to http://doesthedogdie.com. Yeah, I’m that girl. I’m already predisposed to sob copiously over books. The last thing I need is a reason.

Dog training books fascinated me for a while. Then I learned what kinds of things worked for my own dog. The increasing gap between what I was seeing on the page (clickers, cookies, structured repetitions) and the things that worked for me (limited clicker, fewer cookies, less structure, more games) started to bother me. The truth is, after a while you learn what makes your own dog tick and you stop needing to have your hand held.

More importantly, I think that for people with fearful or anxious dogs the linear dog training narrative can be terribly pernicious. None of them matched my actual experience, which was–and is–something more like a roller coaster.

That said, there are dog books that I really do still trust and use a good bit and recommend to people. In no particular order:

—Everything by Patricia McConnell. If you can borrow a copy of her DVDs, they’re very useful, but I wouldn’t buy them unless you learn much better through visual presentations.

—Nicole Wilde, Help for Your Fearful Dog. This is an enormous book, filled with the basics of dog psychology and counterconditioning plans for basically everything ever. Most books about dog fear are really about dog-dog reactivity, which wasn’t our problem, so this book was a nice change. There’s also a useful section on psychiatric treatments, both conventional and alternative.

—Leslie McDevitt, Control Unleashed. This book is an organizational disaster, and a lot of the information is only good for a classroom. BUT, the stuff that is good is so, so good. If you have a “problem” dog, it’s worth it.

—Pat Miller, The Power of Positive Dog Training. This is the classic clicker+cookie book, but Miller is a genius at breaking behaviors down into teachable steps. If you’re new to dogs or to positive training, you should buy this book, especially if you want to teach tricks.

—Jane Killion, When Pigs Fly. Killion starts a step back from other training books. How do you teach a pig-headed dog to be teachable? So refreshing.

—Ian Dunbar, After You Get Your Puppy. I hate this book, I love this book. The best resource I’ve seen on puppy socialization, but I wish someone would write a less ornery version. Dunbar feels like he needs to be contrarian to get his point across, which sometimes frightens people away from taking his EXTREMELY IMPORTANT advice.

—Lew Olson, Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs. If you look back at my review, you’ll see some caveats about this book, but it’s the best book-resource I found for dog nutrition.

—Susan Garrett’s Crate Games DVD is not a book, but it’s still a great resource. You’ll see some of her work+play methodology in action, which was a huge breakthrough for us. She has actual books, but I do not care for them and find them to be fairly non-representative of her teachings.

—Suzanne Clothier, Bones Would Rain From the Sky. Clothier’s wonderful heart taught me more than I could even recognize at the time. Don’t look for concrete training advice, but a really poignant discussion of the bond we have, should have, or could have with our dogs. If you like my sappy posts, you should read this book.

Honorable mention: Grisha Stewart, Behavior Adjustment Training: BAT for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs. BAT is one of the few “new” things I’ve seen in the fearful dog repertoire, and I think it is great. I’m putting the book down here only because (ahem) I haven’t actually read it. I’ve just absorbed the tactic from videos and elsewhere. Grisha Stewart is, from what I’ve seen, one of the most thoughtful, compassionate people in dog training right now.

Do you read dog books? Have a favorite that didn’t make my list? Let me know in the comments!

Wasteful

Every January I go through the house and get rid of stuff. We’re planning for our next move to be into an even smaller house, so I’m trying to empty as many closets and drawers as possible. This year, the annual January downsizing coincided with a lot of reading about the environmental implications of trash, which has made it extra-guilt-inducing.

As part of this process, eventually I got to Silas’s stuff. And boy, is there a lot of it.

I won’t even list the number of coats and jackets and harnesses and grooming tools. We won’t talk about the mountain of food products that are either in use or sitting around because they caused an allergic reaction.

Instead, we’re talking about this:

I’ll bet you have a similar box full.

What’s worse, this is just what was in the box. I keep some things down for Silas to use. (Too many toys out at once + dog with a problem relaxing = disaster.)

Silas still generates a lot of trash, even though I’ve been more careful lately, and most of it is really, really trash. Dog food and treat bags are almost always either a plastic/paper hybrid that can’t be recycled or plastic outright. Dog toys tend to be made of mixed plastic (like a “rubber” toy with a squeaker inside) or of unknown materials that are difficult to recycle. Color me a bleeding-heart liberal yuppie, but it bothers me to be filling up landfills with toys my dog didn’t even like that much.

So here are some things tips for cutting the trash and the clutter:

1) Donate used-but-functional leashes, collars, and harnesses to your local shelter, along with those gently-used toys that your dog just didn’t like. Check individual policies before you just show up with an armload. Some shelters particularly don’t want or need toys.

2) See if your friends have dogs that can take those leftover/rejected foods, or if there is a charitable organization in your area that will accept them. Maybe because it’s so hot here that food spoils quickly, but I haven’t had much luck. If your dog eats the same food all the time, consider buying a bigger bag, which usually has less packaging per serving. (Watch for spoilage, though.) Consider baking or dehydrating at least a portion of your own treats. (If I were really a hippy, I would tell you to make sure and buy your baking supplies from the bulk aisle. In reality, I’m skeptical of bulk shopping. Feel free to ask why in the comments–no room.)

3) Check before you throw those toys in the trash. Orbee/Planet Dog takes back cleaned toys for recycling. WestPaw’s Zogoflex toys (you’ll spot several in our pile) are “designed to be recycled,” although the website is unclear about how. 100% cotton rope toys can be composted, as can other natural fibers.

4) Repair things when you can. There’s no hope for a busted tennis ball, but a stuffed toy or dog bed with one bad seam is easy to resew.

5) Remember that your dog doesn’t have the most elaborate memory. Keep most of his toys put away. Once a month or so rotate toys. Look! A new toy! In-home recycling, if you will.

6) Most importantly, stop shopping. Dog stuff is so cute! It’s hard to leave in the store. But seriously, you probably don’t need that new water dish or eight Kongs just in case or a new collar with Santa on it. My own weakness is treats–I just get so excited when I find one that Silas can eat.

7) If you must shop, don’t buy junk. If a toy won’t last more than one or two play sessions, skip it. Also, remember that your dog carries his toys in his mouth, and there are real dangers to ingesting certain kinds of paints and plastics. Personally, these days I will only buy new toys from a few companies that I really trust. As a bonus, those toys tend to be well-made and long-lasting.