Monday, January 3, 2011

What's a Tug-A-Jug?

I've taken one more step in my eternal hunt for toys that keep Oscar busy.  I picked up a small Busy Buddy Tug-A-Jug at PetSmart yesterday. We already have a Kong Wobbler that we feed him out of, but I'd like to find more toys that we can use at mealtime so that he stays mentally stimulated and doesn't get bored.

The Tug-A-Jug is an interesting little contraption. It's a jug (obviously) with a rope that goes through the opening at the top.  The knotted rope end inside the jug is big enough that it keeps the rope from being pulled out, and the knot blocks the top of the jug and keeps the kibble or treats from falling out when the rope is pulled. The Tug-A-Jug is loaded by unscrewing the bottom, which has several "scent holes" in it for the dog to sniff at the treats.

The Tug-A-Jug is much more challenging for Oscar than the Kong Wobbler, which really only involves Oscar pushing at it for food to come out. I showed him how to get kibble out of the Tug-A-Jug yesterday (by pushing and pulling the rope or by tipping the jug) but he had a hard time with it because he tends to push at it like his Kong Wobbler, or yank the rope, which seals the hole.  It's just a bit too big for him to pick up and throw around. He has figured out that he can get some kibble out by standing the toy up and then pushing it over, but he doesn't get fed nearly as quickly that way.

We left it with him while we went for dinner yesterday, and when we got back, over half of his kibble was still in there. It will definitely keep him busy, as long as he doesn't give up on it. In the meantime, as he's learning what to do with it, I may give him half of his kibble in a dish, and the other half in the Tug-A-Jug to make sure he's eating even if he has a tough time figuring the toy out.  Quite the mealtime mind-bender!

The Busy Buddy Tug-A-Jug, filled with delicious kibble!

The "scent holes" in the bottom of the jug, which mostly just
confuses poor Oscar because he can't get the kibble from there.

He can't wait to play with it!  Sneaky schnauzer...

1 comment:

Trixie, Lily, and Sammy-Joe said...

Hi! We just started our own blog, and we are going around trying to meet everyone at Pet Blogs United. That looks like a neat toy! We would like playing with something like that!

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