How To Introduce A Kong To Your Pup!
Kongs are a versatile and engaging enrichment feeder that can be used to keep your dog busy, help your puppy to settle and tire them out! Kongs can entertain dogs of all ages and breeds. They are a great way to keep your dog occupied and prevent them from engaging in destructive behaviours, such as chewing on furniture or digging up the garden! Kongs are a wonderful enrichment feeder to get your dog addicted to. But if we don’t introduce them properly, they won’t want to know.
Kongs are puzzles for a dog and we need to make the puzzle easy to begin with, or they give up trying. Making it too hard to begin with is a bit like giving me a sudoku when I’m still on wordsearches!
To begin with, pop a handful of your dog’s normal dry food or any kind of dog safe food that will easily fall out. Give this to your dog or puppy once a day for about a week. The key is to choose food that your dog is particularly motivated by.
Once your dog has worked out that knocking the Kong around means good things fall out, you can start to stuff the Kong with larger pieces of food, such as cheese cubes (not too many though!) or pieces of fruit and veg. Then, you can add smaller pieces of food around the edges of the Kong. This will create an additional challenge for your dog as they learn to lick the food out of the Kong.
Once they are used to this, now you can stuff the Kong with mushy food! If you feed your dog wet food, stuff that into your Kong. If you feed dry food, soak it in hot water for an house or so until it goes mushy and then pack that into the Kong! You could do this for one of their meals or use a stuffed Kong with you have visitors over and you want your puppy to stop jumping up at people!
Once they are used to finishing a stuffed Kong, you can start to stuff it and then freeze it (just pop a skewer all the way through before freezing for an air hole). This will make the food even more difficult for your dog to get out which keeps them busier for so much longer and will really tire them out! It will also provide them with a refreshing treat on a hot day.
You can also hide the Kong around the house or yard and let your dog hunt for it.
The more you challenge your dog, the more they will enjoy using the Kong.
Here are a few additional tips for using Kongs with your dog:
If your dog is having trouble getting the food out of the Kong in the first step, you can help them by rolling the toy on the ground or shaking it.
don’t leave your Kong down all day for them, they quickly get bored of things lying around all the time. Pop it away once they have finished the food.
Be patient and consistent with your training. It may take some time for your dog to learn how to use the Kong, but it will be worth it in the end.
With a little practice, you can teach your dog to love using a Kong. This will provide them with hours of entertainment and help to keep them out of trouble.
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Thanks for reading!
Jo x