When it comes to puppy toys for the purpose of human-puppy play, our philosophy is the bigger the better! Or at least, go bigger than you would think to do.

Or in some cases, go LONGER than you would first think.

My goal is to ensure I have toys large enough that I can easily deflect those razor-sharp puppy teeth to a toy and always away from my hands. If toys are too small, it is far too easy for a puppy to get your hands instead of the toy. And that is when they are actually aiming for the toy. That says nothing about when they are aiming for your hand in the first place.

In part, of course, it depends on what game you are playing.

For Fetch, then a toy that your puppy can easily carry makes sense. A ball, a frisbee, a rope toy, etc. that easily fit in your puppy's mouth and can easily carry makes sense.

For Tug, I want a really long toy so I can hold one end and my puppy can tug from the other end, no where near my hand.

For Chase, if your puppy is chasing you (or one of the kids) I want a really long toy again so you can give your pup a moving target that is NOT your ankles.

For Wrestling-type play, I prefer puppies play with other puppies who also love to wrestle and have a similar energy level as my puppy. But those are not always readily available. In that case, enter the BIG STUFFED TOY!

When Zooka was a puppy, he LOVED to wrestle and when he hit that evening stretch of the Zoomies or the Witching Hour when puppy energy was on full blown maximum level, there was no stopping the “launch at your playmate with full force” other than removing him. But we didn't want to do that unless we had to.

We wanted to give him an outlet when he did not have a visiting dog to play with. So it was us. Well, let's be honest, it was usually ME. (Though sometimes I could get Ed to take a turn.) So I needed some way to save my skin AND provide an outlet for that wild puppy energy.

Enter the giant stuffed dog toy. I could “wrestle” with Zooka by using the other dog – I was essentially controlling the stuffed dog as his “playmate” and making sure I could insert that stuffed dog whenever Zooka tried to launch at me. He learned to play well with the stuffed dog. He still loves it a year later, but does not play with it like he did then except for once in a while when he gets amped up.

I have included photos. One is of Zooka (at 14 months old) with the big stuffed toys. Imagine him much much smaller with those toys. I also included a photo of the toys we use for Tug or Chase – the long toys. Again, the photo is of Zooka at 14 months, not as a puppy, so those toys were proportionately much larger to him when he was a youngster.

While the long toys are dog toys, the larger stuffed toys are mostly NOT dog toys. These are toys I have collected from other places, mostly the children's section of various stores over the years when I find them. I wish they made more of these toys for dogs, but they are few and far between.

Does your dog have the right selection of toys for playing WITH you? If not, it might be time to do a little shopping!

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