C = DVM. Or So I'm Told.: Food Toys Galore!

Environmental enrichment is SO important for our dogs. All things considered, most of our pet dogs live fairly boring lives. They stay home alone while we are at work or school (or lucky dogs go to day care), they hang around the house after we get home, and dogs belonging to us vet students get to lay around while we study all night. So, fairly boring. Food puzzles make our dogs use their brains, and keep the busy for much longer than it takes to eat dinner out of a bowl (all of 30 seconds for most dogs). Food toys can help mitigate behavior problems and boredom, and for dogs like Myles food puzzles can even help manage/treat separation anxiety.

Since everyone tends to ask me about food puzzles for our furry friends, and Myles and I have owned/tried MANY of them, I thought I would summarize here so that everyone could have a quick reference. Let us begin...

Wobbler

Treat ball

Fun ball

Amaze-a-ball

Squirrel dude

Kong Wobbler - this toy is excellent for feeding meals, it unscrews and you can fit up to two cups of kibble in it (not anything huge like T/D, but most normal kibbles, including Pro Plan with the chunks in it). It has a very heavy sand-filled base so it 'wobblers'. Runs about $20 bucks, can be really annoying on a hard wood floor, and some dogs really slam it around. You can tape the big hole so it is smaller and takes them longer. It comes in two sizes, large and small for littler dogs.
Everlasting Treat Ball- this is a great toy, it comes in many sizes and many treat disk flavors. The version pictured you can place treat disks on both sides, the version I have is a half sphere and you place the treat disk on one side. It's orange, and it's called the Bento Ball. Make sure you actually go by the size recommendations for the ball, as the dog really needs to be able to get his jaws around it for them to be able to have success at it. Myles at 40 pounds and a kind of short muzzle needs the medium sized one (he has the large, it's too big). I've heard variable reports on how long the treat actually lasts, it is very hard and can be a real pain to get back in the ball when you need to replace it, and doesn't run very cheap, around $20 for the ball and then $6-7 for a two pack of replacement disks. Myles is a fan.
Everlasting Fun Ball- this is a squishy hollow ball that you can fill with treats (make sure they can actually come out of the holes, this toy also has nubbins you can cut with scissors to make the holes larger so your selected treat can actually fall out). Many dogs will just roll this across the floor with their noses, and others like to put the whole thing in their mouth and chew. It's fairly durable, but aggressive chewers can definitely do some damage. Fun and bouncy for regular play time, and doesn't make obnoxious lound noises.
Amaze-a-ball- this toy is almost too easy, but it's pretty cheap ($6-7). As with the wobbler you can tape the hole so it has a smaller opening. The ball has some divisions inside that require the dog to roll it around so the kibble finds its way out of the 'maze'. Myles likes this toy, but its a pain to stuff the treats/kibble into the appropriate side (it's an X shaped slit through the rubber) I just pour kibble through the opening hole and shake it around a little to get it inside the ball.
Waggle- this is a Busy Buddy product made by Premier Pet, which makes many fantastic food toys (the treat balls are made by them also, google Premier Pet and you will find many options). This little dumbbell is hollow on either end (again with nubbins blocking the hole you can either remove or not), fill with treats or kibble. It's not Myles favorite, but other dogs love it. See this link for the full list of Premier's food puzzles- http://www.premier.com/View.aspx?page=dogs/products/toys/busybuddy
Kibble Nibble- Monika just bought this one for Hammie, and Myles seems to thoroughly enjoy it. Unscrews in the middle, and you can fit a whole meal inside. The egg shape makes it challenging for them to get the kibble out. If you want to use this toy, make sure you have CARPET or it will annoy the CRAP out of you, even more than the wobbler. The ridges on the egg sound like a machine gun when your insane dog rapid-fire rolls it across the floor. Again, this is made by Premier and has nubbins you can remove to allow treats to fall out more or less easily (which is one of the reasons I really love their products).
Kong- everybody knows what a Kong is, so I'll just share what I do with it. With Myles' delightful separation anxiety, I will stuff a large sized Kong (which isn't as large as you think it is) with canned food, and you can freeze it overnight to make it last a long time. I will also fill an extra large sized Kong with his kibbles, and then stuff a few hard biscuits in to block of the hole and make it more challenging. The squirrel dude is the same idea as the Kong, but it made by Premier, so you can adjust the size of the hole and make it more challenging. Kibble in a Kong presents no challenge at all, but kibble in a squirrel dude is much more difficult.

Kong Goodie Bone- this is a simple toy that's fun for dogs that are chewers and transient entertainment if you stuff hard biscuits into each end. If I do that, it takes Myles about five minutes to get them out. A dog that is more into chewing rubber will enjoy this toy more.