Every Sunday and Wednesday night, I spend a few minutes constructing gourmet
Kongs for our pooches. When A first adopted Ms. M, she would give Ms. M a Kong filled with treats to teach her to love the crate.
When we adopted Mr. B, the Kong played a huge role and still does in our training. Even though Curtis Scott helped us with the isolation distress, we had to teach him to love the crate.
Also, since we have two dogs one has to stay crated all day. So the Kongs have to be even bigger and better and it is a special treat for when we leave for the day. In their "real Kongs" I put part of a cheese stick, a large biscuit treat broken in half, a jerky treat broken in half, and I block the opening with a small biscuit treat covered in easy cheese. Then I freeze their Kongs for at least 12 hours. Now the pooches love when we leave.
If Ms. M even gets a hint that we are changing to leave, she will run straight into her crate and wait for us to leave. She really hates it when we change our mind and decide to stay home. She will stay in her crate until we actually leave or until she gets bored which could be up to several hours.
So now both pooches love going to bed as shown in the video, even when we give them what we call "fake Kongs" which are Kongs only filled with some of their favorite treats or dog food as in the video.
Every Sunday and Wednesday night, I spend a few minutes constructing gourmet Kongs for our pooches. When A first adopted Ms. M, she would give Ms. M a Kong filled with treats to teach her to love the crate.
When we adopted Mr. B, the Kong played a huge role and still does in our training. Even though Curtis Scott helped us with the isolation distress, we had to teach him to love the crate.
Also, since we have two dogs one has to stay crated all day. So the Kongs have to be even bigger and better and it is a special treat for when we leave for the day. In their "real Kongs" I put part of a cheese stick, a large biscuit treat broken in half, a jerky treat broken in half, and I block the opening with a small biscuit treat covered in easy cheese. Then I freeze their Kongs for at least 12 hours. Now the pooches love when we leave.
If Ms. M even gets a hint that we are changing to leave, she will run straight into her crate and wait for us to leave. She really hates it when we change our mind and decide to stay home. She will stay in her crate until we actually leave or until she gets bored which could be up to several hours.
So now both pooches love going to bed as shown in the video, even when we give them what we call "fake Kongs" which are Kongs only filled with some of their favorite treats or dog food as in the video.
15 comments:
This is great - I love the "fake Kongs" versus "real Kongs". I tend to just give them fake ones versus real ones depending on how much time I have in the morning - I'm not as organized as you - but they sure do love 'em!
OH! We LUVS our kongs, too! We get them when we go to bed for the night. Lotsa times if mom and dad are staying up too late reading or something, I just get up and go into my crate as a little reminder that it's Kong time!
I also very much like the fact that Miss M can lets herself into her crate. She is Most Brilliant!
Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie
Wow! They are so smart!
Mom says she is gonna try that with me,cause I hate my crate!
I am so glad to see that you guys use kongs too. Boxen and Bella love it when they get PB kongs. I mix PB and their dog food and if we have only been home a short time and it's crate time again they get them then. Bella is too curious for her own good so she has to be crated. Boxen has his bed that he goes to.
Love your pooches and love the wait command too. That is a must in our house where we practice "nothing in life is free".
Smooches
Boxen and Bella's mama
Karen
We do the same thing.
And so glad to see someone else has a collection of Kongs.
We have 10 I think - but with 4 getting a Kong every day we have to have extra because they inevidably end up under the couch or hidden in the back yard or under their beds...
And I so do not have time to keep up with them and their precious Kong.
So we have mutiples.
I put Solid Gold wet food and Greek yogurt in theirs. I fill them up the night before and then put them in a bowl in the freezer over night.
If they get one mid-day I put peanut butter in them.
And they know too! If I dilly dally too long to leave in the morning they will all be sitting in a circle around me looking at me very intently until I get their precious Kong.
It's cute but it helps me not feel bad leaving because they could care less - they have their yummy.
Note: cottage cheese does not do well in a kong unless you have dogs that are really good at cleaning them all out.
Solid Gold is a very thick food and is easy to fill Kongs up with.
Yogurt can be a bit of a mess, but they love it.
She opens the door to her crate to get in?!?! That's precious, hilarious, and indicative of how smart Ms. M is. Love it.
Kongs are the best treats ever. Even when they are empty, Nemo will run around with one in his mouth just to naw at it. As long as it keeps him happy!
LOVE the video! They are so cute! And even know how to open the door to get in!
Kongs are a life saver in our house! The duo get theirs most often when we are eating dinner. It helps them leave us alone! We mainly use their kibble (Wellness CORE) and peanut butter. I need to do better about freezing them the night before like you do. They would love that as a treat for when we leave the house.
Ms M,
should mom try to give us Kongs again? You make them look so good. We are just not fond of that rubber smell.
Benny & Lily
My lab and my pit bull LOVE Kongs -- I usually cap the tiny hole with peanut butter, then fill it with plain lowfat yogurt, unsweetened applesauce, low-fat cottage cheese, wet dog food, blueberries, Zuke's Mini Natural's, mashed banana, pumpkin, or mashed sweet potato.
My Aussie Shepherd, on the other hand, takes one look at the Kong, and turns her nose up at it. She'll eat the filling if I put it right into her dish, but the Kong is to much effort.
We have big Kong fans here, too! The girls love them!
If you go to their website, they have some really fun recipes that you can use in the Kongs for variety.
I used to stuff kongs with treats and peanut butter to keep them happy while I was busy. All but one of the pack licked the pb out and found the treats. Bailey ate the kong to get to the treats. I'll post a picture of the remains of the kong one of these days.
i love how miss m opened the door to her crate in the video. :)
we love kongs at our house, too!
the booker man and asa's mama
we love kongs. We also fill a lot of hollow bones for them. Pretty much any toy that can get filled does
I love that idea. Although my baby Mystic (she's 7 now) loves her squeaker kong we made for her. The ones they sell in the store are the red ones and they don't hold up to her chewing, so we bought a black medium size one, rescued a squeaker from a stuffed toy and shoved in it there. She goes nuts with it when she gets it really squeaking.
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