Monday, April 8, 2013

Island of Misfit Toys? No, we have a toy graveyard.

With Elka, we have toys that are "supervised" and ones that she can just have all the time. For the most part, the "supervised" toys are ones that we've gotten to review (like from Zippypaws or a PetsLoveToys box.) Or they're squeaky toys, which are not awesome when people in the house are sleeping. Or they're ropes, which a certain miss has apparently now decided must return to their original thready forms. Or, or or. You get the idea.



So, the "supervised" toys go on top of the refrigerator when she may not have them. This has resulted in a rather sad and desperate collection of things that I haven't yet thrown out because seriously, that's dog blog gold, and also because I feel bad throwing things away. But I also don't feel like I can give them to her most of the time.


Perhaps the oldest toy in the toy graveyard is a Christmas moose that Aunt Alicia sent Elka her very first Christmas (or maybe it was second?).







Mr. Moose has legs that are somewhat reinforced (though not quite to a Tuffy toy level), and the legs would have given her some long-ish lasting play. However, Elka decided instead to chew on his soft center, which yielded the fluffy white stuff sooner.



After pulling out the white stuff myself and giving it to her again, she decided chewing the moose's face off was the best way to play with him. I'd really love to know why she chews on toy faces; it's weird.


We also have a little stuffed squeaky sock monkey. I haven't let Elka go as far with him as she had the moose, but he isn't the slightest bit sturdy. Not at all.



Here we have assorted ropes. I bring these on walks frequently, to use as Heel and Recall awards in the park.



We have a little  (as in, fits in my hand) squeaky hedgehog; he isn't in bad shape, really. He is a Walks Only toy, used for Heel and Recall and suchlike.



A bone made out of buffalo leather, bought from a store downtown. I expected it to be far sturdier than it is, really. I guess it isn't too bad; she chewed the tag off immediately (what were they thinking?) but we haven't had any other breeches yet. I don't know what it's stuffed with. More buffalo?



The little dog house from ZippyPaws. Elka has had this in very small doses, and she's quite good about getting all three little dogs out, and then bringing me the house, and the dogs, to start the exercise anew.


Then there is the Sprong toy. I had high hopes for this, truly. Another member on Doberman Talk had one for her nutso girl, and it still squeaked, was still in good shape, etc. Yeah, no. Elka had it for about an hour, and not only did she get the squeak valve out, but she also peeled a bunch of the "velvet" off of it.


We had another JW Pets toy in between the Bad Cuz (as yet unreviewed here) and the Gummy Bear. The chicken....did not last long. Desqueakvalved very soon, and the rubber around it is cracking.


I know you're all waiting with bated breath to see the current condition of the Tuffie squid. Two tentacles left, and we've hit stuffing paydirt. I'm going to sew up the bottom there, because there's still some life in it certainly, but I'm not sure how much. It looks rather like Dr. Zoidberg now, n'est-ce pas?

It's occurred to me lately if I'm to blame for my toy destroying monster. Think about it: when Elka was in  her "teenage" months (9 months to a 1.5 years or so), we fed her almost exclusively out of Kongs to take the edge off of her frenetic energy and get in enough stimulation so that she wasn't bored, excited, and destroying the walls. Maybe now she thinks every toy ought to have a chewy, gooey center? Maybe she thinks the stuffing is the goal, or if she could just get that pesky squeaker out of the toy, she'll get the peanut butter? Maybe I'm reading too much into her motivations; she is, in fact, still "just" a dog. But it's food for thought.






31 comments:

  1. We have a very similar graveyard. Now we've found good toys that the dogs can't destroy so we just use those ones. But, the graveyard still have a few members...

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    1. I find the ones she can't destroy, she's less interested in. The Kong Squeezz toys, for example; they don't squeak anymore, but she doesn't chew 'em anymore either.

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  2. I think dogs just have a penchant for getting the squeaker out of toys. Beamer lives for this. I have a collection of stuffed dog toys collecting, but I'm hesitant to give any to Beamer because I know he'll just tear them to pieces in a matter of moments.

    Who knows, maybe our dogs are just taking out their animalistic tendencies on the toys. Better the toys than us! :P

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    1. Some dogs just find the squeaker to be "prey", but Elka doesn't seem (to me) to have much of a prey drive. I don't really know.

      Definitely beter the toys than us! Or our stuff ;)

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  3. We have an attempted homicide about every other day since we added puppy, Rosie, to our pack. If not murder, then there's the terrible de-facing. Which is why most dog toys are not allowed when humans are not around at our house. However, we have LOTS of toys... because I mostly don't care about them being destroyed. Better them than MY things! lol On the other hand, since my pack are retrievers, we have some ancient toys that they love to simply carry around.

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    1. Yes, better her things than mine, I do agree! All things told, she really destroyed very little (a blanket, an xbox controller, some cosmetic damage to walls...)

      I wish Elka just loved to carry toys around. Some Dobermans do, I hear tell...not mine!

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  4. I think some dogs are just toy destroyers and others aren't. The Golden we had before the Chessies had the very first toy we ever bought him on the day that he died at 13. It was in excellent condition. We gave it to Thunder to play with. He destroyed it and one by one, all of the others. All three Chessies are soft toy destroyers. They don't really play with toys I guess. They want to chew them.

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    1. Clearly, destruction is the best form of solo play! That seems to be Elka's thought process, anyway. It's funny how different they are.

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  5. We have a similar toy grave yard. Norbert and Bob and Weasley are all destroyers they think its the purpose of play time. Ping doesnt play with toys so she has broken nothing. Tubby is a bit gentler but has still destroyed plenty of toys

    urban hounds

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    1. I guess it must be the point of playtime....Elka has found little other!

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  6. Oh Elka! We laughed when we saw those chewed toys. We are glad we don't have supervised toys in this house. My Lily supervises everything
    Benny & Lily

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    1. It sounds like Lily is a good supervisor!

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  7. Hey Elka,

    You've done quite a bit of mischief with those toys buddy!! I've got a similar graveyard, Dad keeps asking Mum to throw them away, but she won't - I've also got toys since I was a puppy that are still fine - which puzzles Mum!

    Don't let your Mom feel too bad, I didn't have the filled Kongs and still decided to find the squeakers once I was about 1 year old! :)

    Hope you're having a fun day :)

    Your pal Snoopy :)

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    1. I probably should throw them away, and intend to...you know, after that one last play session ;)

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  8. Wow, that's quite the toy zombie land. Not really dead yet, not really alive. LOL

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    1. I know, right? The Walking Dead Dog Toys....

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  9. If we could only get dogs to understand there are consequences for their actions. Chew till the stuffing comes out, your favorite toy is gone. A lot of people don't get the concept so there is not much chance our dogs will.

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    1. Hah, yeah. For Elka, cause and effect in the negative sense isn't so great. She was standing in the backseat of the car the other day (Still belted in) and smacked her head on the window around a curve. She laid down. A few minutes later, she stood up again. Oh, Elka.

      I do tell her "This is why we can't have nice thing!"

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  10. Yups, looks like my toy box!! Sometimes I'm not too bad, butts sometimes I likes goin' on a murder spree and dead alot of toys at once! I love to kill any toy with a hard plastic noise box in the center (ie: Mr. Bill). I crush the plastic box, then use the ragged plastic bits to cut the fabric and gets to the gooey white center!!! hehehe
    Kisses,
    Ruby

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    1. I squeezed a Mr. Bill in Bed, Bath & Beyond a few times and then put it down....just couldn't do it!

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  11. We have the same kind of thing--a whole basket full of stuffy toys that are one play session away from giving up the ghost. I'm not going to buy them anymore, honestly, with the exception of his tiny Kong animals. Silas has a variety of great balls (tennis and non), a beloved sturdy squeaky or two, a frisbee, and some really amazing tug toys. That's plenty.

    I've never understood what dogs were supposed to do with stuffed toys besides tear them up, anyway.

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    1. I don't buy them anymore, either. I bought a couple ducks in the beginning there, and the sock monkey, but otherwise they've come in as review fodder (or gifts from aunties).

      I don't understand either, frankly. I guess it really is the point, but I might as well just give her the paper money to tear up if that's the case!

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  12. Wow - Elka sure is hard on her toys! That's so funny that you keep them all. My last dog Shadow was even worse on toys and the back yard was littered with stuffed animal parts. At least you know Elka enjoys them!! :)

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    1. Oh yes, she enjoys them. She just loves them to death!

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  13. You're thinking that Gizmo is de-floofing his toys to get to an ooey gooey peanut butter center? Hmmm, interesting theory...but why the faces i wonder?

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    1. That's the working hypothesis. I could be wrong. I mean, dogs should KNOW that there isn't peanut butter in there, right?

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  14. This is too funny. I have a drawer stuffed with the same sort of dying toys!!

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  15. I snorted a couple of times reading this. Too funny! My dogs go in spurts, they've had a nerf squeaky football for the longest time and never play with it, all of a sudden now BOOM it's the favored toy. Go figure.

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  16. My babies aren't chewers, but I do have a garage full of leather. Do you think Elka would like a braided leather chew?

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