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Our dog Max is great; we love him so much. He's gained about 1.5 pounds a week since we got him, so right now he's a little over 40 pounds (we expect he'll hit at least 60). For those of you with large dogs, where do you get their toys at? Max needs some MUCH larger toys than what I can find. Currently when he's outside he pulls the lids off the trashcans and runs around the yard playing with them. Most of his current toys are too small I think. Any ideas?
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Our standard poodle stalked and stole my sister's stuffed animals. Robyn ended up giving her a few to keep her happy, and the dog left the rest of the stuffed animals alone. Got any old stuffed animals your kids don't want anymore? They've kept our dog happy inside.
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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My friend who breeds dobermans just goes garage saling for larger stuffed animals so they can tear them up. of course then you'd have to teach him the difference between his toys and the kids toys. But the plush kinds look about the same.
We just got a little Boxer girl, she's only 9 weeks and 10 pounds right now, but she'll top out at about 50 pounds, so I've been doing a lot of research on medium-large dogs.
KONG toys are great, they're hard rubber chew toys that you can bounce or fill with treats for the dog to get out. They sell them in all shapes and sizes, but the classic is this shape. Blue for puppies, red for normal dogs, and black for serious chewers.
Empty milk gallons make excellent toys for larger dogs, as long as you're not worried he'll tear it apart and eat it. If he likes ice, try freezing it half full of water.
This one looks like it would be a lot of fun outside.
We've been noticing that Libbey really gets a big kick out of any toy that makes noise... the more noise, the better. Maybe Max would be happy with regular-sized loud toys? I imagine that garbage can gets pretty noisy.
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Our bigger dogs absolutely love those rope toys. It gives you something to play tug of war with, and some of them would run around and throw them on their own. Other than those, we never bought toys for the big dogs. My chow/lab mix played with my old soccer ball for a long time, even after he deflated it.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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The german shepherd (about 90 lbs) we had when I was a child loved playing with a partially deflated soccer ball (about 2/3 full). Then again he also liked playing/chewing with/on cactus, cement, model rockets, plastic birdfeeders, and his plastic water dish (so he ended up with a big metal oil pan as his waterdish)....
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Depending on how hard a chewer he is, rope toys and plush toys may just end up in destruction and mess (and things passing through digestive systems that just...shouldn't). For our big dog (who is also named Max! ), we get big Kong toys, cause there's no way he (or our smaller dog) can rip them into pieces. And they do make Kongs in all sizes.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Oooh - I like some of those toys from Pet Edge! Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that if we gave him stuffed animals they would be torn apart very quickly. We don't have any problems with him chewing things that aren't his in our house, but he is definately a strong chewer.
Here's another weird thing - Max has never chewed up anything inside the house. However, outside in the yard it's a different issue. He's gotten hold of several of my plants, ripped them out, and gnawed a bit on the planter, he's also shredded a plastic squirt gun into teeny tiny pieces, and he's also destroyed a bird feed. I checked out the garbage can lids, and they have Max-sized chunks out of the too. I wonder why he chews/destroys outside but not inside. We've never even really had to scold him about NOT chewing in the house.